By Juan Eslava Galán, trans. by Lisa Dillman

Juan Eslava Galán is one of Spain’s most prolific and well-known contemporary writers. His novel The Mule, translated by Lisa Dillman, is an entertaining read, a blend of historical fiction and satire. First published in 2003, this novel is set during the Spanish Civil War, a time and place often treated by Spanish writers, and for good reason: the result, thirty years of dictatorship under General Francisco Franco, had a lasting impact on the country’s collective psyche. The book reads like a marriage of Javier Cercas’ Soldados de Salamina and one of Eslava Galán’s own detective novels (written under the pseudonym of Nicholas Wilcox)—a lighthearted treatment of an event that defined the nation’s identity. Eslava Galán writes frequently on this topic in the form of both fiction and nonfiction, and this particular novel of his attempts to convert the dark themes of war and heartbreak into a parody of the potential meaninglessness of war and the line between humanity and bestiality that men teeter on when in put into dehumanizing situations.

The novel follows Juan Castro Perez, the good-hearted, barely literate son of feudal servants. When the war started, he was recruited for the leftist army, but deserted nearly as soon as he got to the front to join the right-wing ranks. Despite his clear political affiliation, Juan does not much believe in the cause he’s fighting for, as evidenced in Juan’s replies to a bishop’s inquiries about what he thinks of the war:

“And what do you think?” “I don’t think anything, Your Lordship. There’s always been rich and poor.”… “And when you’re in danger, when bullets are whizzing past you – do you feel scared? What do you think about?” “Your Holiness, when you hear bullets whiz past, it’s because they’ve passed; the ones that kill you, you never hear. When it’s heavy artillery and you see the cannon blasts approaching, all you can do is hide your head in a hole.”

For Juan, and many others, the war has no real meaning—he does not think much of the cause, and primarily spends his time drinking with his fellow soldiers and wooing a local girl. Juan’s real interest lies in Valentina, a mule he finds while on patrol one day and plans on taking home with him when the war is over. Juan unexpectedly becomes a war hero when an escapade he has while searching for a wandering Valentina in the midst of a battle falls into the hands of an enterprising journalist:

“You’re a nationalist soldier, and you can’t spoil a victory. Did you know the reds broke our front lines and took six towns, and in spite of the reinforcements we still haven’t managed to contain them? Well, that means that at troubled times like this we need heroic feats, and if you’ll take my advice, you can be a hero, receive honors, medals…”

Juan, of course, agrees, albeit reluctantly; he is rewarded for it. He is decorated, put up in a nice hotel and seduced by a beautiful woman. At the end of the war, Juan has lost next to nothing—things don’t work out with the girl, but at the end of the day he still has his mule, and to Juan, that’s all that matters. Man and beast have survived and will live happily ever after—maybe. The novel is mostly dialogue, and at times it tends toward the superficial. But for the most part, Eslava Galán is successful in presenting the absurdities of war, and the gaping divide that exists between those order war and those that actually fight them. It’s a message that is still relevant today.

Reviewed by Gretchen Johnson

The Mule By Juan Eslava Galán, trans. by Lisa Dillman
Bantam Books, 2008
Paper, 290 pgs, $12.00
ISBN-10: 0553385089