The Palace

Fiction. THE PALACE, Claude Simon's seventh novel, has its roots in events in Simon's life, in this case the Spanish Civil War, in which he was a participant and a supporter of the republican governernment. Simon sees most things in life as circular, events that recur, and revolutions are no exception. The Spanish war was a political catastrophe and it is the images of destruction, waste and inefficiency that give this novel its power. Simon describes the bureaucratic accumulation of paper which always manages to soak up all violence and every act of revolt and creates poignant pictures of dead dchildren, disillusioned soldiers and students, the betrayal of Catalonia by the Communists, about which George Orwell has also written (in a work that influenced Simon) and the power struggle that splintered the republican side. This powerful narrative is one of the most important examples of the nouveau roman and revolution, a time of confusion and differing views of reality, is a most suitable backg