La perla

La perla, John Steinbeck, Barcelona, Vicens Vives, 1995 (1947)

Aquesta és una novel·la lírica, amb un rerefons llegendari, que sorprén per la seua cohesió i força al lector. Al voltant de la descoberta d’una perla, l’autor nord-americà ofereix les peripècies d’un pobre pescador indígena que es rebel·la davant d’una societat materialista que intenta aprofitar-se’n. Kino, el pescador, no ho aconseguirà, de manera que el seu conflicte interior, motivat i augmentat per la pressió social, el portarà a rebutjar el valor d’aquesta joia.

Caldria reflexionar sobre la voluntat moralista o didàctica de l’escriptor, que ofereix una relativització dels conceptes de justícia social, tot i que la imatge que ofereix de la dona, l’esposa de Kino, no es presenta, en absolut, igualitària. Ella esdevé el llast del passat, del sentit conservador de la vida. Tan sols ell es mostra com el lluitador, el rebel sense causa que intenta nadar contra corrent.

Tot i l’ambientació rural de la novel·la, és força suggerent la definició que ofereix de la ciutat a partir dels ulls dels indígenes:

Una ciutat és molt semblant a un organisme. La ciutat té sistema nerviós, cap, espatlles i peus. La ciutat és un ens separat de totes les altres ciutats, per tant no n’hi ha dues d’idèntiques. I la ciutat és un tot emocional. (pàg. 37)

Aquesta és la història sobre la dignitat d’un poble oprimit, els indígenes mexicans, que recorda, sense cap dubte, al relat de Pere Calders, Aquí descansa Nevares (1980), una altra història sobre la recerca de la pròpia identitat i de la localització dels indígenes enmig de les seues tradicions i de la pressió del món occidentalitzat.

Hunting season for the black lion

Hunting season for the black lion, Tryno Maldonado, Barcelona, Anagram, 2009
After reading almost never (2009), also Mexican writer Daniel Sada, Maldonado discovered this book, also a finalist for the same award winning Sada Herralde Novel Award. Two books that drink what might be called dirty realism, ie a vision of the everyday gray or black, filled with elements of violence and extreme situations, no doubt reflecting the conflict that permeates a prominent part of society in that country . An image that the writers of that country as well as the previous reading of Roger Guedea, Driving a trailer (2008), want to offer with the intention of showing what there is yet to denounce the excesses of characters in constant tension .
Tryno Maldonado’s book is different.

Random House

Random House by Rogelio Guedea, Mexico, Mondadori, 2008
I met the author at a conference in Melbourne of Hispanic literatures in July 2oo8. Right after he published his first novel, an evolution in his career marked by poetry and the micro-narratives. A jump to the longest narrative genre within the limits of what we call Mexican dirty realism. The history is constructed through several characters Bulmaro uprooted, the brother of Corona, who murdered boy Cecilio, in retaliation for the invasion of his property with another herd. Then Ishmael, brother of the first two, died in revenge of the former deceased. This will initiate a carefree path of the protagonist, Crown, on places like Guadalajara, Concepcion del Oro, Sabinas Hidalgo, Villa Hidalgo and Tepic, highly evocative spaces for knowledge. So, you know the driver of trailers, Rodolfo Alanis, who will learn various life experiences:

“Driving a trailer is put in the right hands. You never know if it will or not. And how or when.” (P. 111-112).

Crown will continue to be pursued by Cecilio’s family, forcing her nomadism always spaces marked by violence, corruption and impunity.
One feature to consider is the novel use of language, with great force and much appeal (with some finding as Congal, referring to brothels). With an excellent combination of the time axis with the intermittent development of the facts (a combination of past and present without any conflict) is progressing reading nonsense.

Almost never

Almost never, Daniel Sada, Barcelona, Anagram, 2008
This is one of the prominent authors in the Salon du Livre Paris (March 2009), which this year gave the sample to the new Mexican literature, a good opportunity to meet authors like Sada, representatives of which critics have called dirty realism. Violence, sex, erotica and extreme situations.

All this in a realistic frame story which reflects the daily life of Mexico’s most brutal and adversarial. A public interest in a type of reading that had considerable success following the publication of 2666 (2008) by Roberto Bolaño.
This is the story of an agronomist, Demetrio Sordo, who initially presented a humdrum life as an agricultural technician in a ranch of Oaxaca. Nevertheless, he decides to seek sex in a brothel in the vicinity where you will discover Mireya. His mother, concerned that she is not married, I will go to a wedding in Sacramento, where he met Renata, his future wife. To his desire to reconcile the two accounts, the novel will grow to build extreme situations in which the characters will not poderles control. The passages of the brothels are very chromatic and visual masterpieces, however, the history, starting with a very suggestive approach, decays as it progresses, especially in the final resolution.
Include the construction of the narrator, a foreign individual who is rude, funny, incisive, and ironic. It is he who gives reality dirtiest, most rogue and suggestive. We could say that the cleaner, just have some interest.