La camisa del marido / The Husband’s Shirt by Nélida Piñon

La camisa del marido / The Husband’s Shirt Reviews

• 
  David

  What a treat to discover this Brazilian writer. Her collection of nine stories published in 2014 is brilliant.
  
  Not only did I find each story rewarding, her themes (love, adultery, family and history), her subjects (Cervantes and Camões to name a few), and her magnificent writing style are so enjoyable. My only sadness was that I did not read her in Portuguese but in Spanish. However several stories are set in Spain and she does have Spanish parents, so maybe not that bad. Now I need to read more of her work.
  
  A further bias for me was this cover. I actually saw this Fernand Leger painting at El Prado half a decade ago while it was on loan from the Kunstmuseum Basel. Nothing like getting a book and knowing that I stood in front of the very same painting. So cool.
  
  Plus she dedicates the book to Machado de Assis, the master of all. I can’t argue this.
  
  La camisa del marido (the husband’s shirt) tells the tale of a wife, who just buried her husband. In deep mourning, she puts on his bloodied shirt with the aim of finding out who killed him. Her three children begin a fight for his money when she is found dead along with another man. Their past unravels revealing a most tragic tale.
  
  El tren (the train) is a bittersweet portrait of a father whose love of trains, long after their fame has waned. He takes his family onboard a derelict train and begins to tell fascinating tales of traveling around the world, much to the chagrin of the elder son. but for the daughter, this event paints an eternal image of her father.
  
  Dulcinea. Yes the famous Dulcinea of Don Quixote. This time the Don and Sancho are lodged in an inn when they encounter beautiful Maritornes, a young woman from Asturias. Can Sancho convince her to become the famed Dulcinea?
  
  La mujer de mi padre (My father’s wife). Humiliated by his demanding father for not being manly enough, the son falls in love with his step mother. Anger satiates lust.
  
  Para siempre (Always). Young love. A young woman has an affair with an older man. She is twenty; he is fifty. Could be her father. It’s her aunt’s husband.
  
  La sombra de Carlos (Carlos’ shadow). The nephew does not mourn at his aunt’s funeral. She had an interest in history; he specialized in studying the Spanish king Carlos V. There were parallels. One day they had something together that the boy just can’t let go, and he is marked for life. On her death she leaves him a container that he has needs to open.
  
  En busca de Eugenia (In search of Eugenia) an aging mother writes letters to her sister, reminiscing of their past. One son is dead, another on the run from the police when her daughter returns from Caracas for a visit. She left home to escape the poverty. Tension runs high with her children in her humble house where they were born. Her sister left years ago and she stays in touch by letter writing. Now the mother plans her own funeral.
  
  La quimera de mamá (Mother’s Chimera) tells the story of Manuelinha, a woman who loves to read stories of illicit love. Except one day her husband leaves her. She dresses in mourning to hide the fact he left her. Her son, who tells the story, discovers her chimera, that illusionary thing or place that one can never achieve: Oporto, Portugal. One day, the son discovers his mother’s passion in the book Amor de Perição by Camilo Castelo Branco. And then is given a fine bottle of Port wine.
  
  La desdicha de la lira (The Lyre’s sadness). Rounding up this collection of stories is the profound introspection of Luís de Camões (the poetic lyre) before he died. His master work on Vasco de Gama, Os Lusíadas had been published but he had fallen out of favour of the court and King Sebastian, his benefactor, had died in the battle of Alcazarquivir (1578). After fifteen years overseas, he ends his days in Lisboa living with his Indian slave. Was it all worth it, he asks, “que lástima, despedirse sin hartura, sin gloria, solamente sin más.”
• 
  Bea Manguen

  Algunos cuentos están muy buenos, pero casi todos los finales, a excepción de uno, son muy flojos. ¡Qué ganas de leer portugués!
• 
  Marisol Maldonado Olmos

  Me gustaron algunos cuentos ✨
  
  Algunos otros cuentos me perdían y no me atrapaban pero hubo otros que me encantaron.
  
  Y por esos que me encantaron las Estrellas 🍒✨
• 
  Cleer

  2.4. Por ahí escuché que no hay libros malos, sino libros que no llegan en el momento indicado.
  En este caso, no me conecté tanto, pero de 9 cuentos hubo dos o tres que sí me hicieron sentir cosas; además, creo que las ideas en que están basados son valiosas. Diría que, para mí, es un libro de luces y sombras. Pero sobre todo, sombras. Las historias no te dejan indiferente, pero a veces sí cansa ver cómo ciertos temas predominan sobre otros. En fin. Este libro me hizo entrar en un bloqueo lector, del cual estoy dispuesta a salir.
• 
  Mirana la reina blanca

  La camisa del marido, una antología de cuentos con ámbitos sociales, culturales y ambientaciones muy diferentes entre sí. Algunos cuentos son memorables, sin duda tienen una carga muy fuerte. Otros sentí yo que era más una cuestión de reescribir historias antiguas.
  Es una escritora con imágenes interesantes. La mayoría de los cuentos me gustó, otros me aburrieron, sin embargo, es intrigante leer a una mujer Brasileña en una escritura que pelea con su lenguaje frente al portugués y frente a otras lenguas.
  
  Recomendado si quieres darle un aire diferente a las lecturas 👌🏻
• 
  Víctor López ~ vdl

  Nélida Piñón, de las mejores voces femeninas narrativas actuales, es una de mis cuentistas favoritas. Con su pluma elegante y sutil aborda en esta selección de cuentos temas en torno a la familia, la nostalgia y sobre el ser extranjera en tierras que siempre han pertenecido a uno, explorando sus recuerdos y buscando llegar a los recovecos de lo oscuro, lo íntimo y lo profano, que se desarrolla en lo más profundo del ser humano.