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maripecc's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
anator10's review against another edition
I liked the writing but it gets very tiring and the story didn't grabbed me so I never wanted to pick it up again to finish it
ileniazodiaco's review against another edition
2.0
Una pantagruelica pippa mentale, condita da un fraseggio elegante, alcune riflessioni sulla morte abbastanza sentenziose da essere inserite sui social con l’ottica di rimorchiare e commenti misogini lanciati come coriandoli il martedì grasso. Il protagonista ha l’empatia di un bulbo non ancora interrato, è uno stalker ossessionato dalle nuche e dalle cosce delle ragazze, celando il tutto dietro una preoccupante pedanteria per Shakespeare. Il problema è che non è l'unico uomo così all'interno del libro.
Concedo a Marias ancora qualche altro tentativo perché voglio credere che la creazione di personaggi di scolo non rifletta la sua personalità come autore. Spero che sia solo il classico romanzo ombelicale di ogni grande scrittore in crisi da esercizio di stile.
P.S. Trovo esilarante che questa sia una delle citazioni più famose del libro: «Ciò che commuove di più, in un romanzo, è riconoscere situazioni ed emozioni vere che sapevi ma non sapevi di sapere». Quando letteralmente spero nella vita di non provare mai nemmeno un’ombra dell’incuranza del narratore che confonde tute le emozioni degli altri con le sue, abbassando la prospettiva sempre su un unico piano: quella del suo bassoventre.
Concedo a Marias ancora qualche altro tentativo perché voglio credere che la creazione di personaggi di scolo non rifletta la sua personalità come autore. Spero che sia solo il classico romanzo ombelicale di ogni grande scrittore in crisi da esercizio di stile.
P.S. Trovo esilarante che questa sia una delle citazioni più famose del libro: «Ciò che commuove di più, in un romanzo, è riconoscere situazioni ed emozioni vere che sapevi ma non sapevi di sapere». Quando letteralmente spero nella vita di non provare mai nemmeno un’ombra dell’incuranza del narratore che confonde tute le emozioni degli altri con le sue, abbassando la prospettiva sempre su un unico piano: quella del suo bassoventre.
tonythep's review against another edition
4.0
When Marta dies suddenly in his arms, Victor must decide what to do: Call Marta's husband, who is away on business? Take care of her young son who sleeps in the next room? Or simply flee, and remain anonymous. What follows is an exquisite and excruciating deliberation on the nature of relationships, identity, storytelling, time, life and death. Marias is particularly expert at stretching out a moment in time and examining it from every angle. This takes a bit of patience, but is well worth the effort.
andytorino's review against another edition
5.0
"It's so easy to live in a state of delusion, indeed, it is our natural condition."
dajna's review against another edition
3.0
Domani nella battaglia pensa a me: attorno a una dotta citazione di Shakespeare si sviluppa un'eccellente scrittura, che esalta per un breve periodo dei personaggi banali o meschini.
Marta, la vittima, diventa un pretesto per accompagnare il suo mancato amante attraverso alcuni giorni molto "densi". La stessa scrittura è densa: periodi lunghi, mancanza di capitoli o interruzioni ben definiti, mi sono trovata a leggere a scatti: difficile iniziare, ma una volta cominciato è più difficile interrompersi.
I personaggi sono orrendi, nella loro quotidianità. Si arriva alla fine a capire che il più orrendo è Dean, il marito, l'unico che ha un vero segreto da condividere. Le altre vicende sono paranoie, gelosie, arrivismo. Dal grande politico che mi ricorda l'Innominato manzoniano, alle ragazze del suo entourage che si lasciano andare sboccate alle corse di cavalli; dai finti scrittori ad ancor più finti relatori. Forse il padre di Marta è l'unico a mostrare un sentimento sincero, nel ripensare alla figlia morta.
Per il resto si tratta di un gioco delle parti, quasi un flusso di coscienza. Pensieri su pensieri, considerazioni sui passanti, conclusioni affrettare basate su abbigliamento o contesto o ambiente. Molto umano.
Marta, la vittima, diventa un pretesto per accompagnare il suo mancato amante attraverso alcuni giorni molto "densi". La stessa scrittura è densa: periodi lunghi, mancanza di capitoli o interruzioni ben definiti, mi sono trovata a leggere a scatti: difficile iniziare, ma una volta cominciato è più difficile interrompersi.
I personaggi sono orrendi, nella loro quotidianità. Si arriva alla fine a capire che il più orrendo è Dean, il marito, l'unico che ha un vero segreto da condividere. Le altre vicende sono paranoie, gelosie, arrivismo. Dal grande politico che mi ricorda l'Innominato manzoniano, alle ragazze del suo entourage che si lasciano andare sboccate alle corse di cavalli; dai finti scrittori ad ancor più finti relatori. Forse il padre di Marta è l'unico a mostrare un sentimento sincero, nel ripensare alla figlia morta.
Per il resto si tratta di un gioco delle parti, quasi un flusso di coscienza. Pensieri su pensieri, considerazioni sui passanti, conclusioni affrettare basate su abbigliamento o contesto o ambiente. Molto umano.
brannigan's review against another edition
3.0
I've been a Marías fan for a while and I have read the best part of his oeuvre. I love his style, his winding way with words, his use of repetition and reiteration and run-ons that at once captivate you and liltingly lull you into fuzzy hypnosis. But for me, Tomorrow in the Battle is probably his most disappointing work. Not to say it doesn't have its redeeming qualities.
What does one do when a married woman, with whom you are about to begin an affair, unexpectedly falls dead in your arms? Are you obliged to tell anyone, or leave like you were never there? What do you do about her infant son: leave him in the apartment with his mother's corpse? And so begins our novel. True to form, as Marías' characters are thoroughly normal (if slightly obsessive) people, to whom mildly remarkable things happen.
We are so totally transported into the head of the narrator that the very prose is claustrophobic, unbroken paragraphs running on for several pages as he pours out the contents of his fevered mind. What we have is far from a plot-driven novel, but rather a string of existential ruminations bound loosely together by first-person recounts of distant memories and unreliably sketched encounters. This has worked wonderfully in Marías' other novels, most notably [b:A Heart So White|529075|A Heart So White|Javier Marías|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348288671s/529075.jpg|782039]. In this novel, however, I think Marías overestimates the profundity of his observations, and what plot there is did not grip me as tight as it should, so I found my eyes glazing and skimming pages.
There are, though, some gems in this mire. There is a fascinatingly surreal chapter where our narrator picks up a prostitute and drives her around trying to work out whether or not she is his ex-wife. You can sense his confusion as identity and form and memory dissolve. I've felt this. We remember names, but faces not so much; there are some faces that become blurred in absence, and we become almost frightened to attempt to recall them.
There is also a passage that reflects on the English verb "to haunt": this verb doesn't exist in Spanish, and speakers of every language tend to mildly obsess over foreign words untranslatable in their own tongue. It's refreshing to have light shined on these everyday concepts from oblique angles. Interesting word, "haunt": it describes what ghosts do to places and people they visit; it also means an enchantment, a possession. Events and people and memories lodged in your mind, recurring unexpectedly, when lying, working, even when asleep. We never know when or if we will cease to be haunted, we all have our ghosts.
I don't know, maybe I was a little distracted reading this one, but I couldn't enjoy Tomorrow in the Battle as much as I'd anticipated. I know Marías has a habit of writing slightly absurd, caricature-ish characters, such as Custardoy in A Heart So White, and there were a couple in this novel: the womanising, tacky ghostwriter Ruiberríz, and the bumbling unnamed Royal 'One and Only'. If these were attempts at comic relief, they fell flat with me. Likewise, some aspects of the plot became too far-fetched, especially towards the end as our narrator became a little too stalker-y. But it's nice to go back to Marías every once in a while, if only to be so calmly and clearly reminded of the simple things that are the source of our angst: "it's unbearable that the people we know should suddenly be relegated to the past" (p. 126). Death, memory and ghosts; I haunt and am haunted.
What does one do when a married woman, with whom you are about to begin an affair, unexpectedly falls dead in your arms? Are you obliged to tell anyone, or leave like you were never there? What do you do about her infant son: leave him in the apartment with his mother's corpse? And so begins our novel. True to form, as Marías' characters are thoroughly normal (if slightly obsessive) people, to whom mildly remarkable things happen.
We are so totally transported into the head of the narrator that the very prose is claustrophobic, unbroken paragraphs running on for several pages as he pours out the contents of his fevered mind. What we have is far from a plot-driven novel, but rather a string of existential ruminations bound loosely together by first-person recounts of distant memories and unreliably sketched encounters. This has worked wonderfully in Marías' other novels, most notably [b:A Heart So White|529075|A Heart So White|Javier Marías|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348288671s/529075.jpg|782039]. In this novel, however, I think Marías overestimates the profundity of his observations, and what plot there is did not grip me as tight as it should, so I found my eyes glazing and skimming pages.
There are, though, some gems in this mire. There is a fascinatingly surreal chapter where our narrator picks up a prostitute and drives her around trying to work out whether or not she is his ex-wife. You can sense his confusion as identity and form and memory dissolve. I've felt this. We remember names, but faces not so much; there are some faces that become blurred in absence, and we become almost frightened to attempt to recall them.
There is also a passage that reflects on the English verb "to haunt": this verb doesn't exist in Spanish, and speakers of every language tend to mildly obsess over foreign words untranslatable in their own tongue. It's refreshing to have light shined on these everyday concepts from oblique angles. Interesting word, "haunt": it describes what ghosts do to places and people they visit; it also means an enchantment, a possession. Events and people and memories lodged in your mind, recurring unexpectedly, when lying, working, even when asleep. We never know when or if we will cease to be haunted, we all have our ghosts.
I don't know, maybe I was a little distracted reading this one, but I couldn't enjoy Tomorrow in the Battle as much as I'd anticipated. I know Marías has a habit of writing slightly absurd, caricature-ish characters, such as Custardoy in A Heart So White, and there were a couple in this novel: the womanising, tacky ghostwriter Ruiberríz, and the bumbling unnamed Royal 'One and Only'. If these were attempts at comic relief, they fell flat with me. Likewise, some aspects of the plot became too far-fetched, especially towards the end as our narrator became a little too stalker-y. But it's nice to go back to Marías every once in a while, if only to be so calmly and clearly reminded of the simple things that are the source of our angst: "it's unbearable that the people we know should suddenly be relegated to the past" (p. 126). Death, memory and ghosts; I haunt and am haunted.
lene_kretzsch's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
More deepities than depth. Disappointing.
jeghe's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0