Pagan Spain
ByPublisher Description
A master chronicler of the African-American experience, Richard Wright brilliantly expanded his literary horizons with Pagan Spain, originally published in 1957. An amalgam of expert travel reportage, dramatic monologue, and arresting sociological critique, Pagan Spain serves as a pointed and still-relevant commentary on the grave human dangers of oppression and governmental corruption.
The Spain Richard Wright visited in the mid-twentieth century was not the romantic locale of song and story, but a place of tragic beauty and dangerous contradictions. The portrait he offers in Pagan Spain is a blistering, powerful, yet scrupulously honest depiction of a land and people in turmoil, caught in the strangling dual grip of cruel dictatorship and what Wright saw as an undercurrent of primitive faith.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communities4 Reviews
Sue Klosa
Created 4 months ago
“This isn't really like most travel logs I've read before. I'd imagine that's mainly because Richard Wright, as much as I love him, isn't a travel writer. He doesn't paint the landscape in a very meaningful way, we get no real feel of the food or smells, more of just a general vibe.
What Wright does convey better than any travel writer I've read since Anthony Bourdain are the people he meets. And they are *miserable.*
1950s Spain sounds like it sucked, real hard. Spanish men were useless and Spanish women were subjugated by the church. It was a nation bereft of hope and unable to imagine a meaningful future. (According to Wright, Spanish schoolchildren at the time were being taught Franco would never die.) People were going hungry and jobs were scarce. The Communists were still around and on the run, and Franco and the Catholic Church kept a tight lid on every aspect of Spanish life. (Also according to Wright, as a part of the American government's deal with Franco that allowed US military bases on Spanish soil, American service members could not leave bases in uniform, lest the Spanish people see strapping, shiny young American soldiers and start getting "ideas.")
Wright's contempt for the Spanish people is both incredibly obvious and more than a little hypocritical. He does point out comparisons between the plight of Protestant Spaniards to his own experiences being a black man in America and speaks on his discomfort at seeing the origins of KKK garb in the Spanish church. And yet, his sense of Western Superiority is evident; Wright's own Protestantism doesn't allow him to see anything remotely Catholic with anything less than disgust.
I am big fan of Wright's work, but this isn't my favorite of his. He just isn't a travel writer, he isn't very good at being subjective and meeting people where they are. Still, a really good piece of insight into Franco's mid-20th century Spain.”Anna H. H.
Created over 5 years agoThe Bella Pack
Created almost 6 years agoHolly S.
Created almost 7 years agoAbout Richard Wright
Born in 1908 near Roxie, Mississippi, Richard Wright won international renown for his powerful and visceral depictions of the Black experience. The author of numerous works, he stands today as one of the greatest American writers of the twentieth century. Black Boy and his novel Native Son are required reading in many high schools and colleges across the nation. Wright died in 1960 in Paris, France.
Other books by Richard Wright
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