1994 0-7734-2293-5 Studies the novels and short stories of post-Franco Spain writer Soledad Puértolas, examining the dominant and unifying theme of solitude and loneliness. Literal and visual correspondences are established with the "realistic" paintings of Edward Hopper and other contemporary artists. Puértolas's fiction exposes the social and moral ills of her country and of all men confronting the solitude of their lives at the end of the twentieth century. Indifference and the lack of communication are constant themes, conveyed in a style that is often lyrical. In Spanish