Spanish / Spain
Ninfa rota
(Broken nymph)
Gómez Cerdá, Alfredo
(text)
Madrid: Anaya, 2019. – 189 p.
ISBN 978-84-698-4808-1
Love | Dependence | Compulsive control | Submission | Gender role
Reading age: 14+
White Ravens issue: 2020
What is remarkable about this novel is that it can elicit the same reactions from readers as from Nerea, the closest friend of the protagonist, Marina: incomprehension, outrage, anger and the urgent wish to bring Marina to her senses. Marina retrospectively describes her love for her schoolmate Eugenio, which triggered turmoil for her, ended in disaster and still continues to pulsate. It is a story about machismo, the compulsive desire to control another person, and possessiveness, about love-blindness, debasement, submission, and self-abandonment. Marina’s confessional story alternates across various temporal planes. Her report builds in nightmare sequences and dialogue scenes, in which the emotionally charged atmosphere becomes especially apparent and palpable. Even though the matter seems obvious – Eugenio is the encroaching wrong-doer, Marina the manipulated victim – Marina’s feelings continue to vacillate. The novel ends surprisingly openly, which will cause many readers to continue to ponder the nightmarish story a good while into the future. [JW]