Novel
Five Hours with Mario
Cinco horas con Mario
Miguel Delibes · 1966
Synopsis
Carmen Sotillo, known as Menchu, has just lost her husband, Mario Díez, a secondary-school teacher, journalist and intellectual who rode a bicycle. When the visitors at the wake have gone, she stays alone beside the body and, for five hours, talks to him as if he were still alive. She starts from the verses of the Bible that he had underlined, reproaches him for his conduct, his political and religious ideas, his lack of ambition, the car he never wanted to buy, and holds him responsible for her disappointments.
Context
The novel appeared in 1966. A prologue and an epilogue frame twenty-seven chapters that make up the widow's monologue, each opened by a biblical quotation underlined by the dead man; the monologue sometimes becomes a false dialogue, when she imagines her replies. Through this couple who do not speak to each other, critics have read the conflict of the “two Spains”. A stage adaptation, directed by Josefina Molina with Lola Herrera, premiered in Madrid on 26 November 1979.
Who it is for
A long monologue, unanswered, in a spoken language; it is best to know that the book dates from 1966.
Prizes and reception
Selected by El Mundo among the hundred best Spanish novels of the century; Lola Herrera played the role on stage until 2021.