A review of “The Ant” in @PublishersWkly
The Ant: Delia del Carril, the Avant-Garde Artist Who Married Pablo Neruda
Fernando Sáez, trans. from the Spanish by Jessica Sequeira. Fiction Advocate, $24.95 trade paper (256p) ISBN 978-0-9994316-7-2
Sáez, director of the Pablo Neruda Foundation, debuts in English with a comprehensive biography of artist and leftist Delia del Carril (1884–1989). Carril was born into a wealthy Argentine family, and her bold personality led her into the bohemian circles of modernist Paris and Civil War–era Madrid. She’s best known for her influence on Neruda, her second husband, whom she met when she was 50 and he was a 30-year-old poet still developing his artistic and political persona. Sáez pays homage to his subject—called “the Ant” for her energy, which carried her past her 100th birthday—as a historical force of her own, a lifelong Communist Party loyalist, a talented artist, and a charmer who combined an eccentric absentmindedness with wit in motivating others. While rigously researched and considered, this will leave readers looking for a nuanced treatment of Neruda’s involvement with Stalin wanting. Still, Saez weaves a vivid tale of inheritance, bohemian enclaves, and armed struggle in Spain during the Spanish Civil War. Readers looking for a rich blend of art and politics should give this a look. (May)
