FORBIDDEN TERRITORY and REALMS OF STRIFE; The Memoirs of Juan Goytisolo, 1931-1956; 1957-1982

San Francisco: North Point Press, 1990. 1st English-language editions. Cloth spine and boards in dust jacket. Light shelfwear. Very good. Two volumes. 235pp., 261pp. Translated by Peter Bush. FORBIDDEN TERRITORY is the extraordinary account of the intellectual awakening of Juan Goytisolo. Born into the failing bourgeoisie of Barcelona in 1931 and a Nationalist family, the early years of Goytisiolo's life were marked by intellectual and sensual suppression. In a poisonous, hypocritical household that matched the authoritarian regime, the atmosphere of intellectual and emotional intlerance forced him to self-education, seeking refuge in foreign literature. Juan found inspiration and perspective in multi-lingualism as he also came to face his own homosexual inclinations. FORBIDDEN TERRITORY alternates between a stately, first-person narrative and shorter, lyrical passages in which the author addresses himself in the second person, allowing for an objectivity and art that is rare in autobiography. Above all, this work chronicles the shaping - against political, social, and sexual repression - of a writer, and how the pursuit of a voice made Goytisolo a perpetual outsider, at ease in many languages and cultures, yet home in none. Continuing where FORBIDDEN TERRITORY left off, REALMS OF STRIFE begins with Spanish expatriate Goytisolo newly arrived in Paris, where he has lived ever since. The second volume of his autobiography captures the excitement of literary and political life in Europe in the fifties and sixties - his encounters with Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Yevtushenko, Castro, Marguerite Duras, Garcia Marquez, and devoting a complete chapter to Jean Genet. Recounting the evolution of his political life, Goytisolo moves from his early engagement and subsequent disillisuionment with the Communist Party, especially regarding censorship and human rights. Concentrating on his literary life, he becomes more personal in his focus, describing his coming to terms with his homosexuality in both the exhilaration of his first encounters with men and the confusion of his feelings towards his common-law wife, Monique. Goytisolo's narrative alternates between a first-person narrative and lyrical passages in which he addresses himself in the second and third persons, creating startling shifts in perception. With unsparing candor and sef-scrutiny, Goytisolo exposes, layer by layer, the complexities and profund emotion, the telling conflicts and desires of his life.