Dali is one of my favourite artists and one of the most influential, and this novel epitomizes it; "Hidden Faces" is a difficult read, one that challenges the reader on many levels, be it patience, attentiveness, or absorption, and that rewards them in the end.

Never heard that Salvador Dali was actually also a writer, but turned out this was a republish artwork. This book was first published on 1944 and then translated to English by Haakon Chavelier. Can we count this novel a classic? I'm not gonna lie, the language was very hard to follow. Since I am also not a fan of classic works, I don't think this novel is my cup of tea. I don't understand most of the meaning and the loong loooong details of everything hurts my head. But that's entirely my fault. If you're a fan of Salvador Dali, give this book a go bcs it's the only novel he's ever written. And if you're into classic works, story in the midst of world war and disputes where people are still divided by social wealth gap, give this book a go.

Very interesting how everything was laid out in this book. Made me think differently about the artist.

Intrigued to discover Dali had written a novel, I expected it to be…well…surreal. Not least because the blurb actually states that the book “beckons readers into the surrealist world already familiar to us from his paintings.” After just a few pages it’s obvious that this is patently untrue. There’s nothing surrealist about this novel. Verbose, dense, even baroque, as I’ve seen it called, yes, but not surrealist. Published in 1944, Dali obviously thought he’d try a different medium for his ideas and thoughts. Thankfully, he never tried it again, as this really is no masterpiece. It’s a surprisingly straightforward, if convoluted, narrative, but it’s unfortunately a very boring one. It describes a group of self-indulgent and self-obsessed aristocrats and their love affairs and general shenanigans in the years leading up to WWII. I couldn’t relate to any of them and cared little. The characterisation is shallow, the dialogue inauthentic, and the plot nugatory. Worth reading as a literary curiosity but not for reading pleasure. Full marks for effort, Mr Dali, but not for execution.

3/3/24

Well this was never going to be the easiest, most fun read. Quickly we see connections between this and the later Bunuel films – a dinner party for the hoi-polloi, held by our main character who is distraught at his estate losing its full historic extent due to having to be sold off. The Daladier government has fallen overnight, but these people, despite huge political differences, can have their soiree – even when the silverware reflects their true, grotesque, animal self back at them.

But then it's just not my thing. The next chunk is about horrid characters being introduced to us at length, and I don't mind the vocab, or the length – I'm just fed up of weird bitchy aristocrats sitting on each other, draping themselves over the others' laps, and so on – if Dali is interested in these people, surely it's how horrid they are, so why on earth subject us to them so earnestly? I'm certainly not interested in them.

Looking at other reviews to see if my patience should prevail I find little to convince me to continue. But then I see this spoken of as "surreal" (it's not), "highly visual" (it's bloody not – all I can tell of how these people look is if he's mentioned the size of her bosoms or not), and I don't know which way to turn.

6/7/24

I honestly had intended to read more of this over the ensuing few months, but no – not even a (too brief) visit to Cadaques, Spain, inspired me to get in touch with the Dali, and the bulk of an hour's reading gave me a dreary episode of some old woman trying to turn a young lass into an opium addict, and that was it for me. "Long and boring" was actually the intent, according to Dali's own introduction – and boy didn't he strike that lode. My admiration for the man should have made me proud to have got to the end of this, even disliking every page, as if I'd leapt over a Proustian or Joycean hurdle. I got nowhere near.

My thanks to NetGalley and the Pushkin Press for an advance copy of this reprint of the sole work of fiction by one of the twentieth centuries most well known artists.

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marquess of Dalí of Púbol, known to the world as Salvador Dalí, was probably one of the first artists, outside comic books that I was aware of. I loved as a child timepieces of all kinds, and my father once showed me the The Persistence of Memory painting Dalí, had done and it stuck with me. The painting featuring clock faces melted, or folded is a good example of the surreal thinking that Dalí lived his life by. Dalí worked in film, photography, video, and was the choice to play the Emperor in the first, lost attempt to make the movie Dune. Dalí was also a writer. The Secret Life of Salvadore Dalí, his autobiography is cited as a true classic. Hidden Faces, Dalí's work of fiction is not as well known.

The book has 6 main characters, and many others who are caught in the wake of these 6 passages. The book looks at the time before the Second World War and follows them from the hopes or what will be, to what is left. All are wounded by their experiences, all will be changed what is coming, and what will happens.

The book ranges around the world and takes a lot of what happens, and many ideas from what Dalí was seeing all around him. Most know Dalí as that guy with the weird facial hair, and might not expect a book that is almost Dickens-like in plot and uses language not only to tell the story, but to sow confusion among readers, to obscure what seems obvious. This time is dying, and no matter how these people try to keep it alive, there is no coming back. There are a lot of internal dialogues too. These might seem to be almost like stream of consciousness rambling, but they are more than that. Most of these characters have never had to face truths, or reality, and lack the skill to even know how to communicate loss or rage. Or empathy. Some continue to do as they also do, as the land grows smaller, the trees are dying, and life goes on. A few change names or identities as being someone else is always better than who we are.

Not a book for everyone. This is worth the exploration and the time. There is alot going on, so reading this one will have to denote a certain amount of time. I found this very interesting reader, but do have to admit, it took a lot of persistence of time to get through.

While this is an interesting work from an interesting person ( A lot of people don't know he has a novel, and I was one of them ) it is undeniably difficult to continue reading this book. There are moments where it's rather slow, and the occasional attempts at humor often becomes a saving grace.
In short, this book is not for everyone. It has a complicated style of writing that is perhaps designed to appeal more to the intellect than just entertainment. It's one of those books that is picked up based on its historical legacy, and not always on its value as a book/story.
The plot was interesting, and the book was overall enjoyable with a few hiccups. If you like Salvador Dali, you should give this experience a go.

There were moments it was almost 2.5 stars, but I have to admit it stayed closer to the 1-2 range. My love of Dali’s art compelled me to read his novel, but I almost abandoned it several times and had to slog through countless pages of verbose description to arrive at a plot point. I’m still not sure I could summarize this novel well if asked for a recap because it often felt convoluted and filled with roads leading to nowhere. Perhaps that’s a part of the point?

If.

You are obsessed with Dali, have visited his incredible museums in Spain and Florida, have a replica of the melted watch on your wrist, own a Dali print in a prominent place in your house.

You have a hankering to correlate all the characters in the book to characters in his social circles, and how he skewered most of them.

You can withstand trudging through a surfeit of descriptive words, words which if paint he would have excised from his carefully detailed paintings.

You can stand an unhelpful translation, executed by a translator who openly admits Dali was a “master of the mixed metaphor, the superfluous epithet.”

Then.

You may be able to finish the book.

Dali mistook his genius at slinging paint for a wider creativity that gave him dispatch to throw words at a page, mistaking the ill-advised obscuration for illumination. This recent edition of his 1943 novel is at best an interesting artifact of a devilishly creative spirit, who loved the attention he drew to himself as much as he loved doing the same to his art.

Last year I read the newly-rediscovered lost novel of Derek Jarman, a Carrollesque dive into the world of extravagant excess that is America. There is something particular about prose from a visual artist, with a voice that distills reality into something far beyond. This offering from Dali sings with the same bursts of creativity, and will intrigue anyone interested even slightly in the outré.

I think this isn't for everyone. This kept reminding me of Waugh, if he was dark and overly wordy, except the relationships were more complicated. It's interesting to read fiction that tells so sweepingly of a historical period
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

I usually read very quickly but there's no way anyone can fully appreciate Salvador Dali's (yes THAT Salvador Dali) novel about a group of high society French people both pre and during WW2 without taking their time over it.
The core of the story is the bizarre relationship between the Count of Grandsailles and Solange de Cleda over the years, ever complicated by misunderstandings ,fate and the often bizarre or outrageous behaviour of both. Grandsailles is quite a revolting character who despite that seems to attract loyalty and devotion from those in his orbit. Typically of his kind with rival political factions doing battle in the streets,the German army invading and heroic resistance around him he spares a thought for little else than his comforts and wants, wreaking havoc in the lives of others.

This is definitely not a book for everyone,there's a great plot but ,particularity in the early chapters Dali seems intent on grandstanding and showing off his vast vocabulary and literary skills, both of which it has to said are quite spectacular. He never uses a simple sentence when several paragraphs of flowery and/or incisive prose suggesting that he might indeed at some point have "swallowed a dictionary" as the old saying used to be. As a fan of great writing as well as a good plotline I loved it,others might feel battered by verbosity and not be so impressed. It seems at first as if there are a lot of big words but not much happening but eventually Dali gets into his stride and things are a lot easier to follow.
This ,as long as you can handle the writing style,is a massively entertaining story with flashes of intellectualism throughout. It reminded me very much of my favourite French Author both in style and subject and I'd be very surprised if Pierre La Maitre wasn't influenced by this book when he wrote his "Paris Between the Wars" trilogy.
This won't be for everyone,"wordy" doesn't even touch the sides, but if you're a fan of masterly language usage it's bordering on a masterpiece.

I haven't read much by Dali before and mainly admired his art so this was really interesting to read and explore his literary work.