SPAIN: THE ROOT AND THE FLOWER

Other nations have produced institutions, said Unamuno, we have left souls. He was speaking of Spain. And it is just that, the soul of Spain, which author John pic of Latin America) Crow attempts to illuminate here through a study of her socio-cultural mores and movements, her slightly schizoid temperament (the boasting of the ast, the belittling of the present; the manifest sensuality, the equally manifest austerity), and her long history of art and literature, of political credos and political conflicts. The result is something less than a smash hit: a pleasantly icturesque, if by no means profound, interpretation. Actually it all seems a series of spiritual convulsions, from the early Roman and Moorish invasions to the Golden Age of Charles V and Cervantes, into the ill-fated dawn of liberalism and the resultant rise of Franco and the current church-state dictatorship. Professor Crow, one-time amigo of Lorca and Jimenez, ably delineates Spain's intellectual diversity, the growth and decay of the arts, the extremist hullabaloo of both Left and Right prior to and during the Civil War and Spain's classic compulsion always to exile her ruest and best. A highlight:- many cracklingly colorful excerpts either from the already-mentioned greats or notable correspondents-on-the-scene. A good guide, a enuine appreciation.