Colm Tóibín at the Wikipedia: click here
Colm Tóibin In the Pyrinees: LRB
Summer of '38: The New Yorker
Colm Tóibín at the Vall Ferrera: El punt Avui
Brooklyn: the movie
Presentation, by Àngels Gallardo
Biography
Colm
Tóibín was born in Ireland in 1955.
Some of his family were members of the old Irish Republic Army.
His father belonged to the Fianna Fail party.
He studied in a private boarding school, after that, he studied in the College University of Dublin. When he finished, he went to Barcelona for three years, from 1975 to 1978.
He was a publisher from 1982 to 1985.
He was a good literary critic, teacher at Stanford University, University of Texas in Austin and Princeton University.
Also, he got a Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Ulster for his contribution to the Irish contemporary literature.
Some of his family were members of the old Irish Republic Army.
His father belonged to the Fianna Fail party.
He studied in a private boarding school, after that, he studied in the College University of Dublin. When he finished, he went to Barcelona for three years, from 1975 to 1978.
He was a publisher from 1982 to 1985.
He was a good literary critic, teacher at Stanford University, University of Texas in Austin and Princeton University.
Also, he got a Honorary degree of Doctor of Letters by the University of Ulster for his contribution to the Irish contemporary literature.
Summer of ‘38
This
story is about the life of Montse. A man who works for the electric company
named Fecsa asked her daughter Ana that he wanted to talk to Montse. He told
Ana that he was writing a book about the war in his spare time and he wanted to
collect information in this valley and the mountains.
Montse was a person that liked to have all in control and she had become protective of her own space and she disliked surprises.
The man that works in Fecsa Company was waiting for her at the front door of her building and he told her that he wanted to come up to the apartment with her. The man said that he had talked to Rudolfo Ramírez, a general in the army, and that he said he would like to see her and if it was all right to see him.
She remembered situations that happened between them. She didn't forget the sweet smell of his breath, his eagerness and his good humour.
Rudolfo went away and Montse was pregnant. But Montse knew a man called Paco from the town festivals, and she married him five months pregnant with a girl whose father was Rudolfo. Paco took care of the daughter of Montse as if she was his daughter. The name of the baby was Rosa and she looked like Rudolfo.
Montse and Paco had two more daughters.
Rosa went to live in Barcelona, and she studied medicine. She holidayed with her own family in Santa Cristina.
When Paco was dying, Rosa looked after him.
When the man from Fecsa Company came again, she told him that she was not feeling well, and she didn't want to have lunch with him and Rudolfo.
At the end of the story, Montse showed several photos about her family before the war to her daughter Rosa.
Montse was a person that liked to have all in control and she had become protective of her own space and she disliked surprises.
The man that works in Fecsa Company was waiting for her at the front door of her building and he told her that he wanted to come up to the apartment with her. The man said that he had talked to Rudolfo Ramírez, a general in the army, and that he said he would like to see her and if it was all right to see him.
She remembered situations that happened between them. She didn't forget the sweet smell of his breath, his eagerness and his good humour.
Rudolfo went away and Montse was pregnant. But Montse knew a man called Paco from the town festivals, and she married him five months pregnant with a girl whose father was Rudolfo. Paco took care of the daughter of Montse as if she was his daughter. The name of the baby was Rosa and she looked like Rudolfo.
Montse and Paco had two more daughters.
Rosa went to live in Barcelona, and she studied medicine. She holidayed with her own family in Santa Cristina.
When Paco was dying, Rosa looked after him.
When the man from Fecsa Company came again, she told him that she was not feeling well, and she didn't want to have lunch with him and Rudolfo.
At the end of the story, Montse showed several photos about her family before the war to her daughter Rosa.
QUESTIONS
There’s
a feeling that the writer has a point of view of the place, the time and the situation
a bit different from a native: Ana (not Anna), fecsa (not FECSA), maiden name
(here is the same as married name), Rudolfo (not Rodolfo), Loyalists (not reds;
and he never says the others were the fascists => does the author betray any
political sympathies?), granja, Rosa travels to Barcelona to the village and
back in one day...
Talk about the characters:
Montse
Ana
Rosa
Oriol
The man from fecsa (sic)
Paco Vendrell
Rudolfo
Explain the war situation in the village in the summer of 1938.
What things did Montse like in Rudolfo?
How do the village people behave to the soldiers in the summer? And from September on?
Explain Montse-Rudolfo’s courtship.
“It was the change of weather that changed everything.” What did she mean?
What did Montse do when she knew she was pregnant?
Describe the time Montse went to the Mass.
What options did Montse have if Paco didn’t marry her?
Explain Montse-Paco’s courtship.
After they were married, what kind of love did Montse have for Paco?
What kind of love did Paco have for Rosa?
What did Montse do when Rudolfo was in the village with the man from fecsa (sic)?
What do you think of the end of the story?
VOCABULARY
walk (sb) to, mix (sb) up, easygoing, fix, chart, dugout, no one any the wiser, makeshift, swagger, antic, mist, demurely, in the reaches of, withdrawn, stickler, impervious, outing, blow up