The Infatuations - Javier Marias

It's a reader's superstition, to begin the new year with a weighty book, that set the new year of reading on. I have been lucky in the 3 previous years having started the year with some brilliant books/writers.  Jose Saramago in 2013, Laszlo Krasznahorkai in 2012 and Roberto Bolano in 2011. This year begun with Javier Marias, and it puts me at ease with the outcome. 'All souls' was the only other book I've read before and I was always wanting to read more of Marias. Regularly in the speculation for the next Nobel Winner, the general praise for the writer and this book in particular, made my anticipation high even before the start of the read. I should say, I am rewarded for my selection.

It's those trivial and chance encounters in life, that reveals a great deal of personal realizations to you. Many things happen in life without we giving enough attention to it. They become a news item, a conversation in a gathering and soon forgotten. However, some of such have a larger impact in one's life involuntarily. As destiny drives us, you become part of these chance encounters, and its repercussions.

Maria Dolz, middle aged woman, works with a local publication, used to seeing an elegant couple having break fast in the Cafe she frequent. Then one day, she stops seeing them in their usual place. The curiosity did not  last long, as she discovered from the news paper about  the murder of the husband, a wealthy man named Miguel Desverne.  She offers her condolences to the wife Louisa Alday, out of courtesy, where she meets Miguel's best friend, and Luisa's new possible companion, a very handsome man, called Diaz Varela. No marks for guessing, of Maria's infatuations and a steamy affair with Dias Varela, soon after the encounter.

The questions that now arise for Maria is what is Dias Varela's relationship with Louisa and to Maria herself.  In a spurt of jealousy, Maria build her own possibilities and scenarios of Dias Verla's relationship and her interests and the potential benefits to both. The question moves towards the potential hand of Dias Varela, in the death of Miguel and her own part in the whole affair. As the questions of love, hate, sex, life, friendship and death is the theme Javier Marias examines after the initial pages of setting up the plot.

As these questions are asked and the possibilities are opened in front of Maria, as she inadvertently being part of the whole scheme, with no possible escape, she tries to find answers to various aspects of life and death.  And slowly and steadily, a rather silly murder by an addict turns to a cleverly planned and executed crime. Now the larger question of the rights and wrongs of the death. What if the deceased himself had planned for his death, and arranged everything in advance. What is the involvement of his close friend in helping him in executing his desire. When will one decide to stop fighting the illness and decided to call it quits ? Would you take your family into confidence before you decide on your fate or would you let them make believe in a random murder. Who is guilty and who is innocent ? What is the guilt shared by Maria herself ? Is she, now being aware of the crime, responsible to inform the wife and the authorities ? Does she have the physical proofs or the moral rights ? Javier Marias, leaves us with more questions and many possible answers threading the paths of existentialism, spiritual and philosophical encounters. It confronts us, disturbs us and shakes the fundamental beliefs. 

Dias Varela, cites literary examples from Balzac's 'Colonel Chabert ',  Shakespeare's Macbeth and Dumas' 'three musketeers' in justifying the events. In Balzac's novel, the dead soldier returns to haunt the survivors (including his wife) as the dead Miguel continue to haunt Varela. Varela quotes from Dumas'  "A thief can give back the thing he stole, a slanderer can acknowledge his calumny,The trouble with murder is that it's always too late and you cannot restore to the world the person you killed.". However, taking refuge in Dumas' again, he chorus the words  "A murder, nothing more.".

Marias is a master with his words. The narrative is built slowly, and before you blink, you are in the thick of the things, often participating in the crime by yourselves. A typical murder mystery, given a new meaning by his intelligence and masterly creativity. This book is not intend to stir you in your seats, wanting you to get to the end of the mystery. The plot by itself is slow and does not necessarily give a definite answer, but a possibility.  "The truth is never clear, it's always a tangled mess. Even when you get to the bottom of it."

His character leaves us with these thoughts, which in a way summarises my reading experience:

"It’s a novel, and once you’ve finished a novel, what happened in it is of little importance and soon forgotten. What matter are the possibilities and ideas that the novel’s imaginary plot communicates to us and infuses us with, a plot that we recall far more vividly than real events and to which we pay far more attention.”

Fabulous book, very intense albeit slow and deliberate, very engaging and thoughtful making it a great reading.

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The Infatuations  ( 2012)

Javier Marias  ( translated from Spanish by Margeret Jull Costa 2013)

Hanish Hamilton

346 Pages
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Guardian, NPR, Paste Magazine, NY Times, The Globe and Mail

Bartleby & Co - Enrique Vila Matas

If I'm asked to pick 10 books of my choice, Pedro Paramo will be one of them. I've always wondered why we do not see many more books from him. The list of one book wonders are long, and there are many theories and speculations on their lack of motivation or inability to recreate the magic again. The famous 'writer's block' seems to have affected many writers in the era of modern literature.

Enrique Vila Matas looks at this subject in his acclaimed work. Marcelo, a clerk in a Barcelona office, has written a novel about 'the impossibility of love'( for which his father wsant very happy about) and hasn't written anything since. It was long long ago, almost 25 year back. In what he compares himself as 'Bartleby' a character in the Herman Melville's story, who prefer to do nothing, whenever asked to something. "We all know the Bartlebys, they are being inhabited by a profound denial of the world", says he.

Which is why he is interested in other Bartlebys in the Literature and set about exploring them and capturing them in his dairy, what he calls as 'footnotes'. Hunchback, no luck with women, he takes a long medical leave citing depression, to pursue his interest of investigating the literature of the No.

"For sometime now I have been investigating the frequent examples of Bartleby's syndrome in literature, for some time I have studied the illness, the disease endemic to contemporary letters, the negative impulse or attraction towards nothingness that means that certain creators, while possessing a very demanding literary conscience ( or perhaps precisely because of this), never manage to write: either they write one or two books and then stop all together or, working on a project,seemingly without problems, one day they become literally paralysed for good."

In what it should be a tale of the investigation of the 'NO' in literature, Enrique Vila Matas takes us through some of the literary giants and those of the the No. The 86 short 'notes' which has been collated by Marcelo, barring a couple of the personal anecdotes, are dedicated to various writers of the era. In a strict sense, there is no progressive story no plot and no twists. It is only a literary collection of the various writers and their disrupted career. As he move from one to the other with some ease, with his own commentary, this book give some valuable insight to the followers of literature. I haven't read some of the writers that attract his attention, but they were as interesting as the case of those you are familiar with.

We see writers with one or two works and then gone out of public eye, preferring the self imposed isolation, few never published at all, few wrote a couple of very promising books and went on a hiatus for long period ( 40 years or more) , few decided to end life and another set disappeared with no traces whatsoever.

This might not have all that is needed to claim as a literary masterpiece, nor it has demonstrated the capability of Vila Matas as a writer (there are many places we get to see the glimpses of his narrative power though) , this seems to be very original and modern. However, there is a draw back in these type of Non-novel, one can go on for ever. It uses the ingredients from within the community he is engaged in, and is there fore become a collection of literary reference, far from being a work of deliberation and literary creation. I still liked reading this for that very fact.

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Bartleby & Co ( 2000)

Enrique Vila Matas ( translated from Spanish by Jonathan Dunne 2004)

Vintage

178 Pages
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Quarterly conversation, Guardian, Book Slut, Complete Review

Lizard Tails - Juan Marsé

The suburbs of Barcelona, 40s of the turbulent Spain. Elsewhere in Europe, the World War II is affecting the people. Hiroshima is bombed. Its the civil war or the defeat of the civil organisations against the regime of Franco. David Batra's father, an alcoholic and works for the resistance organisations is a political fugitive and is on the run. There is no information about him for last 6 months. His mother, who used to work as a school teacher (lost her job during the war and for being the wife of a revolutionary), is pregnant with his younger brother and is in constant trouble both medically and physically. Young David, 14 yrs , is out of school and spends his time with friend Paulino, son of a barber who is molested both physically and sexually by his traffic policeman uncle, collecting lizard's tails, to be used as a medicinal cure for Paulino's piles and watching matinee movies of Hollywood Western.

Comes the Inspection Galvan , into the scene investigating the disappearance of his father. He keeps a close vigil of the mother hoping to get some clue on the whereabout of David's father. As Inspector continue keep trail of the lady, David, now in his adolescence takes up the responsibility of protecting his mother from the advancing policeman. The close surveillance move way to regular visits to their villa, as the widowed policeman, is infatuated with the read haired ,beautiful mother, resulting in stand off between the son and the suitor. The frequency of the visit increased so is the duration, not only helping the lady in distress, but also supplying the essential provision. He continue his investigation, camouflaged under the pretext of help, to the dismay of young David.

David, carry the images of his injured father escaping through the gully, with a slit buttock, leaving blood trails on his way. It is this image that stays with him through out the narrative, even as he converse with the man missing in his dreams. The narration of real and surreal events takes some interesting direction here. David continue to have hallucinations ( he complains of hearing various sounds in his ear , resulting in listening to various voices), and continue his conversations with his father ( who disappeared 6 months ago) , to the poster hero of his room ( a RAF fighter pilot who died in action), the dead dog , his elder brothre who died long ago and his younger brother ( still in foetus inside his mother).

The fight for one-upmanship continue between David and the Inspector, with the Inspector manages to get rid off the dog Crispi, that David fosters, on account of aging and ill-ness. David seek his revenge by stealing his 'Dupont' lighter and trying to malign his image with his mother. Inspector also manages to distance Paulino from David, putting him up in the Juvenile Home, for his alleged shooting of his uncle, who continue to abuse him. Mother delivering an underdeveloped baby, dies in the event, leaving David and his brother in the custody of her sister.

To me, the narrative style that makes this book different from others. Despite the constant change of voices from David, his mother and the inspector the whole lot of conversation that David develop within himself with various living and non-living people is fabulous. The fine line between realism and surrealism is very minute and crafted brilliantly. The story is fairly simple and straightforward of an adolescent growing up , but it is these devices that deployed within the schemes make it interesting. This keep one guessing on what is actually happened and what is developed by the boy in his own mind. Very lyrical, very engaging and often symbolic ( severing of lizards tails, the old dog as watch guard being killed, the speaking foetus) writing. Fascinating work.

This Catalan writer ( writes in Spanish), won the Cervantes Prize ( called Spanish Nobel) in 2008, is not as widely read in English. I couldn't find many references of this book in the web. Nick Castor, who translated this book says "Marsé was under-read in English. He was fashionable in the 70s when he was translated quite a bit … but then he fell out of favour in translation,"

PS : The only complaint I have is the font size. One need a magnifier to read these pages , printed in font size < 1.

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Lizard Tails ( 1988)

Juan Marse ( translated from Spanish by Nick Caistor 2003)

Vintage Books

231 Pages
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World Without Borders

All Souls - Javier Marias

Javier Marias is one of those writers I have never managed to read, all these years, despite many recommendations. This book might not be the best place to start, but it is all that I could get my hands on. Marias have spent two years during the 80s teaching Spanish at Oxford as a visiting professor. This book is a result of his experience and life there. Oxford is a typical boring academic town with its pretentious life with eccentric, and lethargic, uninteresting people. Protagonist of this novel ( if one can call it so), is also a Spaniard teaching at Oxford on a two year assignment and the book is based on his interactions with some of the entertaining characters in the academic circle and around.

This is not a story per se. Its a loosely collated details about various interesting, colorful and being at a place like Oxford, slightly off beat individuals that the protagonist had acquainted. In that count, this is not a full length novel with a definite story line with any moments of twists or turns, nor does it have any subtle undercurrents of sustained emotions.

One of the ongoing thread of this book is an illicit affair the protagonist has with one of the academic of Oxford , whom he met during a "high table" dinner. Also, his wandering around the small time second hand book shops in search of the books of few obscure English writers. However the novel is more threads through a collection of individual portraits some of the characters. This include a couple of homo sexual professors, economist specialized in 18th century tax structure, professor of literature who writes horror novels, another academic and Russian expert who is suspected to be a spy, second hand book sellers, plump chicks of neighboring towns at the pub, members of some exotic writer society, among others.

The writing is brilliant ; crisp and satirical . Episodic progression through one character to the other with a detached clarity and observation keeping the interests of the reader alive through out the reading. Dry humor, touch of pathos ( there are no happy or positive lives around barring the narrator), and sensitive and touchy characters and encounters.

Unlike a regular novel, there are no build up or development of characters or theme. However, he handles the subject and the characters very delicately. I don't think there will be consensus among the reading community about this novel. But on the whole I liked the novel for the shear sensitivity of the writing.

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All Souls ( 1989 )

Javier Marias ( Translated by Margeret Jull Costs yr.1992)

Vintage

210 Pages
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Nada - Carmen Laforet

Nada, means nothing in Spanish, is considered a modern literary classic in Spanish. Written in 1944, the first novel of the celebrated writer Carmen Laforet, at a young age of 23. The book has become an instant hit and was soon adapted to a film under the same name. There was another film version of the same novel by an Argentine director. The book in discussion is the new translation by Edith Grossman, released last year. There had been two earlier translations of this book into English by Charles F. Payne (in 1964) and Glafyra Ennis (in 1993). The book also has a good introduction of Laforet's writing and the early days of Franco regime by Mario Vargas Llosa.

Written after the devastating Spanish Civil war, during the initial days of the Franco Regime, this book reflects the Spanish society and its struggle and frustrations after the war. There is no war to be fought now, but the uneasy calm of the streets is now complimented the violent interior of the society.

Andrea, an 18 year old orphan arrives at Barcelona on a rainy day to pursue her education. She has to live in the mysterious house on Calle de Aribau, inhabited with her extended family. An artistic and depressed uncle Ramon , a controlling and single aunt Angustias, an abusive uncle painter Juan and his beautiful and gambler wife Gloria, Grand mother along with the maid and her dog lives in chaos and poverty. The house is on shambles and the skirmish and violence have shifted from the streets to inside of the house. There are no sympathy , closeness and endship among the members and Andrea had to endures the daily shouting , abusing , screaming, cursing rituals. She takes into wandering along the Barcelona streets in order to escape from all this and not to partake in the "actions" at home.

She befriends her classmates at the university and spends larger part of her time at her friend's place and on the streets of Barcelona. Aunt Angustias runs away from home to join the religious movement. Filth, violence, sadness and hunger controls the environment in the house as against the fun,food and freedom at the outside world. Laforet in her simple writing brings forward the differences in the middle class Spanish society and the outside world. During the one year of stay at their house, you also see the transform of an innocent eighteen year old girl from the village to an experienced, bold and strong woman. In other words, many critics view this as a coming of age novel.

According to this preview, Laforet's own life was similar to that of Andrea, and thus there seems to be many elements of her own life reflected in the events taken place in the novel. The struggled upbringing , away from her parents at Caymen Islands, her education in Barcelona etc are few examples. I get a feeling that the novel is more about the disintegration of the society and the depression, hope and disillusionment at the aftermath of the long civil war. Every character lives a life of isolation, trying to get out of this life, by running away or by taking their own life.

A very melancholic and sober novel, written as a first person narrative. A young woman from the remote village coming to Barcelona and trying to maintain her cool and sanity in a chaotic world.

Nada

Carmen Laforet

Translated by Edith Grossman

Contributor Mario Vargas Llosa

Modern Library, 2008

244 Pages

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