View of the World (2011)
“General Velez sat in the cool, vaulted marble of his library, in his pyjamas surrounded by piles of magazines, mostly English. He had been ambassador to Great Britain for twelve years. A softly groaning symphony of distant car horns and loudspeakers came through the open window. There was a big military parade on in the city.
‘I’m commonly stated in the press to be 94,’ General Velez said. ‘It’s not true. I’m only 93.’ General Loynaz was in his late eighties. Before leaving his house he had shown me a slightly bent Toledo sword. ‘It’s out of shape from whacking cowards on the backside,’ he said. ‘To keep their faces to the enemy.’ ‘The very opposite in fact, of my own methods,’ Garcia Velez said. ‘He used to bully his men. I believed in kidding them along. In my opinion he was guilty of faulty psychology. How none of them ever had the guts to shoot him in the back I shall never understand.’ These two old men had sat quietly in the shadows for sixty years, watching with sardonic ey...es the comings and goings of the politicians and the big business men who had gathered like vultures over their victories.MoreLess
‘I’m commonly stated in the press to be 94,’ General Velez said. ‘It’s not true. I’m only 93.’ General Loynaz was in his late eighties. Before leaving his house he had shown me a slightly bent Toledo sword. ‘It’s out of shape from whacking cowards on the backside,’ he said. ‘To keep their faces to the enemy.’ ‘The very opposite in fact, of my own methods,’ Garcia Velez said. ‘He used to bully his men. I believed in kidding them along. In my opinion he was guilty of faulty psychology. How none of them ever had the guts to shoot him in the back I shall never understand.’ These two old men had sat quietly in the shadows for sixty years, watching with sardonic ey...es the comings and goings of the politicians and the big business men who had gathered like vultures over their victories.MoreLess
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