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Basque Studies Program Newsletter · Issue
51, 1995
For the Bookshelf
By William A. Douglass
There are three recent publications of the University
of Nevada Press with a Basque interest, although only one of
them appeared in the Basque Book Series. That title, Gorka
Aulestia’s Improvisational Poetry from the Basque
Country, is particularly noteworthy. It is the first
book-length treatment in English of that stellar
representative of Basque culture--the bertsolari or
versifier. The Basque bertsolari is capable of spontaneous
composition of verses set to music on any subject. In the
Basque Country the versifier may perform at a wedding, in
the village’s plaza during its annual festival, on
television and radio, or in the periodic international
championship competition.
In this comprehensive study Aulestia first analyzes
the phenomenon from a technical and artistic standpoint. He
then considers the history of bertsolaritza and the work of
four of its most legendary representatives--Etxahun, Pello
Mari Ota¤om, Xalbador and the contemporary Xabier
Amuriza. Improvisational Poetry from the Basque
Country is a must read for anyone with an interest in
Basque culture.
The second work is Decline of the Nation-State
by Gurutz Jauregui Bereciartu. The book, which is the
English translation of his Contra el
estado-nación, is a title in the
recently-instituted Ethnonationalism in Comparative
Perspective Series edited by Walker Connor. Decline of
the Nation-State considers the emergence of nationalism
in western Europe in the aftermath of the French Revolution,
with particular emphasis upon its French and German
variants. A second section examines the ways in which
Marxist theorists and central and eastern European states
dealt with the challenges posed by nationalist (as opposed
to class) consciousness. Finally, the work examines the
significance of nationalism to contemporary Europe in a
world dominated by transnational structures (the European
Community, the United Nations, etc.) and a global economy
driven by multinational firms (lacking loyalty to any
particular nation-state). Undoubtedly, its most
controversial conclusion is that the nation-state no longer
satisfies the needs of a citizenry and is therefore an
antiquated political form.
While Decline of the Nation-State is not a
“Basque” book per se, its author also wrote the
most definitive study to date of ETA (not available in
English). The present work contains many Basque examples and
is certainly intended as a cautionary note to Basque
nationalists seeking to forge the political future of their
homeland.
Kinsella’s Man, a novel by Richard
Stookey, appeared in the Press’s Western Literature
Series. Cyril Kinsella, a man with a troubled past, retreats
to the high desert of eastern Nevada where he builds a
ranching empire. He hires John Siloa, a young French Basque,
to be his foreman. Kinsella’s man becomes his only
confidante, and it is through their conversations that we
gradually learn the dark secrets of Kinsella’s
past.
Over the years John Siloa becomes his employer’s
middle-aged caretaker while Deirdre, Kinsella’s
daughter, matures, leaves Nevada for school in the East and
then returns to the ranch against her father’s will. As
the story moves towards its tragic ending, Siloa moves
uneasily between his role as Kinsella’s man and his
complex emotions towards Deirdre.
Who is John Siloa? I have read the account (as yet
unpublished) of John’s youth. It is the gripping story
of Joanes Siloa, a teenager trapped by circumstances in a
German-occupied, French-Basque village during World War II.
It is one of the best portraits of Basque village life and
family intrigue ever crafted. And then there is the question
left dangling in Kinsella’s Man: What happened
to John Siloa and Deirdre? I suspect that there is a major
trilogy lurking behind the pages of this extraordinary
novel. (Parenthetically, Kinsella’s Man has
elicited many inquiries from movie producers and television
production companies, so it may well result in a
film.)
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