Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 24, 1990                   TAG: 9006240292
SECTION: HORIZON                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Reviewed by MICHAEL LAY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

TRAVEL BOOK BY CELA MEANT TO BE SAVORED

Camilo Jose Cela rose to literary prominence in the early 1940s, shortly after Spain's brutal civil war ended in a fascist victory, plunging the country into four decades of totalitarian rule under the Franco dictatorship. It was an era of artistic repression and Cela was one of the few Spaniards whose creative works managed to reach the outside world.

Cela is best known outside Spain for his popular travel books, but he has mastered many styles and excelled in several literary formats. His contributions to Spain's national consciousness were recognized in 1989 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. Were it not for that honor, Cela's work might have never again graced American bookshelves.

Originally published in 1948, "Journey to the Alcarria" is a travel book in the finest sense. Told entirely in the third person, the book is a narrative of Cela's wanderings on foot through the arid Alcarria territory of New Castile, a region in northeastern Spain.

His journey from village to village is related in a simple, lyrical prose that carries the resonance of poetry. Although only 139 pages long, the book should not be read in one rushed sitting. "Journey to the Alcarria" is a book to be savored line by line, paragraph by paragraph, late at night over a cup of coffee when Cela's subtle phrasing and imagery can achieve their full effect.

What sets Cela apart is the strength of his observation. He possesses marvelous descriptive powers and is a master of the written portrait.

Cela writes of a rural Spain that has withered away from its past greatness, a Spain where crumbling castles and deserted monasteries provide the only hint that the countryside was once the foundation of an empire. Cela's Alcarria is a place where an old man worries that he will die before his donkey, where village idiots suffer constant abuse and teen-age girls have already seen their youthful dreams squashed under the oppressive weight of rural realities. (As I read the book it was difficult not to see parallels between Cela's Alcarria and our own Appalachia.)

Still, "Journey to the Alcarria" is by no means a depressing read. Cela describes in radiant language the uncompromising beauty and purity of the Alcarria and he is often amazed by the sense of community found in this impoverished agricultural territory. He notes, too, the warmth, openness and hopeful perseverance that characterize the people of the region.