Guadalajara by Quim Monzó
My rating: 4/5 cats
wow.
i suspect this book will do really well when it comes out in july, because just by putting it up here on goodreads.com, i have had three requests to borrow/have my copy, and i didn’t even have to write an encouraging review for it or put up animal pictures to attract attention. but i will take care of that now, and my inbox will probably be flooded with “gimmies!!”
it’s quite good.
i am feeling like a lazy reviewer today—long week. but this was a perfect book to read during a long week, because it is a brief collection of fourteen stories, most of which are excellent. (i could not get into During the War but that was probably because i was exhausted and kept falling asleep on my lunch break and its vagueness made me even sleepier, but i plan to revisit this collection, so i will probably like it more on the second go-round)
some of the best stories take a familiar territory and just twist it slightly: a family tradition, a literary reference, an everyday decision—these become giant canvases for monzo to pick apart our personal foundations and tear down the walls we thought were private and safe. the best ones (sez me) are The Power of Words, Literature, Books and Strategies. oh, wait—and Lives of the Prophets. i am not going to tell you why i love these, because i think for these particular stories, the journey of discovery, or however you would say that if you were not a pompous asshole, is part of the fun of it. but i will give you the first line of every story, to give you a taste (that’s not reviewing, that’s typing). some will pull you in more forcefully than others.
Family Life: Armand ran into the workshop, making an engine noise with his mouth and stamping on the wood shavings on the floor so they crackled underfoot: the louder the better.
Outside the Gates of Troy: The wooden horse was finally completed, polished and varnished, at the break of day.
Helvetian Freedoms: Once again the son asks the father to tell him the same old story: exactly how grandfather placed the apple on his head, how he could agree without shaking with fear, and if it was really true that he wasn’t at all afraid.
Gregor: When the beetle emerged from his larval state one morning, he found he had been transformed into a fat boy.
A Hunger and Thirst for Justice: The fact that he had been born into an aristocratic family didn’t mean Robin Hood couldn’t hate social inequality.
A Day Like Any Other: The compulsive liar has spent an hour on his terrace, soaking up the sun.
Life Is So Short: The man runs towards the third elevator that has just started to close; he manages to stick his right foot into the small space that’s still open, which is enough to make the two sides of the door immediately shoot open.
The Power of Words: While they set his table, the man waiting at the restaurant bar talks to himself.
Literature: He keys in the last sentence with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
Centripetal Force: The man has unsuccessfully been trying to leave his apartment since daybreak; whenever he opens the door, the same thing happens: he can’t see the landing, only the hallway he’s trying to leave at that exact moment.
Strategies: As soon as the examiner opens the door, the distinctly pale-skinned candidate slips through the crowd of other candidates who are clogging up the doorway.
The Lives of the Prophets: The man gets up, eyes sparkling, breathing feverishly, with one aim in mind: to reveal to the world what has just been revealed to him.
During the War: War broke out mid-morning.
Books: There are four books on the passionate reader’s table. All waiting to be read.
that one gets two sentences because it is my favorite story, because i can relate so well to it: being overwhelmed by the number of books to be read, and having to make the difficult choice of which one to read next, and what the consequences of that choice will be.
a lot of these stories involve thought-holes, loopholes, overthinkers. and i love it when a book successfully depicts what those moments are like—the clamorous stream-of-consciousness freezing all action until the body can adjust, and pick out one response from all the noise. big heart-on for that. but if you hate that, it is not in every story—many of them are very clean-prose stories with very little internal debate, just action: cause and effect.
definitely a success of a book, and another success for open letter.
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