Understanding Camilo José Cela

Charlebois describes Cela's childhood, participation in the Spanish Civil War, and life in Spain during and after Franco's dictatorship. She shows that in spite of the repression that beset his homeland during so much of his career, Cela successfully developed his gift for technical experimentation and creative renewal. As a result, he produced textured discourses that bristle with fragmentation and ambiguity, hilarity and profanity, iconoclasm and alienation.