Celia's Room

If you like Kerouac or Isherwood you will love Celia's Room.

If you know Barcelona you will find the descriptions and characters completely authentic. I could almost smell the Gothic barrio.

I picked this novel up on a Sunday morning, intending only to read the opening salvo ... I didn't put it down until I'd finished it five and a half hours later. It is gripping, intelligent and deeply sensual but also witty and fast-moving. I found it utterly compelling.

... moments of naive joy are cracked open by prejudice, poverty and an undercurrent of menace. ... packed with shady eccentric characters and sharp poetic imagery ... passages of almost scholarly historic reference and beautiful expositions of particularly poignant works of art that give the plot a rich cultural context.

It's also funny and very very entertaining ... worth reading. I hope this is an author worth watching out for.

... successfully captures Barcelona's gay zeitgeist

Nothing is quite as it seems. This book rejoices in ambiguity and ambivalence, successfully capturing the zeitgeist of Barcelona in the period when the optimism and openness precipitated by the restoration of democracy in Spain was fading as the ETA terrorist campaign continued to take lives, political corruption was exposed by the uncensored media, and the city began to undergo massive redevelopment for the Olympic Games of 1992. The author's knowledge and love of Barcelona are clear from his vivid descriptions of places, architecture and ambience. ... language so alluring and sensual as to qualify as genuinely erotic, without being pornographic. As a meditation on sexuality, I found Celia's Room insightful and thought provoking. ... and at times laughed out loud. This intelligent and entertaining book is fun, and definitely well worth reading!

As far as language goes it's one of the more beautiful books that I've read.

Quite an unusual book ... it kept me up late

This is an extremely poignant book describing a period in Barcelona's history before it became such a tourist destination as it is now. I was lucky enough to visit the city a couple of years before this book is set (1988) ... and I remember a few wonderfully chaotic nights as take place between Joaquim, Edu, Narcissus and all the other wonderful types who spill out of these pages.

... quite an unusual book but a great read and it kept me up late ... a beautifully compelling read.

I want to visit Barcelona!

... very descriptive, the main character's relationship with his father was really moving ... quite different to anything I had read, sort of a thriller... the character of Eduardo ... had some great lines! ... Definitely worth reading this one!