Manuel Vilas

Manuel Vilas seems to have set out on a kind of Proustian project to recapture elusive moments of joy in his protagonist's memories of what he presents as a very ordinary Spanish life. The narrator, whom we met in Vilas' earlier novel Ordesa, has been surprised by the runaway success of a memoir/novel he wrote about his parents, and is now chasing around the world on a hectic schedule of lectures, interviews and book-signings, writing in short chapters from a series of hotel rooms in different cities and countries.

He agonises about odd noises and smells, changes rooms three times before he is happy, worries about insomnia and fights off his inner demons. These demons are whimsically personified as "Arnold Schoenberg": as in Ordesa, all the main characters are given the names of great composers, so that his parents are Bach and Wagner, his sons Bra(hms) and (Vi)Valdi, and his wife Mo(zart). Until the last few chapters, when an encounter with an old friend of his father's leads him to recast them all as Hollywood stars...

It's an interesting mix of postmodern reflexive autofiction with nostalgic celebrations of cosy domesticity: the narrator is clear that his greatest happiness in life comes from his love for his late parents on the one hand, and his sons on the other. Everything else is secondary to that, including the success of his book and his happy second marriage with Mo. I think it mostly works, the narrator is tough enough on himself to avoid it becoming too cosy, but just occasionally it feels a bit self-indulgent and sentimental.… (more)

Alegría
Manuel Vilas
Publicado: 2019 | 341 páginas
Novela Realista

Finalista Premio Planeta 2019. Desde el corazón de su memoria, un hombre que arrastra tantos años de pasado como ilusiones de futuro, ilumina, a través de sus recuerdos, su historia, la de su generación y la de un país. Una historia que a veces duele, pero que siempre acompaña. El éxito desbordante de su última novela embarca al protagonista en una gira por todo el mundo. Un viaje con dos caras, la pública, en la que el personaje se acerca a sus lectores, y la íntima, en la que aprovecha cada espacio de soledad para rebuscar su verdad. Una verdad que ve la luz después de la muerte de sus padres, su divorcio y su vida junto a una nueva mujer, una vida en la que sus hijos se convierten en la piedra angular sobre la que pivota la necesidad inaplazable de encontrar la felicidad. A medio camino entre la confesión y la autoficción, el autor escribe una historia que toma impulso en el pasado y se lanza hacia lo aún no sucedido. Una búsqueda esperanzada de la alegría.… (more)