'The last time', by Guillermo Martínez: a labyrinth with a miraculously unpredictable ending

Anyone who has read any of the novels by Argentine writer Guillermo Martínez, from

(1993), through

(2004), and up to

(2007 and recently turned into a film by Neflitx ) or

(Nadal Award 2019), will recognize his sense of expressive clarity and the rigorous nature of his psychological representations.

He will also see in these fictions the Cartesian drawing of its plots, where the winding, the labyrinthine always points to the light of its miraculously unpredictable endings.

He is now back on track with a new novel,

.

In

three stories are cited, one main, under which another is hidden;

and a third, divided, in turn, into two more.

In the first, let's say vertebral, it begins with a first-person voice that introduces us to the main actors of the novel.

We are told of a very prestigious Argentine novelist who has a finished novel but does not want to publish it until the critic Merton, also a prestigious Argentine, first passes sentence on him.

And above all, the renowned novelist wants Merton, famous for his inclement judgments, to discover the ultimate truth of the book: the story of a writer who is sick to death, who maintains a furtive relationship with the woman who cares for him. .

The person acting as an intermediary is a famous literary agent, Montse Monclús (the same agent who appears in José Donoso's novel,

).

Between Monclús and Morgana, the writer's wife, they agree to receive Merton in the writer's luxurious house.

Meanwhile, they give him the novel that Merton must decipher until he gets to his crucial issue.

The writer is convinced that no one, both praiseworthy and hostile critics, ever reach that long-awaited revelation.

Only Merton can succeed in discovering that truth, whose other side is a lie.

The other novel within that one is the one woven by Merton, Morgana and Marvi, her daughter and the writer.

A love planning on Merton, the close sensuality of Morgana, the wish achieved.

Mavi is the Lolita who never goes beyond provocative and rebellious naivety.

I am an admirer of the work of Guillermo Martínez.

The almost mathematical invention, the skin-deep homage to beauty, the unattainable and the tactile come together in it.

And finally, I would say that there is a kind of Hegelian revelation (which this critic cannot undress for the reader), with which Merton maneuvers to get closer to that final truth that he has to share with his owner.

Visit the prestigious writer and speculate with Merton.

It is very worth it.

Find it in your bookstore

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