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A review by jenni8fer
The Dinner Guest by Gabriela Ybarra
3.0
This is the first novel for Spanish writer, Gabriela Ybarra, translated by Natasha Wimmer who also translated Robert Bolano's 2666 and The Savage Detectives. The Dinner Guest reads like memoir but it also blends fiction to change some facts.
Gabriela was born in Bilbao in the Basque country of Spain to one of the 10-12 most powerful political families in Vizcaya. Thus, her private life and political life of her family intertwine. As such, there were constant threats made to her family by a terrorist organization called the ETA. There was always the danger of a kidnapping.
At the start of the story, the author writes of the actual kidnapping of her paternal grandfather by the ETA in May 1977, using various news reports. However, the main focus of the story is on her relationship with her mother and the time they spent together in New York while her mother was receiving cancer treatment. This part of the novel was a lot more moving than the beginning due to the styles she chose. She does return to her grandfather in the end and allows for a much more moving closure to his death.
Gabriela was born in Bilbao in the Basque country of Spain to one of the 10-12 most powerful political families in Vizcaya. Thus, her private life and political life of her family intertwine. As such, there were constant threats made to her family by a terrorist organization called the ETA. There was always the danger of a kidnapping.
At the start of the story, the author writes of the actual kidnapping of her paternal grandfather by the ETA in May 1977, using various news reports. However, the main focus of the story is on her relationship with her mother and the time they spent together in New York while her mother was receiving cancer treatment. This part of the novel was a lot more moving than the beginning due to the styles she chose. She does return to her grandfather in the end and allows for a much more moving closure to his death.