Andrés Mauricio Muñoz was born in Popayán 49 years ago. He has been the winner of important literary recognitions, including the UIS National Short Story Prize, in 2010; He was a finalist for the V edition of the Gabriel García Márquez Hispanic American Short Story Prize with his book There are days when we are gone (Seix Barral, 2017); and his novel The last ladies man (Seix Barral, 2016) was selected by the Colombian Narrative Library Award as one of the three best books of 2017. In addition, he is the author of the books Las Margaritas, story of a tiny man (Seix Barral, 2019), A place for Adela to pray (UdeA, 2015) and Minor Annoyances (UIS, 2010).
The Nasty Ones, published in 2023 by Seix Barral, is his latest novel. In this, Manuel Palomino, an engineer who works as an inventory manager in a warehouse at a grocery company, faces the fact of revisiting his life, taking stock of what he has achieved, while preparing to see his old university classmates. , a group called Los Desagradables, and whose lives he follows through WhatsApp. This character, who perceives himself as a tiny being, is a reflection of contemporary loneliness and the madness that underlies it like an invisible force, between animality and the search for meaning.
Ask. I think of The Nasty Ones as the result of an obsession that pursues his work: that of the small human being, faced with loneliness and a world that he cannot control, who feels increasingly defenseless in a hyperconnected, technological environment that demands more. What do you think about this?
Answer. This novel is a mixture of obsessions. On the one hand, what I have called contemporary burdens, how that loneliness, those frustrations of the usual man, are nuanced by the contemporaneity in which lives are exhibited in a showcase, as if they were there to show us what we have not seen. achieved, or to magnify our conquests. On the other hand, there is the obsession with portraying the tiny man that he had already addressed in The daisies. They are men who do not fit the stereotype of a strong, confident, conquering and tough man. Manuel Palomino, protagonist of The Nasty Ones, describes himself as a small-time man. The novel arises from this intersection of obsessions, but also from a conversation I overheard in a cafeteria, in which a man refused to go to a reunion of alumni and exhibited a lapidary reason: “Why am I going to go, if anything? “I haven’t done anything in my life.”
Q. Why did you choose a male character?
R. My goal is to portray that tiny man, not very confident, timid about life, intimidated by the possibility of love, who somehow feels overwhelmed by the other gender. Patricia Fierro is Palomino’s counterpart, subject to her own insecurities, which she overcomes through a mask that works very well for her socially. These men and women subjected to these new dynamics are the ones who nourish my literary work.
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Q. I am struck by the development of Palomino’s character, how, in search of an affirmation of his self-esteem, obsession and an animality emerge that lead to the twist at the end. Are we always on the verge of falling prey to our instincts?
R. A reader told me: “There are days when I wake up Palomino.” That character turned verb led me to believe that he had achieved the objective. We all, at some point in life or in some context, go through the type of questions that Palomino asks about what he has or has not achieved in life, or the reason for his lack of aspirations. I don’t think that we are all standing on that edge that you mention, but being on the edge of the cliff is not exclusive to someone in particular, because under certain considerations we can be standing there, without intuiting what will follow if we dare to take that step that dictates to us. instinct.
Q. Structurally, the novel corresponds to its genre, but it is very short, almost like a long story. I wonder if the length is something sought after, if he wanted to write a short novel, if he felt that was what the story called for, or if he feels influenced by a genre in which he has obtained many recognitions, such as the short story.
R. Within the short novel genre there are much shorter ones; Let’s say that this is halfway between the concept of nouvelle and the traditional novel in the sense of extension. I never conceive my projects thinking about gender. I think about stories, about characters. In this case, when I felt that I had gotten what he was looking for from Palomino, I considered that there was no point in extending it. I like it when readers discover what the true ending of the novel is, the one that is inferred from what is written, although to be strict, this novel does not have an open ending, but, on the contrary, quite closed.
Q. Regarding the story, his last book of stories was There are days when we are gone, 2018. Why this recent interest in the novel? Does it have to do with market demands?
R. Not at all. I have three books of short stories published and three novels published. But the story continues to predominate, because I have an unpublished book and I am in the process of writing another. For a long time I have refrained from writing motivated by circumstances that are not linked to what is strictly literary. I write stories, I conceive characters, and I discover the genre in the process of thinking to the point of exhaustion how to put it on paper. If I died tomorrow I would leave peacefully, not because I am considered a great writer or a box-office hit, but because I am certain that I have been faithful to the bet I made in writing.
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