Comments on My Friend Amy: Review: Winter in Madrid by C.J. Sansom

... Continued from the previous comment. As someo...

2009-07-30T06:55:55.748-07:00

... Continued from the previous comment.

As someone who loves the Church and Spain, I'm deeply interested in the matter, at all levels, although I'm not Spanish and I'm not a priest.

First, there can be no question that the Catholic Church enjoyed privileges under Franco and came to have too much influence on daily life in Spain, in a similar way to Ireland. That cannot be denied, and it's easy to see why people then throw back in the face of the Church questions over collaboration with Franco. But it's really not that simple and tracking back to see how the relationship between the Church and Franco came to develop as it did is fascinating.

I know that there is very insightful material in a letter published by the Catholic bishops of Spain on 1 July 1937. By this time, they as a collective seemed to support Franco, although it's interesting to note that the Vatican, at this point, did not. Nevertheless, the bishops' letter makes it clear that they wanted peace and reconciliation and had resisted the notion of the civil war for, they felt, as long as they could. Also, they make a point of saying they hope that, should Franco prevail, the nascent Francoist state will not go down the lines of "foreign models", a clear reference to Germany and Italy.

In that letter, the bishops also published for the first time details of the persecution the Church had endured in the first year of the war. The use of the word is justified: 14 bishops and 7,000 priests were assassinated and 20,000 Catholic lay people were also killed solely, the bishops said in the letter, because they were Catholics. Between February and July 1936, 410 churches were sacked and burned.

In the years that followed World War II, I have no doubt that the strengthening of Franco's Spain as an officially Catholic country, meaning that the Catholic Church was the established Church, brought out a triumphalist attitude in some Catholics, including priests and bishops, which is lamentable.

Nevertheless, to imply that this triumphalism characterised Spanish catholicism, as Sansom does, is to tail to understand how Cardinal Tarancón could have held the attitude he did and could have come to dominate Catholic opinion in the way he did.

He was also a key figure in Spain's contribution to Vatican II, which is crucial to what comes next. The council reinforced in Tarancón the conviction he had built up from his own experience of the civil war and the years that followed, and he preached, wrote, spoke and campaigned tirelessly from then until he died in 1994 for reconciliation.

He said he had promised God that he would do everything he possibly could to make sure nothing like the civil war would ever occur in Spain again and he wrote that the Catholic Church must be an instrument of reconciliation and not of division.

Vatican II and Tarancón, plus lots of younger priests, religious and lay people and a host of bishops appointed by Paul VI, have made it possible for the new Spain, post Franco, to build up a new Church, a new way of living the Catholic faith.

Thank God what CJ Sansom thinks is an accurate depiction of the Church is no more than the result of a writer lacking understanding of his subject and reaching for the stereotypes. Maybe he thinks sources that have never been translated into English are somehow second rate.

Sorry to go on at such length.

Stephen, from Scotland.

... Continued from the comment above. Cardinal T...

2009-07-30T06:55:09.982-07:00

... Continued from the comment above.

Cardinal Tarancón was from the province of Castellón, worked as a priest in Catalonia and first served as a bishop there, in the small diocese of Solsona. He was consecrated bishop in 1945, so only a few years after the period Sansom is writing about. He was later named archbishop of Oviedo in Asturias, which as Sansom says correctly, was strongly republican in the civil war.

He devoted his entire episcopal career to bringing reconciliation to Spanish people of all political persuasions and none and was a gigantic figure in the post-civil war history of the entire country, not just of the Catholic Church there.

This is a very complex question I'm afraid, to which no short answer can do justice, but Sansom's treatment of it is, in my opinion, unbalanced, tendentious and lazy.

... More to follow.

Dear Amy I have just finished reading the book an...

2009-07-30T06:54:05.984-07:00

Dear Amy

I have just finished reading the book and enjoyed it because of the strength of the plot, although I think elements of the writing are weak (needless repetition of detail, some easy-to-avoid inaccuracies in the use of Spanish and with the geography of the city of Madrid and of Spain as a whole).

What irked me most, though, was something you touch on, Sansom's facile portrayal of the Catholic Church in Spain during those horrendously difficult years.

Sansom says in his notes at the end of the book that he is convinced his treatment of the Church is fair. I don't think it is. If everything were as black and white as he paints it, it would have been utterly impossible for a figure such as Cardinal Enrique Vicente y Tarancón, archbishop of Madrid from 1971 until 1983, to have emerged in the aftermath of the civil war.

... More to follow.

Thanks for the wonderful review. This book was on...

2009-02-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

Thanks for the wonderful review. This book was on offer to me to review and I had to turn it down. I need to catch up with my present ARC commitments. Now I'll have to add it to my TBR.

I really enjoy historical books, but it really doe...

2009-02-22T20:41:00.000-08:00

I really enjoy historical books, but it really does sound a bit on the heavy side!

:) Wendi

I read this book last year and thought it was good...

2009-02-22T13:10:00.000-08:00

I read this book last year and thought it was good, but essentially hopeless.

http://www.semicolonblog.com/?p=2568

I'm impressed with Sansom as a writer.

I've heard really good things about this book, so ...

2009-02-22T07:43:00.000-08:00

I've heard really good things about this book, so I know I'm going to want to pick this one up. Thanks for the great, in-depth review Amy!

Marta's Meanderings

I have looked at this book in the library and wond...

2009-02-21T09:22:00.000-08:00

I have looked at this book in the library and wondered about it. Your review is wonderful and I am definitely planning on reading it now. Thank you!

On an off subject - the winter book swap concluded...

2009-02-21T07:34:00.000-08:00

On an off subject - the winter book swap concluded at Reading to Know and I've tried contacting you via e-mail and through your blog but haven't heard back. If you could contact me soon, that would be great!

readingtoknow (at) gmail (dot) com

Amy, I'm glad you brought this review to my attent...

2009-02-18T19:58:00.000-08:00

Amy, I'm glad you brought this review to my attention because I've never heard of it before. It does sound interesting. I know exactly how you feel when you said that this book made you want to kill yourself. I've been there before. I also appreciate your heads-up on the anti-Catholicism. I don't typically mind negative portrayals in novels because the Church is not perfect and has been known at times throughout history as being very seriously wrong. I need to be in the right frame of mind before I begin a book like this, though.

Meghan...oh so they're all grim?? I do want to re...

2009-02-17T21:44:00.000-08:00

Meghan...oh so they're all grim?? I do want to read those books, though.

Kathy..if you get a chance to read it, I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Michele..can't wait to read your review!

Kel...it's a good one!

Beth..I hope you like it!

Toni...it's a good one, though heavy.

What a great review. I want to read this one. I ...

2009-02-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

What a great review. I want to read this one. I think Historical Fiction is my favorite genre. I would love to read this perspective. Thank for the review. I had not heard of this book.

I had not heard about this book and absolutely nee...

2009-02-16T11:58:00.000-08:00

I had not heard about this book and absolutely need to read it. Thank you!

sounds perfect! I love historical fiction!!

2009-02-16T11:40:00.000-08:00

sounds perfect! I love historical fiction!!

I just finished this one and it will end up being ...

2009-02-16T10:34:00.000-08:00

I just finished this one and it will end up being one of my favorite books of the year. I absolutely loved it!

That sounds good, but I have to be in the right mo...

2009-02-16T05:37:00.000-08:00

That sounds good, but I have to be in the right mood to tackle a book like that. Thanks for the review.

Sounds sort of like his Matthew Shardlake mysterie...

2009-02-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

Sounds sort of like his Matthew Shardlake mysteries. Well, I only read one, but the grim and depressing nature of the story combined with the strange affection you feel for the characters certainly sounds similar.