Lorca: A Dream of Life

Federico Garc a Lorca called the fatal goring of a bullfighter friend ""an apprenticeship for my own death."" More because of his homosexuality than his openly sexual poems and plays, or his moderate leftist politics, he expected right-wing retribution. It came in August 1936, when he was arrested, despite being sheltered in the house of a well-known fascist family, and was promptly executed by Franco's devout murderers. His body has never been found. He left behind, unproduced, three plays, among them his greatest, The House of Bernarda Alba. He also left, unpublished, three poetry collections. Stainton's biography traces the trajectory of his doomed life--his years of apparent idleness, supported by an indulgent and prosperous father who counted upon his son's inevitable fame; his coming to terms with, and then flaunting, his sexual orientation; his burgeoning fame as poet and playwright; his conflicts with the church and with the political authorities over what he said and how he said it. His relations with Neruda, Dal , Benavente, Bu uel and de Falls, among others, are explored, often from heretofore unexploited documentation. Lorca's great creative achievements are a bit muted here, perhaps because so many of his 42 years were spent in incubation rather than productivity, and perhaps also because so many pages explore his grappling with his sexuality and his subsequent glorifying of it. In Stainton's telling, however, Lorca's artistic development, and his struggles with interfering forces form a dramatic and powerful story. 68 b&w illustrations. (June)