Love Among the Rebels

THE OLIVE FIELD--Ralph Bates--But-ton ($2.50).

In Lean Men Ralph Bates wrote an involved and melodramatic story about the Spanish revolution, painting vivid pictures of Spanish working-class life and weakening his story with long discussions of art and philosophy. More involved than that promising first novel, The Olive Field similarly contains much that most readers will want to skip, but it also contains a narrative forceful enough to carry readers beyond dull spots, presents a general picture of revolutionary Spain that seems to square with modern Spanish history.

The scene of The Olive Field shifts from the town of Los Olivares to Asturias, and the story comes to a climax with the defeat of the Asturian miners in the revolution of 1934. Although some 50 characters are introduced, most of the violent action revolves around Mudarra, a tall, impetuous Anarchist, a skilled worker in the olive fields, who seduces his best friend's sweetheart, plays the guitar with native genius, tries to blow up a dam, plots against the village priest, endures torture and a year in prison, gets free in time to burn a great store of corn, become reconciled with the friend he had betrayed, and dies as one of the leaders in the Asturian revolt.

His friend Caro had a quieter career, learned more from his experiences, lived to keep going the battle that Mudarra lost. Caro loved sad-faced gentle Lucia with quiet constancy, was mocked by his friend for his simplicity in "chewing iron," which was the colloquial term for carrying on a courtship by talking through the iron bars of a sweetheart's window. Mudarra recognized no such restraints. He swept Lucia off her feet, then confessed his betrayal to Caro. The two men fought with knives, found that they did not have the heart to kill each other. Later Lucia bore Mudarra's child in disgrace.

All this happened in a time of growing tension. The aged Marquis of Peral, in whose olive groves Caro and Mudarra worked, had taken less & less interest in his lands, turned them over to hard, thieving Argote, political boss in the days before Alfonso abdicated, who grafted, plotted, had Anarchist troublemakers killed. When the olive-pickers stormed the groves in a dispute about wages, the punishment was drastic: 80 men were arrested by the Civil Guard. When a protest meeting was held it was fired on, and 24 were killed. The aged Marquis woke up too late to a realization of his overseer's villainy and his own neglect, fled his estate. Caro married Lucia after her child was born, took her with him when he went to Asturias to work in the mines. He soon found himself a leading figure among the miners. He made up with Mudarra grudgingly, killed a police spy who had unmasked his friend. But he learned that forgiveness of Lucia came slowly, vanished many times in the course of a marriage, did not understand his own love for her until after the Asturian revolt had been defeated, Moorish troops had entered the country and he and Lucia had escaped across the mountains toward their homeland.

Despite its broad panorama, the distinction of The Olive Field lies less in the political insight it provides than in a number of brilliant scenes scattered throughout the book, giving eloquent testimony of Author Bates's graphic powers. One of these is a description of a Holy Week procession that is broken up by atheists who smash the images, burn the figures of Christ. "In the middle of the road, Mudarra, his pale face burning with intense purpose, was swinging a bar of iron at the feet of Judas Iscariot. ... In the Square of Our Lady of Carmen the fire smouldered, a wooden head, charred beyond recognition and glowing red at the neck, had rolled towards the street now empty and silent save for a crouching group upon the pavement and a girl sobbing at the feet of Judas Iscariot proffering a kiss to the empty air. . . ."

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