Josep Pla,Peter Bush,ValentÃ­ Puig
An NYRB Classics Original,Josep Plaâ€™s masterpiece, ,The Gray Notebook,, is one of the most colorful and unusual works in modern literature. In 1918, when Pla was in Barcelona studying law, the Spanish flu broke out, the university shut down, and he went home to his parents in coastal Palafrugell. Aspiring to be a writer, not a lawyer, he resolved to hone his style by keeping a journal. In it he wrote about his family, local characters, visits to cafÃ©s; the quips, quarrels, ambitions, and amours of his friends; writers he liked and writers he didnâ€™t; and the long contemplative walks he would take in the countryside under magnificent skies. Returning to Barcelona to complete his studies, Pla kept up his diary, scrutinizing life in the big city with the same unflagging zest and humor.,Pla, one of the great Catalan writers, held on to this youthful journal for close to fifty years, reworking and adding to it, until he finally published ,The Gray Notebook, as both the first volume and the capstone of his collected works. It is a beautiful, entrancing, delightful bookâ€”at once a distillation of the spirit of youth and the work of a lifetime.
Nonfiction,Cultural,Spain,Biography,Autobiography,Memoir,Literature,European Literature,Spanish Literature,Literature,20th Century,Biography,Autobiography,History,Classics
The Gray Notebook