«A stealthy heart. Life of Josep Pla”, by Xavier Pla. DESTINATION. 1,568 pages, 34.90 euros ★★★★
Josep Pla, capable of sell your soul to the Devil for literature
Not so unsociable, not so distant or clueless. Xavier Pla publishes a fantastic profile of the writer that is original even in its form
By Jesus FERRER
There is a type of writer who, beyond his excellence, makes his social dimension a legend; Just think of Borges, Cela or Umbral. Occurring “boutades”, surprising extravagances and unusual incidents mask the authentic personality of those who made literature of their own lives. This is also the case of the most influential Catalan prose writer of the last century, Josep Pla (1897-1981). One of the leading specialists in his work, Xavier Pla, publishes a biography that brilliantly distances himself from the conventional methodology of this genre, because the work is a demystifying look at the vital core of the brilliant author of “The Gray Notebook.” For years he built his image as a clueless peasant, distant and sullen individualist, unfortunate bachelor and enslaved journalist, when in reality he was a shrewd observer of his surroundings, sensitive and tender in the family environment, a happily reciprocated lover, and one of the most recognized chroniclers. and best paid of his time. These and other references are supported by exhaustive documentation that has not been consulted until now. His feverish search for the ideal adjective, the modernization of Catalan prose, his highly estimable work in Spanish and his defense of realism make up a convulsive aesthetic graphomania: «Pla is a Faustian character. He is willing to make a pact with the devil in exchange for being a writer. He is always ready to sell his soul if he gets literature and world recognition in return. The figure of Faust obsesses him. To what extent is it projected into it? Ambition, obsession and dissatisfaction go hand in hand.
Allied collusion
It is known that Pla collaborated with Franco’s espionage services during the Civil War, but it is no less true, and it is documented here, that in the post-war period he contacted British and American diplomatic entities in clear allied collusion. This is an exemplary biography that shrewdly penetrates the hidden heart of such an extraordinary writer.
▲The best: The conjunction in the book between investigative rigor and expository amenity
▼The worst: Little negative to point out, it is a very complete and detailed biography
“Hard as water” Yan Lianke. EDITORIAL AUTOMATIC. 492 pages, 28 euros ★★★★★
Eviscerating Mao through censorship
Yan Lianke, another censored in China, eviscerates Mao and his revolt and fictionalizes the tragedy hidden by the regime that governs today
By Diego GANDARA
It is curious but not so curious: one of the most read Chinese writers in the world is not published in his country for the simple reason that each of his books (almost twenty novels and a few short stories) are censored or banned by the regime. communist. But it is the same, because Yan Lianke’s work, despite the obstacles and obstacles, reaches readers in his country in any way, and not only that: it transcends borders and reaches others in all languages, especially, in Spanish.
Born in Henan in 1958, Yan Lianke has a production that, in addition to being profuse, is diverse, given that none of his books are similar to each other and they tend to change form in each installment, although the essence he maintains is always the same: a critical tone, sometimes satirical and other times mocking, about contemporary China, as varied and diverse as the work of Yan Lianke. Further proof of this is “Hard as Water”, a novel originally published in 2001 and in which the author of “Lenin’s Kisses” and “The Dream of Ding Village” offers a story that, far from being moving, Rather, it shows the dark side of an illusion that, if it becomes collective, runs the risk of becoming a dream or a nightmare.
Thus, “Hard as Water” immerses itself in real time: the late sixties, during the Cultural Revolution promoted by Mao. A soldier named Gao Aijun, who is demobilized from the People’s Liberation Army, returns to his house with one wish: to continue making the revolution. He is young. He is only twenty-six years old and has his future ahead of him.
Madness and obsession
But as he heads home, on the side of the road he meets Hongmei, a married woman who also dreams of leading the ongoing Cultural Revolution. But the adventure they will embark on will not be an epic and revolutionary love adventure, but will have a lot of madness and obsession. A novel that dazzles for its slow tone but also for the powerful images that paint the story, it has the tragicomic flavor that great adventures sometimes have, although it hides within it a shrewd criticism of the alienating mechanisms of ideologies.
▲The best: His secret intention to show that horror is the shadow of good intentions
▼The worst: At times the protagonist’s journey becomes somewhat tedious for the reader.
“Where the arrow falls”, Rosa Belmonte and Emilia Landaluce. ESPASA. 360 pages, 20.90 euros ★★★★
Rosa Belmonte and Emilia Landaluce, the “noir” goes hunting
The two writers continue their saga with a second installment that improves on the first and opens up great expectations for it.
By Angeles LOPEZ
This new installment by journalist Socorro Núñez has charms. What’s more, it looks like it was sewn by hand and without basting. That is because the authors have “paid the seamstress” and have left no loose ends. If in the previous novel she had a body, limbs, thorax and head, in this one she has curves. We already knew that she was an honest pen of events, not inclined to sensationalism and declassed because her mother is the cook for the owners of the newspaper where she works. Now we find her more focused on her profession, although still avoiding the work pressures inherent in any newsroom… and avoiding her love affair with a married man. Shattered, yes, but like any Norman Foster tower, she is building herself up. When he decides to investigate the suicide of an infanticide murderer, unsolved for thirty years, he only has two things in mind: discover who the culprits who escaped were and assume his declassification to return to his family’s town in La Mancha, where the Lequericas, owners of the newspaper that feeds him, they have a farm where they invite potential investors to hunt.
like an exorcism
The two authors – I will never understand how to write with four hands – advance as if they were practicing an exorcism; Thus, they increasingly pay more attention to the prose and details than to the plot –Henry James forgive me–. All aspects related to hunting (reviled as bulls: someone explain to me the reasons) are described, as well as the life of a journalist forced to endure pressure and inept bosses. And all without losing the perspective of the enigma novel. Not black, not noir, not polar, in the purest police style… Because: what is “black”, but the sociology of shadows? That is the aristocracy of those who have read and know how to write. If the second installment surpasses the first, I don’t want to imagine what the next one will be like.
▲The best: It is a homogeneous and compact novel about a world of losers.
▼The worst: Hate, with pain, those who quote Gil de Biedma and discover Chaves Nogales and Gay Talese
“The Year of the Locust” Terry Hayes. PLANET. 848 pages, 23.90 euros ★★★★
Terry Hayes, so many years have been worth it
Ten years later the writer of “I’m Pilgrim” returns with a captivating novel and an outcome that is undoubtedly risky.
By Lluís FERNÁNDEZ
Ten years after his literary debut with “I Am Pilgrim” (2015), which was enormously successful, Terry Hayes has returned with his second spy novel: “The Year of the Locust.” Too long, without a doubt, have waited the many fans who fell under the spell of his spectacular debut among the wasteland of authors of the relevance of Robert Ludlum, Frederick Forsyth, John le Carré and Eric Ambler.
Of “I am Pilgrim”, LA RAZÓN said in a review: “Pilgrim is a crime novel spy, educated, aristocratic, with a sense of humor, cold and heartless when the situation requires it and with a prodigious mind to correctly define a more beyond the crime scene or to anticipate the most complex criminal action of his opponent, El Saracen, defined more by his fanaticism than by his psychology. A witty and thoughtful bioterrorist like Eric Ambler. “Pilgrim’s misogyny would be the biggest difference between him and James Bond.”
New adversaries
Based on these characteristics, the two spies who face each other, the CIA agent Kane and the terrorist Al-Tundra, are barely different from the opponents in “I Am Pilgrim.” Both stories combine the spy novel with the unlikely but effective action thriller. With a more than leisurely style, slow to the point of exhaustion. With moments of vibrant suspense and endless skids that slow down the story until it disappears in its endless 848 pages. He may have humanized the two opponents, but the religious fanatic is still a bioterrorist hooked on his divine mission, while the agent who works for the CIA cares for the weakest to the point of endangering his mission and also his life. .
Terry Hayes remains a dazzling novelist of international intrigue. As it is not appropriate to gut the novel, divided into four parts: the first, vibrant, the second and third, undoubtedly superb, and the last, however, bordering on the indescribable, the reader must arm himself with patience if he wants to know that surprising ending.
▲The best: The first part of the book, full of intense moments of suspense and action
▼The worst: The final part, unusual due to a gender change that is completely unpredictable
