Guernica
By Dave Boling
These discussion questions are designed to enhance your group’s conversation about Guernica, an epic novel of the Spanish Civil War from the perspective of a strong, fiercely loyal Basque family.
About this book
The Ansotegui family has lived in Guernica, the heart of Basque country, for many generations. Justo Ansotegui becomes the head of the family at a young age, after his mother dies in childbirth and his father wanders off to die of a broken heart. Justo is renowned for his feats of strength, and he singlehandedly raises his two brothers: Josepe, a successful fisherman, and Xavier, a thoughtful and politically-minded priest. Justo stays in Guernica and remains a father figure to the entire town, raising a beautiful daughter, Miren, with his beloved wife, Mariangeles.
Miguel Navarro moves to Guernica after he and his brother, Dodo, are chased out of their hometown by the Spanish military police. Miguel immediately falls for Guernica’s most popular resident, Miren, and their marriage officially links the Ansotegui and Navarre families. But Guernica is soon under attack: General Franco conspires with Nazi military forces to obliterate the Basque heartland. Miguel and Justo lose their families and their limbs in the tragic bombing, and all of Guernica slowly limps to recovery, under submission to Franco’s rule. Pablo Picasso memorializes the tragedy of Guernica in an awe-inspiring mural, showing the world the suffering of the Basque people. At the dawn of World War II, Miguel joins his brother in the French resistance movement, smuggling Jewish refugees and British soldiers out of Nazi-occupied France. And through one of these rescued soldiers, a long-lost member of the Ansotegui-Navarre family is about to be found.
For discussion
1. The prologue of Guernica takes place in 1939. What does Guernica’s market look, sound, and feel like in this year? What is Justo Ansotegui’s mood on this day at the market? How does Justo’s life in the prologue compare to the epilogue, which takes place in 1940, a year later?
2. Two family heirlooms hang from the mantle of Errotabarri, the Ansotegui family farmhouse: a ruffled apron, and “a length of braided human hair so dark that it absorbed light” (15). What is the significance of the apron and the braid to the Ansotegui family?
3. Discuss the importance of language in the novel. How does the status of Euskara, the Basque language, change over the time span of the book? When does speaking Euskara result in violence?
4. Young Miren is known in Guernica as “the graceful young dancer who happened to be the daughter of the town’s renowned strongman and the much-admired Mariangeles Onati” (50). How does Miren make a name for herself in Guernica? What qualities is she known for, as she grows into adulthood?
5. After Dodo’s encounter with the Guardia in their hometown of Lekeitio, “Miguel, for the first time, added up the consequences: He would leave his home, lose his good job, and have to move to a strange town, always keeping watch over his shoulder in case the Guardia was around” (70). What are the more favorable outcomes of Miguel’s exile? What are the positive and negative effects of this fateful event for Dodo?
6. According to Mendiola, Miguel’s boss, “Justo is filled with pride and hot air, and Xabier is filled with the Holy Ghost. Josepe’s word—now that, that is solid as oak” (77). Are Mendiola’s characterizations of the three Ansotegui brothers correct? What else are these brothers “filled with?”
7. Compare the two love stories of Justo and Mariangeles, and Miren and Miguel. How does each couple meet? How are their romances similar and how are they different? How does each husband mourn the loss of his wife? Why are their mourning processes different?
8. Both Justo and Catalina have distinctive injuries to their ears. Discuss how each character’s ear was damaged, and the effects of the injury on the character’s later life.
9. In the novel, before beginning his mural, Picasso “feared he would be expected to produce something that was more a political statement than a work of art” (167). How does the mural Guernica balance politics and art? How do its “cornerstone symbols”—“a horse, a bull, a fallen warrior, a mother with a dead child, and the woman holding the lamp” (230)—match up to the characters in the novel?
10. Discuss the character of Alaia Aldecoa. How does she change over the course of the novel? Why does she take on private “business partners” (156) in her home? How is she able to help Justo and Miguel heal after the tragic bombing?
11. Consider how Dave Boling describes the Guernica bombing. How does his language make the tragedy so vivid? Which character’s perspective seems to best capture the terror and confusion of that tragic day?
12. Why does the novel include the point of view of Wolfram von Richthofen, the German “maestro” of the Guernica attack? (180) What does his perspective add to the story? Does his point of view enhance or lessen the tragic effect of Guernica’s demolishment?
13. Thinking of Picasso’s Guernica, Charley “hoped Miguel would never see it” (331). How would Miguel and Justo likely react if they saw Guernica? Could the artwork serve as a symbol of healing as well as grief? Explain.
14. Charley realizes when he hears Miguel’s tragic story, “Miguel’s wife could have been Annie. The baby could have been theirs. Miguel’s life could have been his. It still could” (332). What lessons of war does Charley learn while escaping the Nazis?
15. How do Basque characters in the novel perceive their race? How do others—the Spanish, Germans, and British in the novel—regard the Basques?
16. When a Nazi officer asks Picasso if he made Guernica, Picasso replies, “No. You did.” (358). What does Picasso mean by this short statement?
17. Track the author’s use of bird imagery (condors, eagles, gulls, chickens, budgies). What does the imagery foretell? How is it used to convey an imminent threat?
Suggested reading
Mark Kurlansky, The Basque History of the World; Gijs van Hensbergen, Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon; C. J. Sansom, Winter in Madrid; Louis de Bernières, Corelli’s Mandolin; Mark Helprin, A Soldier of the Great War; Markus Zusak, The Book Thief; Geraldine Brooks, People of the Book; Irène Némirovsky, Suite Française; José Antonio Aguirre, Escape Via Berlin; Russell Martin, Picasso’s War: The Destruction of Guernica, and the Masterpiece that Changed the World.
Dave Boling is a journalist in Washington State. This is his first novel.