El vino de la soledad
Irène Némirovsky
Publicado: 1935 | 190 páginas
Novela Drama Psicológico

Descrita como la novela más personal y autobiográfica de Irène Némirovsky, ‘El vino de la soledad’ recrea el destino de una adinerada familia rusa refugiada en París, y describe la venganza de una joven contra su madre, motivo que la escritora ya había tratado en esa pequeña joya literaria que es ‘El baile’. Con una mirada inteligente y ácida, la novela sigue a la pequeña Elena de los ocho años a la mayoría de edad, desde Ucrania hasta San Petersburgo, Finlandia y finalmente París, donde la familia se instala tras el estallido de la Revolución rusa, en un recorrido paralelo al que realizó la propia autora. Irène Némirovsky mostró desde joven un talento excepcional. Su trágica muerte, a los treinta y nueve años en un campo de concentración, puso fin a una obra magistral, que ha sido redescubierta con enorme éxito. ‘El vino de la soledad’ es otra magnífica novela de esta escritora maravillosa, lúcida y brillante.

En una larga sobremesa en el restaurante del Grémio Literário, el histórico club de Lisboa, un viejo camarero recuerda lo que una vez le contara un anciano mexicano. Fue en la noche revolucionaria del 25 de Abril de 1974. El que fuera consejero de la legación mexicana en el Portugal de los años treinta y cuarenta, rememora el auge del fascismo, el inicio de la guerra civil española, la muerte del general Sanjurjo, la soledad del embajador Sánchez Albornoz y las maniobras de Nicolás Franco. Recuerda también su propio papel en la protección de los refugiados republicanos, desde campesinos, obreros y milicianos hasta el poeta Miguel Hernández, llevado a cabo con la ayuda de una red clandestina y de otros diplomáticos como Gabriela Mistral, cónsul de Chile. Las tensiones con el gobierno portugués fueron constantes. En un ambiente de intrigas cosmopolitas, la amenaza de una invasión española, las presiones del Eje para que Portugal entrara en la guerra mundial, además de las de los británicos para que mantuviese su neutralidad, fueron el caldo de cultivo de un extraño grupúsculo, formado por periodistas, policías y artistas, que buscaba refundar la nación, tal vez en algún lugar de Ultramar.

Los Cuentos De Alfaguara de Benedetti, Mario/Bryce Echenique, Alfredo/Cortazar, Julio/Onetti, Juan Carlos/Ribeyro, Julio Ramon. Alfaguara , 1984

Descrita como la novela más personal y autobiográfica de Irène Némirovsky, El vino de la soledad (publicada en 1935) recrea el destino de una adinerada familia rusa refugiada en París, y describe la venganza de una joven contra su madre, motivo que la escritora ya había tratado en esa pequeña joya literaria que es El baile. Con una mirada inteligente y ácida, la novela sigue a la pequeña Elena de los ocho años a la mayoría de edad, desde Ucrania hasta San Petersburgo, Finlandia y finalmente París, donde la familia se instala tras el estallido de la revolución rusa, en un recorrido paralelo al que realizó la propia Némirovsky. La madre de Elena, una mujer bella y frívola de origen noble, desprecia a su marido, un potentado judío, y a su hija. Tras la muerte de la gobernanta, la vida de la niña se vuelve aún más difícil, pues su madre instala en la casa a su amante, un primo quince años más joven que ella. No obstante, el tiempo convierte a Elena en una joven hermosa, y el día que descubre que atrae al amante de su madre, comprende que ha llegado el momento de vengarse.

In what is regarded as at least a semi-autobiographical work, The Wine of Solitude relates the coming-of-age of Helene, who is 8 when the novel begins and 21 when it ends. While her father makes a lot of money through his various business ventures in Kiev, it’s a very sad family, with her mother openly carrying on an affair with a man 15 years younger than she is, and completely uncaring towards her daughter. Meanwhile her father has a gambling problem and is often away from the home, at one point for a couple of years. She takes solace in her French governess and her own development into a young woman noticed by the men around her.

Even if her mother is an awful person, someone who is shallow, vain, and unloving, the open descriptions of her sexual desire are liberating. “To hold a man tightly in her arms when she didn’t even know his name or where he came from, a man she would never see again, that and that alone gave her the sharp thrill of pleasure she desired,” Nemirovsky writes early on. But the child observes little signs that gradually develop into full understanding, like her mother “stuffed into a corset at three o’clock in the afternoon,” and hatred grows in her heart. Central to this novel is just how broken this mother-daughter relationship is, and whether Helene will find herself acting in the same ways when she becomes an adult.

Her father is hardly better, at one point leaving her as a child, alone and hungry in the lobby of a casino, until late at night while he gambles. “I feel like a suitcase forgotten at the left luggage office,” she thinks to herself. These characters are all sharply drawn, including the grandmother who is such a timid soul, and the novel is evocative of the time period and the places the family goes. They flee the Russian Revolution by going to Finland, and then eventually make their way to Paris. By the time the parents are in their mid-40’s, we feel the full pathos of the lives they’ve led catching up to them, in sad but honest writing.

The opulence of the family as it rises into the nouveau riche is contrasted with the horrible things going on in the world – WWI in addition to the revolution, and things like people desperately marching for food – but those things are only distantly felt because Nemirovsky doesn’t devote a lot of space to them. While that may have been honest to the experience of the young woman, it would have been more satisfying to me had these things been expanded on. In the little bits we get, though, like when people outside are carrying their dead children to the cemetery in sacks because there aren’t enough coffins, and a man is executed against a wall, after which Helene is studying Racine and the history of the Russian tsars, it’s devastating.

It's also absolutely heartbreaking to know that Nemirovsky would die at Auschwitz just seven years later, at the age of 39, followed shortly after by her husband. Such a tragedy, and such a waste.

Quotes:
On desire:
“She let him kiss her, even leaned in towards him, offering her face, her hands, her lips, savoring waves of delight, aching waves of bliss that pierced straight through her body.”

On families, this bitter cynicism from Helene:
“The father is thinking about a woman he met in the street, and the mother has only just said goodbye to her lover. They do not understand their children, and their children do not love hem; the young girl is thinking about the boy she’s in love with, and the boy about the naughty words he’s learned at school. The little children will grow up and be just like them. Books lie. There is no virtue, no love in the world. Every household is the same. In every family there is nothing but greed, lies and mutual misunderstanding.”

On solitude:
“’I’m not afraid of life,’ she thought. ‘The past has given me my first experiences of the world. They have been exceptionally difficult, but they have forged my courage and my pride. And that immutable treasure is mine, belongs to me. I may be alone, but my solitude is powerful and intoxicating.’” ( )