The Spanish Bow Andromeda Romano-Lax

“The Spanish Bow” is the title of the novel by Andromeda Romano-Lax. It starts off very promisingly, relating how the misnamed Feliu Delargo grows up. One of his legs is crippled by the difficult circumstances of his birth, and he is hit with further misfortune when his father dies. However, he has been left a bequest by his father – a cello bow, which will have an important impact on his life. Unfortunately, his widowed mother unwillingly becomes the subject of some very unpalatable suitors, and although Feliu does benefit to some extent as one of them teaches him music, he and his mother are forced to flee to Barcelona when one of the suitors becomes far more threatening. Since Feliu’s passion for music was previously recognised some years before by the infamous pianist Al-Cerraz, his mother is optimistic that this will enable Feliu to train further with the cello. However, she’s taken up the offer contained within Al-Cerraz’s letter far too late, and she is forced to find the funds for Feliu’s tuition herself. Recognising that they are both in straitened circumstances, Feliu begins to play the cello along Las Ramblas for money…

“The Spanish Bow” has a great opening, and the story of Feliu’s early life really is fascinating. The scenes in Barcelona, the front cover to the Heinemann hardcover (which has the city’s famous Columbus statue in the background), and the atmosphere, are greatly redolent of Carlos Ruiz Zafron’s The Shadow of the Wind, so I was initially optimistic that Andromeda Romano-Lax would surpass the quality of this earlier novel. Feliu’s life does indeed become more fascinating, as he attends the royal court in Madrid, becoming both a favourite of the queen and embroiled in a passionate relationship with the daughter of his music master. One accusation that has been levelled at the novel is that Andromeda Romano-Lax has too much of a tendency to namedrop famous historical characters, but this is permissible in a novel that features a famous cellist, who mixes in celebrity circles. However, she stretches credulity too far by making one of Feliu’s brother’s best friends with Spain’s most famous general… Indeed, from the point of his departure from the royal court, Feliu becomes rather subsumed by the extraordinary historical times in which he lives. No doubt Andromeda Romano-Lax has done this on purpose, but the result is that Feliu becomes a rather less interesting character, especially since he plays a rather too dispassionate part in the ensuing love-triangle. Feliu’s loss of character is quite fatal when one considers that so much of the novel hinges on his narration. The resolution, although it deals with serious issues, turns out to be quite risible and unaffecting. Bruno Arpaia did a much better job in depicting the final days of Walter Benjamin in similar circumstances in The Angel of History. Unlike Romano-Lax, Arpaia has a poor grip on his main character when his novel starts, but by the end, he has managed to pull-off a superb portrait, while Andromeda Romano-Lax does exactly the reverse – the resolution of “The Spanish Bow” never entirely lives up to its strong opening.

The novel is based on the life of the Spanish cellist Pablo Casals, who left Spain with the rise of Franco, vowing never to return until Franco had left power. He also refused to even visit countries that recognised Franco’s Spain. In 1956, he settled in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Prior to the Spanish Civil War, however, Pablo Casals had been part of a trio with the pianist Alfred Cortot and the violinist Jacques Thibaud. Since the violinist in “The Spanish Bow” is an Italian woman, we can only conclude that this novel is very loosely based on the life of Pablo Casals. For more information about the author, you must visit our Andromeda Romano-Lax page.

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