Camilo Jos? Cela: The Hive

[Sybarite]

The Hive by Camilo Jos? Cela

The Hive (La Colmena) is 1989 Nobel laureate Camilo Jos? Cela's most famous work. Published first in 1951, it's set over three days in 1943, and uses 215 vignettes to describe picture more than 300 characters in Madrid, as their lives interweave and their paths cross.

Although Cela himself had fought on Franco's side during the Spanish Civil War ? and actually went on to become a censor for the state at one point ? censorship by the Catholic church-affiliated government meant that it was banned for years in the country because of its supposed immorality.

It?s not so much 'immoral' as 'amoral', as Cela presents us with an idea of people living in poverty or pretty dire financial straits, who will do pretty much anything to make a little money. This is certainly the case with several of the female characters, who prostitute themselves for cash ? in one case, to buy medicine and food for her boyfriend, who has TB.

Combine the poverty with the politics of living in a police state ? the fear of saying the 'wrong' thing and being arrested for it ? and you get an essentially bleak picture.

Cela's prose is spare and sarcastic, and he conjures a convincing and lively picture of Madrid at the time.

But the book seems to dissolve toward the end, leaving specific strands as so obscure that I really didn't know what had happened. The trouble was, I couldn't tell whether or not I was supposed to know what had happened or whether it was supposed to be a mystery.

So, a good start, but it tapers off toward the end.

[nnyhav]

I just happen to be about halfway through this -- hope you're wrong about it tailing off. Hard to keep track of all the characters already. I'll be back ...

[fausto]

You sure had studious holidays, Sybarite! Nice to read your reviews.
Cela is such a towering figure in post-war Spanish fiction. He's been dead 20 years know but every six months or so there seem to be new polemics about him popping up in one or another book / literature pages...

[nnyhav]

But the book seems to dissolve toward the end, leaving specific strands as so obscure that I really didn't know what had happened. The trouble was, I couldn't tell whether or not I was supposed to know what had happened or whether it was supposed to be a mystery.

So, a good start, but it tapers off toward the end.

OK, I'd said I hoped you were wrong. Now I think so, but hope has nothing to do with it. Too bleak (as you've said) for that -- where short on necessities, everything higher is deprived, and in the general desolation even those more than minimally provided for are depraved or dissolute. Even love, the highest consolation, is illusory, if no less consoling for that, but so weakly so. And despite how tightly knit (the social relations and events), how loosely determined it all is. With so much left to chance, I don't see how it could be wrapped up differently than in irresolution (except in taking the t out of mystery?). In this I think form follows function, how the pieces fit together is supposed to leave gaps, some of which are easier to fill in than others (and I wonder to what extent the constraints imposed by censors helped determine the form and so the story). My take: ****0

[Sybarite]

nnyhav ? fair point about censorship (although it was banned altogether for years in Spain). I just felt that the idea of a character suddenly being pursued, right at the end of the novel but for no apparent reason, was chucking in a new thread that seemed pointless. And was indeed such a kind of obvious plot move by comparison to other developments.

As I said earlier, I think it's superb for conjuring an atmosphere, but it just changed at the end ? as though Cela was trying to make it something else and then just dropped it.

Fausto ? thank you. I didn't read anywhere near as much as I thought I would: the beach and sea were far too relaxing (and distracting) for that! :)

What are the main sort of controversies about Cela? Do they largely focus on his role (or otherwise) during the Franco years?

[fausto]

Yes, it's mainly the Franco thing. You get regularly books with "new" revelations of his exact role in the post-war administration, the extent of his collaboration with the regime, etc. Some of it is pretty damning. There was also some accusations of plagiarism a few years back, and I think the thing is still ongoing. Of course, due to his political opinions, it's not rare to read writers from the left claiming his literature is not really good and trying to have it discarded.

Having a look at the wiki, I just saw he only died in 2002, so I was way way off target there. Scary. I also found out another polemic: he wrote a series of propagandistic novels for the dictator of Venezuela in the 50's.

[nnyhav]

I just felt that the idea of a character suddenly being pursued, right at the end of the novel but for no apparent reason, was chucking in a new thread that seemed pointless.

While the chronology is difficult, I think the implication is that the pursuit is in connection with Dona Margot's murder. Perhaps netting something like 50 crummy pesetas (of which 25 are lost). But then it might be political instead ...

[Sybarite]

<snip>

To be frank (or Franco, perhaps, in this context ;) ) I didn't see it as a political novel – or at least a novel positing any one political view. If it had a political message, then it seemed to be that fascism under Franco's regime was failing the people, certainly in terms of food etc.

Mind you, were there really that many would-be poets in Madrid in 1943?


While the chronology is difficult, I think the implication is that the pursuit is in connection with Dona Margot's murder. Perhaps netting something like 50 crummy pesetas (of which 25 are lost). But then it might be political instead ...

I was left assuming that it was this is what it was, but with no great sense of why (I hadn't considered your possible motive, but I read the money as being from the female friend and former university colleague). But Cela seems to move from his very wide canvas of characters to concentrating more and more on one character – leaving the loose end, for me at least, even more frustrating than the many other loose ends that, I entirely agree with you, feel 'naturally' loose.