Suffice it to say that María begins an affair with a man who's infatuated with someone else, and she stumbles across information that forces her to rethink what happened to Miguel. Their encounter sends off ripples, although it would spoil things to tell you exactly where they go. The story appears to be over until she unexpectedly meets Luisa and expresses her condolences. She discovers that Miguel has been murdered by a homeless guy on the street - the newspaper even carries a photo of his stabbed body. Then one day, to María's dismay, the two stop showing up. In her fantasies, the Devernes are an ideal couple: witty, urbane, happily infatuated with each other - I kept picturing a Spanish Nick and Nora Charles. The narrator is María Dolz, a book editor who has spent years observing Miguel and Luisa Deverne, whom she watches every morning at the Madrid hotel café where they all have breakfast. Translated by Margaret Jull Costa, The Infatuations is mysterious and seductive it's got deception, it's got love affairs, it's got murder - the book is the most sheerly addictive thing Marías has ever written. This should change with his new novel, The Infatuations, which is the ideal introduction to his work. He's been hailed in America, too, yet he's never broken through like Haruki Murakami or Roberto Bolaño. Marías is a star writer in Europe, where his best-sellers collect prizes the way Kardashians collect paparazzi. Of course, I'm hardly the first to say this. No writer has written more about the burdens, even dangers, of unwanted knowledge than Javier Marías, the hyperliterate, 62-year-old Spanish novelist whom I'm about to tell you - please don't groan - that you should read. This was something I didn't want to know. "Actually, he's great," came the reply, and I groaned. "Please tell me he stinks," I begged, "so I don't have to read him." A friend recently told me he was reading an acclaimed Hungarian novelist whose books I've never opened. If you're like me, you probably feel exhausted just thinking about how much cultural stuff is out there. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title The Infatuations Author Javier Marias and Margaret Jull Costa
0 kommentar(er)
