English
According to the legend spread by the writer himself, when he was 17, Javier Marías went to Paris with the intention of spending the summer in a house owned by his uncle, the acclaimed cult director Jesús Franco, to write a totally imagined novel set in America. Taking advantage of the fact that his uncle was out of town, and living off a diet which basically consisted of bread and mustard, Marías developed a specific work discipline. He divided the day into three parts: during the morning, he stayed at the house (which was on 15, Freycinet) and wrote his book, in what he explains as a trance-like state, taking up in a room with a white piano, and cupboards full of erotic magazines.
Later, when the cinemas opened, he spent his afternoons going from one movie house to another, having a special preference for the Cinémathèque de Henri Langlois, where he would immerse himself in American films from the 1930s, 40s and 50s – which provided the sole source of inspiration for his novel. Then finally, at night time, he would hang out in the terraces of Champs-Élysées with his guitar, playing covers of Bob Dylan songs in the hope that passers by would take pity and chuck him a few coins.
The literary result of this time sojourn in Paris was Los dominios del lobo, a brilliant novel which was a celebrations – of the pleasure of story-telling through a tapestry of different stories, generations and classes.
Curiously, since then, Marías´ work has appeared to go increasingly in the opposite direction, and today, he is known throughout Europe for a series of memorable novels in which the external action is minimal, with a far stronger focus on reflection, digression, and processes of internal conscience – all of which are much more powerful for the reader than the flurry of adventure in his debut novel.
His most recent novel, Tu rostro mañana was initially published in three separate volumes – an example of Marías´ personality and seductive style as a writer, and started with the unsettling phrase, “No-one should ever say anything.” The mysterious warning doesn´t put off the reader though in finishing the extensive book; 1600 pages in which relatively little actually happens, with much of the action concentrated over two different nights, and very few characters.
Paul Oilzum
Javier Marías has just received the prestigious Austrian Prize for European Literature. It´s a good escuse to rent apartments in Vienna and explore some of its book shops and literary cafes – there are few places more scenic than the Austrian capital.
Translated by: Poppy
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