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Review
"Inevitably, the Pamplona festival evokes Ernest Hemingway. Van Mersbergen avoids Hemingway's contagious style with dexterity. Instead, he parodies Hemingway's rather limited ideas on how a man of action should live. ... No "grace under pressure". Rather, Danny and Robert, both alienated, replace normal feelings with their different obsessions." --The Independent
"An impressive work from a leading Dutch writer." --Daily Mail
"Flawlessly translated from Dutch ... A book that is likely to divide readers, possibly along gender lines." --Financial Times
"As he tracks back and forth between the dual narratives, moving inexorably to the double climax, van Mersbergen skilfully builds emotional intensity until the point when the boxer and bulls' fury are finally unleashed." --The Independent on Sunday
"This is an intriguing and intricate gem of a novel ... van Mersbergen's tightly controlled prose skilfully conveys the overriding sense of repressed emotion and sheer physicality that drive a compelling and complex story."
--Lancashire Evening Post
"An impressive work from a leading Dutch writer." --Daily Mail
"Flawlessly translated from Dutch ... A book that is likely to divide readers, possibly along gender lines." --Financial Times
"As he tracks back and forth between the dual narratives, moving inexorably to the double climax, van Mersbergen skilfully builds emotional intensity until the point when the boxer and bulls' fury are finally unleashed." --The Independent on Sunday
"This is an intriguing and intricate gem of a novel ... van Mersbergen's tightly controlled prose skilfully conveys the overriding sense of repressed emotion and sheer physicality that drive a compelling and complex story."
--Lancashire Evening Post
Product Description
A professional boxer and a family man meet by chance on a journey to the Pamplona Bull Run. The boxer is fleeing an unhappy love. The father hopes to escape his dull routine. Both know that, eventually, they will have to return to the place each calls homeA". A story about anger, aggression and the desire for intimacy.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I loved this book! Told in a simple, but effective style, it draws you in to it's web and you are unable to put it down. On the surface, it has been compared to "a road movie in book form" and, like most road movies, there is so much more to be gleaned from the story.
Danny is a fairly successful boxer. He is running (literally) from a doomed love affair which has left him raw in it's betrayal. Robert is a suburban family man who is making a yearly trip to Spain for the twelfth time. The two men's paths cross when Danny is offered a lift in Robert's car.....chiefly because Robert takes pity on the rain soaked Danny. Their stilted dialogue is wonderfully written and Robert's off hand kindness is so well portrayed, even though trying to extract any information from Danny is like pulling hen's teeth! Robert is off to Pamplona to the festival of the bulls. For the uninitiated, men don white shirts and red neckerchiefs in order to run from at least six huge bulls released in to the cobbled streets of the Spanish town. True, it seems like madness, but according to Robert there is nothing better and every man has his own reason for being there. Does Danny want to go with him? Well he has nowhere else to be, so why not?
Throughout their journey, the author, Jan Van Mersbergen, depicts these wonderful little cameos of ordinary people in everyday situations, but it is the clarity of these encounters which is so absorbing and, dare I say it, addictive. This is impeccable writing and wonderful characterization and is a joy to read. The ending is powerful and shocking, but still leaves the reader with questions to ask. I like that in a book, as it gives you a reason to put your own perspective on the story and guarantees it remains in your memory long after you turn the last page.
This book is the fifth release by Peirene and I truly do not know how they do it! Every title, from all over Europe, has been first class and beautifully translated in to English. "Tomorrow Pamplona" can be added to that faultless record.
Danny is a fairly successful boxer. He is running (literally) from a doomed love affair which has left him raw in it's betrayal. Robert is a suburban family man who is making a yearly trip to Spain for the twelfth time. The two men's paths cross when Danny is offered a lift in Robert's car.....chiefly because Robert takes pity on the rain soaked Danny. Their stilted dialogue is wonderfully written and Robert's off hand kindness is so well portrayed, even though trying to extract any information from Danny is like pulling hen's teeth! Robert is off to Pamplona to the festival of the bulls. For the uninitiated, men don white shirts and red neckerchiefs in order to run from at least six huge bulls released in to the cobbled streets of the Spanish town. True, it seems like madness, but according to Robert there is nothing better and every man has his own reason for being there. Does Danny want to go with him? Well he has nowhere else to be, so why not?
Throughout their journey, the author, Jan Van Mersbergen, depicts these wonderful little cameos of ordinary people in everyday situations, but it is the clarity of these encounters which is so absorbing and, dare I say it, addictive. This is impeccable writing and wonderful characterization and is a joy to read. The ending is powerful and shocking, but still leaves the reader with questions to ask. I like that in a book, as it gives you a reason to put your own perspective on the story and guarantees it remains in your memory long after you turn the last page.
This book is the fifth release by Peirene and I truly do not know how they do it! Every title, from all over Europe, has been first class and beautifully translated in to English. "Tomorrow Pamplona" can be added to that faultless record.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the first time in a while that I have read a book written by a foreign author. To be honest I wasn't even sure if I would enjoy it but I really did, so much so that I found it extremely hard to put down. Praise has to be given also to Laura Watkinson who made a really good job of translating this novel into English.
The storyline follows a professional boxer who is fleeing from an unhappy love and a family man who likes to escape his dull routine once a year by going to the annual Pamplona Bull Run. These are two strangers who meet on the road and end up travelling together. The boxer doesn't really know where he's going, just that he has to escape. So when the family man asks him if he wants to go with him to the Pamplona Bull Run, he does. They both know that eventually they will have to return home though.
This book was cleverly written and I certainly found it to be thought provoking. Its not very long either, which is good sometimes when you don't have too much time to read. It's given me a taste for European Literature now and I hope to get the chance to read more books like this.
The storyline follows a professional boxer who is fleeing from an unhappy love and a family man who likes to escape his dull routine once a year by going to the annual Pamplona Bull Run. These are two strangers who meet on the road and end up travelling together. The boxer doesn't really know where he's going, just that he has to escape. So when the family man asks him if he wants to go with him to the Pamplona Bull Run, he does. They both know that eventually they will have to return home though.
This book was cleverly written and I certainly found it to be thought provoking. Its not very long either, which is good sometimes when you don't have too much time to read. It's given me a taste for European Literature now and I hope to get the chance to read more books like this.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
You might at first be attracted to this wonderful book by its look in a bookshop: indeed Peirene Press books are always incredibly soft, elegant and beautiful, hard to resist even as an object. But then what content too! This fifth one 'Tomorrow Pamplona' I found impossible to stop reading. It has an immediacy and vividness that grabs you instantly as a man, Danny, runs away from his life. You wonder as he does, where the whole journey will take you. Picked-up drenched by a car along the motorway, Danny embarks on a long drive with Robert to Pamplona where Roberts challenges his dull life every year by running away from the bulls. Marvellously symbolic and real. The drive takes them on a slow male companionship, full of unknown, unease and unsaid. The reticent dialogues are a masterpiece of tension and mystery keeping you literally on the edge of your seat as the third companion in that car. When they eventually arrive in Pamplona (perhaps this is a spoiler as one always expects something terrible to happen any second..) the events unfold quickly till the dramatic, shocking ending. This could be called a highly literary noir thriller. Yes it would also make a terrific film with the right director. The sparse, minimalist nearly, style is a beauty to read and the story is one of those that remains in your mind with a powerful yet delicate impact. It could be described as a 'masculine' story because Danny is a boxer, and because men will perhaps identify with the difficulty of expressing strong emotions more than women, but it certainly is not a book for men only to read ! Far from it. It beholds a total quality all around of great writing (and translation), breathless suspense, noire atmosphere and emotional pull. Five stars indeed...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
dull
I found the first chapters of this book dull, with lists of mundane details, and did not continue any further.
Published 27 days ago by Anja de Bert
A Gripping Tale
You do not need to be a fan of boxing or of bullfighting, or even an admirer of Ernest Hemingway who was keen on both these activities, to enjoy this short novel. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Walter M. Holmes
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