One Woman and Four Others

One Woman and Four Others describes, in the first person, the childhood, the adolescence and the young adulthood of a woman born in Cuba in the middle thirties, who subsequently emigrates to the United States. The first part of the novel depicts the joyous wonder of an emotionally and artistically sensitive child discovering the world that surrounds her in an accurate portrayal of a particular geography and of a well-defined epoch. Yet, the real subjects of One Woman and Four Others are the passage of time and its impact on the growth of a human being, and the sensation of transitoriness of life that impels us to cling to the memories of our past. In this sense Robles's novel can be compared to Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu - In Search of Lost Time.

The figure of the mother dominates the whole book. For Proust and for Robles the persistent presence of the mother during the entire life of the protagonists is, evidently, related to the search for lost time.

Among the four women loved by the narrator of One Woman and Four Others the most important is Marisol, whose influence can be felt throughout the novel and who affects all the other love relationships of the protagonist.

Anna Diegel,
Translator and Literary Critic