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riods of exile in the U.S. (Vassar College and Middlebury ing this corpus with additional letters sent by Martín Gaite
College), Cuba, a brief return to Barcelona, and France, to family members, other writers, and editors, as well as
this study reflects the allegedly tangential connection to the friends. Teruel emphasizes his 3-pronged critical approach
transnational network of exiles and how his correspondence that also perpetuates the identity thread: 1) the parallels be-
reinforces the author’s personal and intellectual indepen- tween Martín Gaite’s creative writing and her correspon-
dence throughout his life. dence as a means of communication; 2) the role of corre-
Continuing the volume’s thread of “identity,” Arantxa spondence within the novelist’s biography; 3) the separation
Fuentes Ríos in chapter 10 highlights Camilo José Cela’s of her identity as Mrs. (“madame”) Ferlosio (298). Teruel
persistent self-identification as a poet—“él siempre se de- concludes by emphasizing the tremendous autobiographi-
claró poeta” (241)—despite the overwhelming historical cal value of the literary genre of correspondence.
categorization as a novelist. Via his correspondence with Martín Gaite’s correspondence continues to be the focus
friends Carlos Bousoño, José Agustín Goytisolo, and Con- in Maria Vittoria Calvi’s chapter 13: “La carta como for-
cha Lagos, in which he discusses Papeles de Son Armadans, ma de presencia.” Calvi examines the briefly lived El Inter-
the creative literary journal that Cela founded and direct- locutor Exprés, a homemade creative journal intended for
ed from 1959-1979, we see the perspective of the “editor” its own approximately 20 collaborators, including Martín
Cela, who reinforces from various angles his strong view of Gaite herself, and published between 1992-1994 as a “re-
himself as a poet. vista de correspondencia literaria.” An experimental pub-
The impact of correspondence between friends is also ev- lication, it invited its collaborators to “hablar de todo en
ident in the collection of 26 letters between Américo Cas- forma desembarazada y libérrima” (323). Although Calvi
tro and Miguel Delibes between 1967-1971. In chapter 11, admits that this creative enterprise is not ground-breaking
this volume’s co-editor Santiago López-Ríos notes the mark in terms of the larger work of Martín Gaite, El Interlocutor
that Castro’s attention to Delibes’ work made on Delibes Exprés does validate the importance of the letter genre as
himself: “esta huella aflorará, más de treinta años después, “una forma insustituible de presencia” (339).
en El hereje” (266). Chapter 14, “Una rama de perejil” by José Luis Gómez
In his chapter 12, José Teruel, López-Ríos’ co-editor, Toré, delves into the sparce correspondence available be-
notes his own invaluable contributions to the available cor- tween the Spanish philosopher María Zambrano and jour-
respondence of Carmen Martín Gaite to include his edited nalist, writer, and poet José-Miguel Ullán: eight letters
collection in 2019 of “todo el epistolario de la escritora que from her, three from the younger Ullán. Although the two
había podido rescatar en distintos archivos personales a lo were separated by experiences and age—by 40 years—their
largo de trece años” (296), and then his success augment- friendship was made possible by the Spanish poet José Án-
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Revist a de al ce s XXI Número 6 , 2024
