Dog Eyes

Joaquim G. Caturla, Dog Eyes, Valencia, Ed. 3i4, 2010

In 2006, Caturla said in an interview: “After the Season Man (2005), with a little rest, I’ve started writing a new novel. This is a contemporary story in which will address topics such as love and loneliness. With it I intend to close the trilogy that began with The House of Flowers (1999) and Season Man (2005), which developed stories in our city.. ” It is obvious that the writer of the book that warned us prepared. Four years later, because we can enjoy a novel that ennobles the Catalan-speaking Alicante, all from the lives and experiences of a protagonist who becomes a teacher in a secondary school in the city (Jorge Juan, no doubt) .

We are at the closing (or opening?) Of the trilogy about the Alicante city where Caturla began with the two novels mentioned above. On this occasion, the award received was the Narrative “Antonio Bru” of the City of Elche (2009). Similarly, we can find a lead story located in the birthplace of the author. Alicante becomes a close, daily and family. Despite local treatment, the merit of Caturla is the fact of getting a leave of internationalization in the depiction of the feelings of the characters. This included the realization of the anguish and suffering before death, with a hint of resignation to the tragedy created. The characters are thus a well-worked psychological profile that favors the understanding of their actions on the part of readers. This is the case of the two protagonists, Professor Lorenzo Planelles (which reminds us in its internal development in the protagonist of The House of Flowers, Amelia) and the student of Romanian origin, Petru Sandulescu. Caturla creates a suggestive parallel between the two teens in the past, the former, at present, the second, which is so central to understanding elements of history as the same title. A look of fear and loneliness, isolated dog, which is exactly the sentiment of the two characters.
Ultimately, a reading that is offered as a chronological journey to the center of the characters, starting from the initial appointment of the First Canto of Dante’s Divine Comedy, an entry in the dark forest, hell, that every human has before yes. A beautiful work, well done and attractive. A journey, in short, by the Catalan stronger narrative of the city of Alicante. A trip by the light of his writings, as the light of Alicante.