Babelia's critics analyze the latest book by Juan Tallón, entitled Rewind , in addition to titles by Martí Domínguez, John Updike, George Brewer, Álex Chico, a thematic anthology with poems about money and an epistolary that Émile Zola exchanged for years Paul Cezanne
REWIND Juan Tallón
During the reading of Rewind , one senses the existence of two novels. First, the one that reads: the reconstruction of a traumatic event (the explosion in a building in Lyon where young Erasmus students give a party) from the points of view of five survivors. Second, and what I say only in appearance is a paradox, one also guesses the novel that Tallon has not wanted to write. The causes of the explosion are treated in a tangential manner. And this choice, risky if we take as a model certain conventional narratives, is never perceived as a demerit of the novel. The reader does not miss anything. Read the full review of CARLOS PARDO here.
THE SPIRIT OF TIME. Martí Dominguez
After his novels about Voltaire, Buffon and Goethe, Martí Domínguez (Madrid, 1966), a doctor of biology and a professor of journalism, delves into the terrifying Hitlerian "sunset of the gods." Conceived as the autobiography of an Austrian scientist, animal scholar and akin to National Socialism (transcript of a real character), the novel recreates its paradoxical life path. Martí Domínguez firmly leads a story that is gaining more and more interest, and in which scientific theories give way to facts of World War II. Read the full review of LUIS FERNANDO MORENO CLAROS here.
MARRY ME. John updike
A mystery how posterity will behave with John Updike (Reading, Pennsylvania, 1932 - Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, 2009), but the thing is not to bet in his favor. If he were alive, it is more than likely that many would try to display his white rhino head on its walls and walls. It did not happen, even though, in his last years of life, the ban on him had already opened. The political correctness accused him of almost anything, opting to refuse any new delivery from him rather than tearing it apart. Read the full review of CARLOS ZANÓN here.
THE WITCH OF RAVENSWORTH. George brewer
The editorial warning that this is a Gothic novel translated for the first time into Spanish is still tempting. George Brewer is a semi-secret author born in Saint Martin-in-the-Fields in 1766. He published this novel in 1808, but it was in 1842 when his second edition returned it to the genre with remarkable recognition. It could well be said that Ravensworth's Witch is almost a summary of everything a gothic novel must contain, as if it were a guide. Here we have presented the elements of gender without the slightest dissimulation. Read the full review of JOSÉ MARÍA GUELBENZU here.
THE BODIES PARTIES. Alex Chico
A genre on horseback between sociology and self-fiction is imposed in the Spanish narrative. It is about combining personal experience and essay narrative. More often than not, the subject of these books is the author himself, who uses his memories. He usually starts from his own daily work, from a neighborhood or from a relative. All this, excuse to talk about another through oneself. This hybrid genre has sometimes given very good results. Read the full review of J. ERNESTO AYALA-DIP here
I WORK TO MY WORK, WITH MY MONEY I PAY. José Carlos Rosales
From the “damn parne” of the couplet, which made Maria de la O's existence bitter, to the “damn money” that Mr. Chinarro sang a few years ago, there is no doubt that the vile metal conditions our daily life and our cultural memory. In fact, there is no artistic expression immune to the magnetism of the word taboo. Borrowing a verse from Antonio Machado, I go to my work, with my paid money it is presented as a thematic anthology where José Carlos Rosales has gathered more than 90 poets of the Pan-Hispanic orb, from the Archpriest of Hita to two authors born in 1984: the Spanish Jesús Montiel and the Chilean Begoña Ugalde Pascual. Read here the entire review of LUIS BAGUÉ QUÍLEZ.
TAKE SIDES. Émile Zola / Paul Cézanne
Since childhood and over 30 years, the controversial and categorical Émile Zola and the geometric and sentimental Paul Cézanne maintained a friendship that adapted to any vicissitude. But the writer was famous, while the artist lived resigned inside his egg, limited by the impressionist nest in which the genuinely modern painter, Manet, excelled, which Zola never ceased to support from his column in L'Événement . In the correspondence that both maintained, art and life fulfilled an aesthetic sense and a naive but true vision of human relationships. Until the distancing occurred. Read here the whole review of ANGELA MOLINA.
