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lortega's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
silviasbookreviews's review against another edition
4.0
Este libro te va a tener haunted desde la primera página. La premisa pinta bastante bien: un hombre que presencia la muerte de una mujer con la que estaba teniendo una aventura, a la que apenas conoce. Ello le lleva a reflexionar mucho sobre la fragilidad de la vida, sobre las diferentes formas de morir, y sobre cómo los demás se ven afectados por tal desgarradora noticia. Al no poderse quitar a aquella mujer de la cabeza —ni, desde luego, el trágico suceso que tiene lugar mientras está en la casa— el protagonista decide acercarse más a la familia de la muerta, conocerlos, para poder saber quiénes son y qué significaba para ellos.
Me ha gustado mucho todo el aspecto filosófico, las reflexiones del protagonista y la estructura algo cíclica o repetitiva de la obra. Bien es cierto que se me hizo un poco bola al principio, al ver tanto texto junto y sin apenas división en párrafos, pero una vez me hube acostumbrado, fue mucho más fácil mantener el hilo narrativo. Eso sí, a pesar de que la historia me mantuvo enganchada, ya que siempre se tiene esa atmósfera de intriga, el personaje narrador se me hace algo creepy y tiene ciertos comportamientos con las mujeres de acosador de primera... No sé, este aspecto resta bastante a la novela, pero bueno, supongo que también contribuye a crear ese ambiente triste y algo sórdido.
Me ha gustado mucho todo el aspecto filosófico, las reflexiones del protagonista y la estructura algo cíclica o repetitiva de la obra. Bien es cierto que se me hizo un poco bola al principio, al ver tanto texto junto y sin apenas división en párrafos, pero una vez me hube acostumbrado, fue mucho más fácil mantener el hilo narrativo. Eso sí, a pesar de que la historia me mantuvo enganchada, ya que siempre se tiene esa atmósfera de intriga, el personaje narrador se me hace algo creepy y tiene ciertos comportamientos con las mujeres de acosador de primera... No sé, este aspecto resta bastante a la novela, pero bueno, supongo que también contribuye a crear ese ambiente triste y algo sórdido.
remocpi's review against another edition
3.0
Primera novela (y única por el momento ) que leí de Marías. Extraña. Por un lado se le reconoce al autor la capacidad de embaucarnos con las palabras, de llevarnos por donde él quiere a base de miles de pequeñas pinceladas. Por otro, en cuando nos alejamos unos metros de la historia y ganamos perspectiva comienzan las preguntas ¿Y todo esto pa qué? El protagonista,Víctor, queda a cenar con una mujer casada, cuyo marido está de viaje, y cuando todo apuntaba a que la noche sería un éxito amatorio ella se muere de algo, a medio desvestir, con el niño de dos años en la cuna. Con ese impactante comienzo nos metemos en la vida (y sobre todo en el torrente de pensamientos) de Víctor, un negro que escribe discursos para personalidades, siguiéndole por el futuro inmediato y el pasado. Hay episodios absurdos, como la conversación que tiene con el Rey Juan Carlos (a quien no se menciona explícitamente, ni falta que hace), y momentos en los que ahogaríamos al protagonista con nuestras propias manos. Al final le reconocemos al autor que la novela es todo un viaje, pero me quedo con la duda de si era un viaje necesario.
kansass's review against another edition
4.0
"Vi entonces su nuca que no había visto nunca, con el pelo algo levantado y algo enredado y algo sudado, y calor no hacía, una nuca decimonónica por la que corrían estrías o hilos de cabellos negro y pegado, como sangre a medio secar, o barro, como la nuca de alguien que resbaló en la ducha, y aún tuvo tiempo de cerrar el grifo."
Como siempre en las novelas de JM, sus comienzos suelen ser antológicos, involvidables y se quedan ya grabados en la mente del lector. En Mañana En La Batalla Piensa En Mi, Victor Francés se encuentra con una muerta entre los brazos, y no es spoiler porque es exactamente la primera frase de la novela:
“Nadie piensa nunca que pueda ir a encontrarse con una muerta entre los brazos y que ya no verá más su rostro cuyo nombre recuerda”.
Marta Téllez está casada y con un hijo de dos años, cuando muere en brazos del que podría haber sido su amante, y digo que podría haber sido, porque apenas la conoce cuando ella le invita a cenar a su casa con la intención de serle infiel a su marido, pero Marta muere inesperadamente y Victor se encuentra en una situación totalmente aterradora en un apartamento donde el hijo de dos años de Marta duerme en la habitación vecina. Desde luego es un comienzo que a mi me parece apoteósico porque a raíz de aquí la mente de Victor, al más puro estilo Javier Marías comienza a hilvanar historias relacionadas con Marta porque apenas la conoce y no sabe de su vida y por supuesto inventa e intenta rellenar los huecos y sin embargo, a medida que intenta escapar de esa situación embarazosa, también se siente fuertemente atado a la que ya es un fantasma: su curiosidad, sus ganas de saber más sobre Marta y los que la rodean le hace hasta acudir a su entierro, a espiar por las ventanas y a seguirle las pisadas a su familia. Victor se refiere a su obsesión como a una especie de encantamiento del que no se puede liberar.
"Hay un verbo inglés, to haunt,, hay un verbo francés, hanter, muy emparentados y más bien intraducibles, que denominan lo que los fantasmas hacen con los lugares y las personas que frecuentan o acechan o revisitan; también, según el contetno, el primero puede signficar encantar, en el sentido feérico de la palabra, en el sentido de encantamiento..."
(…)
"y me siento como si estuviera bajo un encantamiento, frecuentado, acechado, revisitado, habitado, mi cabeza habitada y también mi cuerpo habitado y haunted por quien no he conocido más que en su muerte, y en algunos besos que nos podríamos haber ahorrado."
En esta novela, Victor Francés no deja en ningún momento de volver una y otra vez la vista hacía atrás revisitando el pasado, un pasado que le hace vivir varias vidas, y cada vez que rememora ciertos momentos del pasado (una y otra vez) es como si los estuviera viviendo de nuevo, y con él el lector. Esa memoria quizás le juegue malas pasadas por eso digo lo de vivir varias vidas: cada vez que revisita ese pasado, el lector es el testigo de su especulación mental con nueva información.
"...porque tantas cosas suceden sin que nadie se entere ni las recuerde, o todo se olvida y prescribe. Y cuan poco va quedando de cada individuo en el tiempo inútil como la nieve resbaladiza, de que poco hay constancia, y de ese poco tanto se calla, y de lo que no se calla se recuerda después tan sólo una mínima parte, y durante poco tiempo: mientras viajamos hacia nuestra difuminación lentamente...".
No voy a comentar aquí todas las referencias y las ideas de Shakespeare,cinéfilas y literarias que iluminan de alguna forma esta novela como no podía ser menos viniendo de quién viene, es mucho más divertido descubrirlo por si mismo qué que te lo cuenten en una reseña, pero si que es cierto que la referencia shakespeariana del fantasma del que bebe aquí el autor, me ha fascinado. No solo Victor Francés está hechizado o encantado por un fantasma, sino que él en si mismo es un fantasma (un escritor fantasma, un negro que trabaja para otro negro…) y mientras leía la novela con Victor Francés recorriendo las calles madrileñas oteando tras escaparates, ventanas o siguiendo figuras femeninas caminando o desde el coche (como uno de estos acosadores o voyeurs), me lo imaginaba como un fantasma y no sé porqué es una sensación que me hizo rememorar una pelicula que aunque no tiene nada que ver con esto pero sí que me transmitió las mismas sensaciones del fantasma que rememora y se pasea por habitaciones o calles vacías: India Song de Marguerite Duras.
Otra novela más de Javier Marías que me ha fascinado porque las obsesiones y los temas de JM me interesan y me envuelven; aquí no hay nada gratuíto sino que la memoria revisitada una y otra vez por Victor Francés tiene una finalidad y un objetivo marcado por Marías: referencias, pistas y alusiones repetidas una y otra vez, siempre en pos de la búsqueda de una verdad.
"Es cansado moverse en la sombra y espiar sin ser visto o procurando no ser descubierto, como es cansado guardar un secreto o tener un misterio...".
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/09/manana-en-la-batalla-piensa-en-mi-de.html
Como siempre en las novelas de JM, sus comienzos suelen ser antológicos, involvidables y se quedan ya grabados en la mente del lector. En Mañana En La Batalla Piensa En Mi, Victor Francés se encuentra con una muerta entre los brazos, y no es spoiler porque es exactamente la primera frase de la novela:
“Nadie piensa nunca que pueda ir a encontrarse con una muerta entre los brazos y que ya no verá más su rostro cuyo nombre recuerda”.
Marta Téllez está casada y con un hijo de dos años, cuando muere en brazos del que podría haber sido su amante, y digo que podría haber sido, porque apenas la conoce cuando ella le invita a cenar a su casa con la intención de serle infiel a su marido, pero Marta muere inesperadamente y Victor se encuentra en una situación totalmente aterradora en un apartamento donde el hijo de dos años de Marta duerme en la habitación vecina. Desde luego es un comienzo que a mi me parece apoteósico porque a raíz de aquí la mente de Victor, al más puro estilo Javier Marías comienza a hilvanar historias relacionadas con Marta porque apenas la conoce y no sabe de su vida y por supuesto inventa e intenta rellenar los huecos y sin embargo, a medida que intenta escapar de esa situación embarazosa, también se siente fuertemente atado a la que ya es un fantasma: su curiosidad, sus ganas de saber más sobre Marta y los que la rodean le hace hasta acudir a su entierro, a espiar por las ventanas y a seguirle las pisadas a su familia. Victor se refiere a su obsesión como a una especie de encantamiento del que no se puede liberar.
"Hay un verbo inglés, to haunt,, hay un verbo francés, hanter, muy emparentados y más bien intraducibles, que denominan lo que los fantasmas hacen con los lugares y las personas que frecuentan o acechan o revisitan; también, según el contetno, el primero puede signficar encantar, en el sentido feérico de la palabra, en el sentido de encantamiento..."
(…)
"y me siento como si estuviera bajo un encantamiento, frecuentado, acechado, revisitado, habitado, mi cabeza habitada y también mi cuerpo habitado y haunted por quien no he conocido más que en su muerte, y en algunos besos que nos podríamos haber ahorrado."
En esta novela, Victor Francés no deja en ningún momento de volver una y otra vez la vista hacía atrás revisitando el pasado, un pasado que le hace vivir varias vidas, y cada vez que rememora ciertos momentos del pasado (una y otra vez) es como si los estuviera viviendo de nuevo, y con él el lector. Esa memoria quizás le juegue malas pasadas por eso digo lo de vivir varias vidas: cada vez que revisita ese pasado, el lector es el testigo de su especulación mental con nueva información.
"...porque tantas cosas suceden sin que nadie se entere ni las recuerde, o todo se olvida y prescribe. Y cuan poco va quedando de cada individuo en el tiempo inútil como la nieve resbaladiza, de que poco hay constancia, y de ese poco tanto se calla, y de lo que no se calla se recuerda después tan sólo una mínima parte, y durante poco tiempo: mientras viajamos hacia nuestra difuminación lentamente...".
No voy a comentar aquí todas las referencias y las ideas de Shakespeare,cinéfilas y literarias que iluminan de alguna forma esta novela como no podía ser menos viniendo de quién viene, es mucho más divertido descubrirlo por si mismo qué que te lo cuenten en una reseña, pero si que es cierto que la referencia shakespeariana del fantasma del que bebe aquí el autor, me ha fascinado. No solo Victor Francés está hechizado o encantado por un fantasma, sino que él en si mismo es un fantasma (un escritor fantasma, un negro que trabaja para otro negro…) y mientras leía la novela con Victor Francés recorriendo las calles madrileñas oteando tras escaparates, ventanas o siguiendo figuras femeninas caminando o desde el coche (como uno de estos acosadores o voyeurs), me lo imaginaba como un fantasma y no sé porqué es una sensación que me hizo rememorar una pelicula que aunque no tiene nada que ver con esto pero sí que me transmitió las mismas sensaciones del fantasma que rememora y se pasea por habitaciones o calles vacías: India Song de Marguerite Duras.
Otra novela más de Javier Marías que me ha fascinado porque las obsesiones y los temas de JM me interesan y me envuelven; aquí no hay nada gratuíto sino que la memoria revisitada una y otra vez por Victor Francés tiene una finalidad y un objetivo marcado por Marías: referencias, pistas y alusiones repetidas una y otra vez, siempre en pos de la búsqueda de una verdad.
"Es cansado moverse en la sombra y espiar sin ser visto o procurando no ser descubierto, como es cansado guardar un secreto o tener un misterio...".
https://kansasbooks.blogspot.com/2020/09/manana-en-la-batalla-piensa-en-mi-de.html
marydot54's review against another edition
4.0
Read in original Spanish. Doesn’t have the espionage factor found in many Marias’ novels. I anticipated a more climatic ending. I enjoyed the story and the intertwined 2nd story subplot.
deea_bks's review against another edition
5.0
This book is simply unbelievable. The happenings Marias appeals to in order to convey his ideas are quite far-fetched (I also found some of the happenings from A Heart So White, the other book of his I was quite fascinated with far-fetched), but this fact doesn’t make it less great. Now, after I have read some of Marias’ works, I can say that one certainly reads him for the philosophy behind, for the richness of ideas that makes one question human emotions, for the paradoxes he analyses and less for the action.
The style is a bit nauseating: imagine pages long paragraphs and not only that, but also pages long phrases that are so rich in ideas that they sometimes become tiresome because one cannot grasp such richness of ideas without making a pause for thought allowed by a dot. You keep hoping that the phrase will end in order for you to stop and think a bit of what you’ve just read and they just don’t… for pages. And you have to re-read them because you don’t want to be missing anything as they are so stuffed with wisdom. I liked a Heart So White more as the plot was more convincing, but this book… is quite something.
A story does not happen completely, Marias says, “until you tell someone, until it is spoken about and known about”. “Until then, it is still possible to convert those mere events into mere thought, mere memory, nothing.”This is the theme of the book, this is the idea that makes the twist in the end so powerful, this is what makes this book quite brilliant.
The plot starts abruptly (this is no spoiler as you can find this in the first pages of the book): Marta, a married woman invites another man over, Victor, while her husband, Dean, is in London on a business trip. After they have dinner and they go to the bedroom, she starts feeling very sick and dies. The story is told by Victor and Marias insists several times that the person who tells the story chooses how to frame the truth in his story and what details to leave out of it. Everything is narrated from Victor’s limited subjective perspective. This is his story, not anybody else’s, a story of a tragedy he was a witness to. He talks about how this affects him, how he imagines this story affects all the persons related to Marta, he struggles to interpret the gestures of her relatives during her burial, he struggles to understand what Marta’s father feels, what her sister feels, what her husband feels. His ideas on death are priceless: the fact that one younger sister can become through a death both the younger and the older sister, the idea that death keeps someone forever young as age stops touching the dead ones, but time fades their faces in our memories, the idea that once we die, all our memories, all our inner struggles cease to mean anything, that our objects cease telling a story to anyone and so on.
The beginning was really gripping. All this supply of ideas really made me stand in awe at Marias resourceful mind. At the middle, I was getting a bit impatient, I could not understand where the story was getting as it seemed aimless. And then, there comes the end. There comes the end with a twist. And what a twist! This gripped my attention once again: something (a tragedy, in this case) has a different meaning for each one of us. What Victor had imagined about the take of the relatives on this event was his story. Marias lets us understand the view of another on this tragedy, what it all means to him, how facts unravel, how Marta’s death impacts another. We get to read the same story from the perspective of another… which is brilliant, in spite of the improbability of something like the narrated facts happening. And the theme of the book that I wrote about above is really strongly reinforced and turns the whole story full circle:
The style is a bit nauseating: imagine pages long paragraphs and not only that, but also pages long phrases that are so rich in ideas that they sometimes become tiresome because one cannot grasp such richness of ideas without making a pause for thought allowed by a dot. You keep hoping that the phrase will end in order for you to stop and think a bit of what you’ve just read and they just don’t… for pages. And you have to re-read them because you don’t want to be missing anything as they are so stuffed with wisdom. I liked a Heart So White more as the plot was more convincing, but this book… is quite something.
A story does not happen completely, Marias says, “until you tell someone, until it is spoken about and known about”. “Until then, it is still possible to convert those mere events into mere thought, mere memory, nothing.”This is the theme of the book, this is the idea that makes the twist in the end so powerful, this is what makes this book quite brilliant.
The plot starts abruptly (this is no spoiler as you can find this in the first pages of the book): Marta, a married woman invites another man over, Victor, while her husband, Dean, is in London on a business trip. After they have dinner and they go to the bedroom, she starts feeling very sick and dies. The story is told by Victor and Marias insists several times that the person who tells the story chooses how to frame the truth in his story and what details to leave out of it. Everything is narrated from Victor’s limited subjective perspective. This is his story, not anybody else’s, a story of a tragedy he was a witness to. He talks about how this affects him, how he imagines this story affects all the persons related to Marta, he struggles to interpret the gestures of her relatives during her burial, he struggles to understand what Marta’s father feels, what her sister feels, what her husband feels. His ideas on death are priceless: the fact that one younger sister can become through a death both the younger and the older sister, the idea that death keeps someone forever young as age stops touching the dead ones, but time fades their faces in our memories, the idea that once we die, all our memories, all our inner struggles cease to mean anything, that our objects cease telling a story to anyone and so on.
The beginning was really gripping. All this supply of ideas really made me stand in awe at Marias resourceful mind. At the middle, I was getting a bit impatient, I could not understand where the story was getting as it seemed aimless. And then, there comes the end. There comes the end with a twist. And what a twist! This gripped my attention once again: something (a tragedy, in this case) has a different meaning for each one of us. What Victor had imagined about the take of the relatives on this event was his story. Marias lets us understand the view of another on this tragedy, what it all means to him, how facts unravel, how Marta’s death impacts another. We get to read the same story from the perspective of another… which is brilliant, in spite of the improbability of something like the narrated facts happening. And the theme of the book that I wrote about above is really strongly reinforced and turns the whole story full circle:
”There are certain things that we should be told about immediately so that we do not, for a single second, walk about the world believing something that is utterly mistaken, when the world has utterly changed because of them…”
mg_espi's review against another edition
4.0
Me ha gustado mucho. La acción es lenta, pasan muy pocas cosas, pero da lo mismo. Lo que más me gusta de Marías es cómo cuenta las cosas y este libro está escrito tan bien que para cuando te das cuenta llevas 300 páginas y han pasado dos cosas.
acraig5075's review against another edition
4.0
Very little dialogue, rather a man's wondering thoughts and state of mind. I liked the very clever repetition of phrases reaccuring throughout the book. I didn't like the multi page paragraphs, making each page an intimidating wall of text.
emlostinbooks's review against another edition
5.0
Javiar Marias is on my tbr since forever with [b:A Heart So White|529075|A Heart So White|Javier Marías|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348288671l/529075._SY75_.jpg|782039] but I ended up starting this famous author with [b:Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me|60030|Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me|Javier Marías|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1601923830l/60030._SY75_.jpg|1281855].
Story starts with Marta and Victor on the cusp of starting Illicit relationship and while undressing Marta dies and thus started a chain of events that took us to explore how Victor dealt with all this sudden accident and what happens after that. Victor who is a ghostwriter observes Marta's family up and close when he gets to meet them. Sees for himself how the death effected them and how they are looking for this person who was with Marta at the time of her death.
Though nothing much happens in terms of action in the book, what take place is the dissection of the situation through Victor's mind, his meeting with a prostitute which made him reminiscing about his past, him thinking about all the "what ifs" that could have happened instead of what happened and finally the meeting Marta's husband and have his story.
This is something that comes real close to how we live our lives regretting about the things that we have not done and have done, how we could have make it better or which of our decision made it worse or thinking if our efforts are worth it or not.
I read it three months ago and yet find myself going back to it and thinking about it from time to time and I know I will be reading it again in future too. Highly recommended!
Story starts with Marta and Victor on the cusp of starting Illicit relationship and while undressing Marta dies and thus started a chain of events that took us to explore how Victor dealt with all this sudden accident and what happens after that. Victor who is a ghostwriter observes Marta's family up and close when he gets to meet them. Sees for himself how the death effected them and how they are looking for this person who was with Marta at the time of her death.
Though nothing much happens in terms of action in the book, what take place is the dissection of the situation through Victor's mind, his meeting with a prostitute which made him reminiscing about his past, him thinking about all the "what ifs" that could have happened instead of what happened and finally the meeting Marta's husband and have his story.
This is something that comes real close to how we live our lives regretting about the things that we have not done and have done, how we could have make it better or which of our decision made it worse or thinking if our efforts are worth it or not.
I read it three months ago and yet find myself going back to it and thinking about it from time to time and I know I will be reading it again in future too. Highly recommended!
nateisdreaming's review against another edition
4.0
There's a lot to unpack in Javier Marias's novel "Tomorrow in the battle think on me" which is likely not my favorite of his; but which is both dense and interesting.
(Note: this review has some thematic spoilers, and talks of some scenes as well).
The novel, ostensibly, is about a despicable narrator, and his musings after a married woman suddenly dies next to him on his first date with her. I wrote in my journal about how interesting it that this character, who is also the narrator, says many profound things, thinks of himself in an almost arrogant light, and yet is so pathetic and desperate the entire time. The desperation and the weakness do not come off in the narration at all. They are buried psychologically; and one only notices them if looking at the story line objectively, rather than being in the atmosphere of the narrator's head. At first, I thought that perhaps Marias himself was a bit misogynistic or cold and detached. And he might be; but now I believe it to be the character.
*Slight spoiler* -- The last chapter of the book solidifies a main theme for me in the novel. In this final movement, the husband of the dead wife, tells the story of how he spent his evening, when he didn't know she was dead. His actions turn out to be even more despicable than Vincent, the narrator's; yet he seems less detached from them, at least. In any case, I believe the theme of the novel is the melancholic realization of the meaningless of life. Its a fear that is the opposite of existentialism, which celebrates this meaningless.
The theme of the novel is the profound one that no matter how bold or strange, or violent or outrageous our personal stories are, they are largely forgettable. Both by society, which does not notice the many deaths that happen each day; and finally, by history and time itself. The narrator talks often of telling stories and why we tell them; and I believe, in the writer's viewpoint, he does so in order to give meaning to things that are chaotic and beyond his control. Yet in the end, where he does combine a previous fantasy with reality, he is face to face with the realization that his life ultimately will have no meaning at all.
Marias weaves this narrative through long run on sentences, without paragraph breaks, and with interesting stories within stories. Like all of his novels, there is a bit of a conversational quality to the prose, even though its imbued with a deep philosophy. There are Shakespeare references, political and historical ones, and there are moments that some might call "erotic" but which I think are disgusting.
For example, one of my favorite tangents in the novel is when Vincent has a memory from his recent past. His friend, who is what one would today call a "pick up artist" (and who is not only a scumbag, but the only friend Vincent seems to have), claims to see Vincent's ex wife in a series of prostitution bars. The implication is clear. Vincent starts driving around, searching for her, and finally picks up a worker who looks just like his wife. During their entire exchange, he can not settle on whether she is his ex or not, his mind moves back and forth between the two possibilities. Meanwhile, his probing questions inspire fear in Vincenta (the name she gives him. His ex-wife's name is Celia); who reveals that there have been recent murders of transgendered sex workers in the area.
This fear she has of him is one of many spotlights on his terrible character. And his interaction with her shines another light on how deluded he is. Throughout the novel, he speaks of seduction as if from a point of authority, and implies he is a master at meet women. He does so in an incredibly objectifying manner; and in fact, each women he meets becomes sexualized, even the sister of the deceased. And yet, we never see him sleep with anyone. Not even in the first chapter, when he is in the room with a married woman, Marta, who dies unexpectedly, and who's death drives both the novel's narrative, and Vincent's passive musings and wanderings.
The sex worker is the only time we see him close to an erotic act. When they pull over in his car, he does indeed sleep with her. Then he goes home, calls his ex wife late in the night, and still can't decide if just payed Celia or Vincenta. More happens too, which I do not want to spoil -- as this was my favorite sequence in the novel, even if it was one of the more disturbing psychologically, and the first real hint that Vincent is not as kind in real life as he perceives himself. In this way, is he perhaps an unreliable narrator? I have a feeling he is telling his stories as he believes they happened, but he is disguising his dark motivations and somehow trying to normalize the amount of trespass he invokes in other people's lives. In fact, throughout the novel, he lies to an employer, pretends to be someone else, follows Marta's sister, and in the end, passively becomes complicit in another narrator's story.
Another interesting moment of buried sexism and instability is a scene with him and his friend at a betting track. They run into two women there, make fun of the fact that they are beginners at betting; then copy their bets and make money off it. He is almost impotent, at least in a Freudian way, if not a literal one.
Marias's novels often have a darkness to them, in their depiction of human interaction, but always have a richness in writing style and atmosphere. Some, such as Thus Bad Begins, seem to be political allegories, which forgive the caustic behavour his characters treat women with (as it seems to be about something "bigger.") This one is tougher to swallow its darkness; since it does not seem allegorical; and its main philosophy is rather bleak.
It is hard to know whether Marias himself is sexist, or if it is just his characters that are. Despite that, the book is rich, rewarding, and atmospheric -- both in the prose itself, but also in its psychological study of darker pathos. It evokes the mood of a film noir; or of a forgotten smokey bar. Of his novels which I've read, this isn't my favorite, but does rank fairly high up there. I would definitely recommend.
(Note: this review has some thematic spoilers, and talks of some scenes as well).
The novel, ostensibly, is about a despicable narrator, and his musings after a married woman suddenly dies next to him on his first date with her. I wrote in my journal about how interesting it that this character, who is also the narrator, says many profound things, thinks of himself in an almost arrogant light, and yet is so pathetic and desperate the entire time. The desperation and the weakness do not come off in the narration at all. They are buried psychologically; and one only notices them if looking at the story line objectively, rather than being in the atmosphere of the narrator's head. At first, I thought that perhaps Marias himself was a bit misogynistic or cold and detached. And he might be; but now I believe it to be the character.
*Slight spoiler* -- The last chapter of the book solidifies a main theme for me in the novel. In this final movement, the husband of the dead wife, tells the story of how he spent his evening, when he didn't know she was dead. His actions turn out to be even more despicable than Vincent, the narrator's; yet he seems less detached from them, at least. In any case, I believe the theme of the novel is the melancholic realization of the meaningless of life. Its a fear that is the opposite of existentialism, which celebrates this meaningless.
The theme of the novel is the profound one that no matter how bold or strange, or violent or outrageous our personal stories are, they are largely forgettable. Both by society, which does not notice the many deaths that happen each day; and finally, by history and time itself. The narrator talks often of telling stories and why we tell them; and I believe, in the writer's viewpoint, he does so in order to give meaning to things that are chaotic and beyond his control. Yet in the end, where he does combine a previous fantasy with reality, he is face to face with the realization that his life ultimately will have no meaning at all.
Marias weaves this narrative through long run on sentences, without paragraph breaks, and with interesting stories within stories. Like all of his novels, there is a bit of a conversational quality to the prose, even though its imbued with a deep philosophy. There are Shakespeare references, political and historical ones, and there are moments that some might call "erotic" but which I think are disgusting.
For example, one of my favorite tangents in the novel is when Vincent has a memory from his recent past. His friend, who is what one would today call a "pick up artist" (and who is not only a scumbag, but the only friend Vincent seems to have), claims to see Vincent's ex wife in a series of prostitution bars. The implication is clear. Vincent starts driving around, searching for her, and finally picks up a worker who looks just like his wife. During their entire exchange, he can not settle on whether she is his ex or not, his mind moves back and forth between the two possibilities. Meanwhile, his probing questions inspire fear in Vincenta (the name she gives him. His ex-wife's name is Celia); who reveals that there have been recent murders of transgendered sex workers in the area.
This fear she has of him is one of many spotlights on his terrible character. And his interaction with her shines another light on how deluded he is. Throughout the novel, he speaks of seduction as if from a point of authority, and implies he is a master at meet women. He does so in an incredibly objectifying manner; and in fact, each women he meets becomes sexualized, even the sister of the deceased. And yet, we never see him sleep with anyone. Not even in the first chapter, when he is in the room with a married woman, Marta, who dies unexpectedly, and who's death drives both the novel's narrative, and Vincent's passive musings and wanderings.
The sex worker is the only time we see him close to an erotic act. When they pull over in his car, he does indeed sleep with her. Then he goes home, calls his ex wife late in the night, and still can't decide if just payed Celia or Vincenta. More happens too, which I do not want to spoil -- as this was my favorite sequence in the novel, even if it was one of the more disturbing psychologically, and the first real hint that Vincent is not as kind in real life as he perceives himself. In this way, is he perhaps an unreliable narrator? I have a feeling he is telling his stories as he believes they happened, but he is disguising his dark motivations and somehow trying to normalize the amount of trespass he invokes in other people's lives. In fact, throughout the novel, he lies to an employer, pretends to be someone else, follows Marta's sister, and in the end, passively becomes complicit in another narrator's story.
Another interesting moment of buried sexism and instability is a scene with him and his friend at a betting track. They run into two women there, make fun of the fact that they are beginners at betting; then copy their bets and make money off it. He is almost impotent, at least in a Freudian way, if not a literal one.
Marias's novels often have a darkness to them, in their depiction of human interaction, but always have a richness in writing style and atmosphere. Some, such as Thus Bad Begins, seem to be political allegories, which forgive the caustic behavour his characters treat women with (as it seems to be about something "bigger.") This one is tougher to swallow its darkness; since it does not seem allegorical; and its main philosophy is rather bleak.
It is hard to know whether Marias himself is sexist, or if it is just his characters that are. Despite that, the book is rich, rewarding, and atmospheric -- both in the prose itself, but also in its psychological study of darker pathos. It evokes the mood of a film noir; or of a forgotten smokey bar. Of his novels which I've read, this isn't my favorite, but does rank fairly high up there. I would definitely recommend.