Too much has been made, I think, of the revolutionary quality of Hijos de la ira…. Instead of an act of revolt it is rather a book that protects itself too well. Like that other milestone of post-Civil War literature, La familia de Pascual Duarte, it demands that we accept it on its own terms or not at all. Both the Death of God theology of the one and the criminal insanity of the other provide a literary redoubt with which the authors insulate themselves from the historical moment. In addition, Alonso's poetry, like most modernist Spanish literature is not self-generating but builds on, lives off, previous Spanish literature. It is a high example of the art of literary pastiche, and consciously so. And this too protects it from attack, makes it strangely hermetic and aloof. Also, there is a miscellaneous quality about the way it is arranged...