Amin Maalouf warns of the dangers that threaten the West

Maalouf unravels the origin of the global political crisis

In “The Labyrinth of the Lost” he explains the threats that loom over the West and the dangers that await on the horizon.

By Toni Montesinos

Nowadays, books about catastrophic current events and predictions that lead us to think of a dystopian end occur non-stop. Thus, the apocalyptic has permeated the field of geopolitics even though, as Steven Pinker would say, we are in a society with the least number of war conflicts. Amin Maalouf has been analyzing this geopolitical scenario with particular lucidity and now says, in “The Labyrinth of the Lost” (translation by María Teresa Gallego Urrutia and Amaya García Gallego) that “humanity today is going through one of the most dangerous periods of his story”.

Such negativity is based on the fact that what is happening is unprecedented and comes from previous confrontations between the West and its adversaries. Thus, it analyzes three significant cases: imperial Japan, Soviet Russia and China. Assuming that we are in the midst of the decline of the West, and that the dominance of the United States is still predominant, the Lebanese author affirms that we are experiencing a political and moral bankruptcy, and that in general all countries are in a kind of labyrinth in which they are lost

The issue of identity

However, he highlights the successes that societies with the Confucian tradition have achieved at this time, both economically and educationally, and believes that the monotheistic society is pernicious when considering the unhealthy link that has been established between religion and a word. as fashionable as “identity” usually is. In the countries that make up East Asia, this identity would not be based on faith, which is why he examines the Chinese terrain in search of inspiration for the West. Likewise, the book connects with the present by providing an epilogue in which it reflects on how in 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and the way in which Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met in pursuit of outlining a possible new world order to establish.

“The Labyrinth of the Lost” by Amin Maalouf. Alliance. 376 pages, 23.50 euros

The controversial Bobby Fischer, in Fidel Castro’s Cuba

The writer Mayra Montero weaves a skillful plot of love based on the controversial player’s visit to Havana in 1966.

By Jesus Ferrer

Fictions that fuse emotional sentimental plots with turbulent historical facts result in extraordinary narrative effectiveness. The social backgrounds and drives of the characters come together in fables of undoubted interest. This is what the Cuban woman rooted in Puerto Rico, Mayra Montero, has achieved with “The Afternoon that Bobby Didn’t Come Down to Play,” a novel that integrates melodrama, historical context, ethical dilemmas, hazardous situations and surprising outcomes. This fiction takes as its pretext the figure of the chess player Bobby Fischer, who, beyond his recognized mastery of the game, would become a morbid legend due to his atrabiliary anti-Semitism and his confrontation with the American government. At the height of his fame, he visits Cuba in 1966 to play in a tournament; The expectation will be maximum and that event will constitute the link between two passionate love stories.

Rapturous delusions

On the one hand, and in the midst of Castroism, the fascination of the teenager Miriam, a transcript of the author, towards the famous chess player and, on the other, a decade before and during the Batista dictatorship, the love that the Cuban Mario feels for his mother of the controversial chess player. In the context of such different historical periods, two passionate delusions develop with their consequent burden of implicit suffering. As time goes by, Miriam will learn that Mario “had been very in love with Fischer’s mother. Suddenly, everything made sense: his efforts to get his son to sign a board; her interest in knowing if she had returned to Havana during those days of the Olympics; her latent, corrosive, eternal unhappiness. Here she explores the pain of frustrated love affairs, sentimental disagreements and rejected emotions. These pages show the lives of beings tormented by loving sensitivity, faced with the ups and downs of historical processes that will mark them forever. It is said that the past always comes back, this excellent novel proves it amply.

“The afternoon Bobby didn’t come down to play”, by Marya Montero. Tusquets. 285 pages. 21.90 euros

A story set in Formula 1 that drifts

The writer Paola Boutellier puts the fifth gear and frames a detective novel in the world of racing

By Lluís FERNÁNDEZ

It is not usual for a detective novel to have a Formula 1 competition as its backdrop, and even less so for that novel to be Spanish. It is clear that its author, Paola Boutellier from Malaga, is passionate about racing and she knows first-hand the world of drivers and the network that surrounds them. At least she has studied it in depth and every time she talks about it it turns out to be quite plausible. A different matter is the police plot concocted, so weak, that it prefers to focus on the competition, the incidents on the track and the details of the engineers and mechanics that surround it rather than developing the detective intrigue.

Bringing the reader up to date with how Formula 1 races are organized is essential to situate the action, but it is even more important that it does not drown out the intrigue you have thought up, since it is a crime novel. Pages and more pages full of information about the haughty character of the pilots, their quarrels and the fights between them make the reader forget that he is reading a detective novel.

Lightness of the plot

Because in the novel “The Last Turn” a crime is committed and the protagonist tries to find the culprit. And in the end she seems to find it. But the lightness of the plot and the lack of suspense manage to disinterest the most predisposed reader. Furthermore, if to this lack of tension is added a narrative that, due to its naivety, fluctuates between the fotonovela and old sports comics, “The Last Turn” will only be of interest to Formula 1 fans. To the rest, They will entertain the description of the races, the life-or-death challenges on the track and what it is like to experience in the pits, the strategies to take in the face of adverse weather or car skidding. In the midst of this succession of incidents, Paola Boutellier does achieve the suspense that, on the contrary, criminal intrigue lacks. Too bad, because the idea is very good.

“The last turn”, by Paola Boutellier. Backlighting. 360 pages, 19.50 euros

The future has already arrived and has caused irreparable harm

Slavoj Žižek, always so controversial, launches a very interesting analysis that advocates assuming that the worst has already come

By Diego GANDARA

You never know what the future will bring or what shape the world will take in its incessant evolution. But, for now, one thing is very clear: between those dreams of hope for a better world to the lack of future raised by the punks and the end of history proposed by postmodernism, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge and today, The future, to which we look so much, is something else: it is no longer something that is expected but something that is intuited. And because? Because the future not only has already arrived. But, furthermore, it has ceased to exist. That is, more or less, the premise from which this new book by the famous, and controversial, Slavoj Žižek called “Too Late to Wake Up” begins, in which the corrosive Slovenian thinker announces something as striking as the lack of future and appeals to the need to do everything again. Not because the world aspires to something better, but because, since the catastrophe has already occurred, there is only one thing left: to start again. That is: assuming that the damage has already been done and that the damage, therefore, can be much greater than we expect.

Global symptoms

What are those damages? What are these signs that the catastrophe has already occurred, that the future is no longer what is expected but something that does not exist? For Žižek, who does not stop taking the pulse of the world’s movement, these signs are evident: the ecological collapse, the economic chaos, the social and global crisis, Russia’s attack on Ukraine and the permanent symptom that we are on our way, again, to a future third world war. “What if the only way to avoid a catastrophe is to assume that it has already happened, that five minutes have passed after zero hour?” Žižek boldly asks. The only solution, the philosopher seems to respond, is not to think about the future and the uncertain destiny that awaits us, but rather about a continuous present where the future and its tears have already arrived. And besides, it’s been a while.