hodei berdeak
jon alonso · susa narratiba
By: Xabier Gantzarain. Shot: Zaldi Eroa
One doesn’t know why one reads. One doesn’t know why one likes this so-called pastime, why one spends hours wrapped up in this world of paper. Imaginative as they are, these pulped wood planets are certainly connected to this reckless daily life we call reality.
One likes Jon Alonso, because he knows how to shuffle across the tightrope he tenses between fiction and reality. Because he knows how to mix real-life people (well-known names) and characters (unknown make-believe people).
One picks up Hodei Berdeak (Green Clouds), and is brought around the Iruñea (Pamplona) of the 1960s by the narrators in the story. An ambience one doesn’t know is revealed before one’s eyes. One can imagine what life was like for a CIA agent or a member of OPUS DEI at that time. One can picture the nationalist struggle and the inner feuding between nationalists, too.
One reads Hodei Berdeak and feels as if one is returning to a place they have never been before. One discovers more about oneself. Others might discover something totally different in this book.
hodei berdeak
jon alonso · susa narratiba
By: Jon Benito. Shot: Zaldi Eroa
Without going too deeply into the book, what grabbed my attention was the dire straits the characters seem to find themselves in at times. They're children of their epoch; Miguel Beroiz has moulded his desires to his everyday life. He's known other times and situations and he's loyal and consequent to what he has learnt and known. He also knows a thing or two about unattainable utopias, everyday dreams, the horrors of war and about the need to hold on to what one is.
Mikel belongs to the next generation. He lives in a completely different scenario altogether. His generation has never known war. “I don't want to be a ghost from the past” he shouts. And he's right, maybe. Both Miguel and Mikel belong to their respective generations. You've got to get on with everyday life. You have to be realistic in your aims and objectives.
It's easy to come out and say, from the distance afforded by time and history, that the previous generations were too hesitant, that they hadn't done enough or that they had acted in a cowardly fashion. Pirandelli knew only too well that there was a time and a place for condemnation. There are just so many loose ends to be tied up in life. This novel is about those loose ends. The writer offers us a chronicle of the times and interests of the Iruñea of the 60s and 70s. Dark, grey times for sure. The green clouds are a symbol of hope. Later things got better and the symbol was changed for something else. I'm not too sure that we got it right.
