Falling and laughing
Lost in Music. A Pop Odyssey Giles Smith 310 pages Contra When Giles Smith wrote this book, he never imagined that twenty years later it would be translated into other languages. The writer’s first creative drive was not writing but pop music. It did not work out though. The bands he founded never achieved the...
Will to offend
Lionel Asbo: State of England Martin Amis 352 pages Anagrama That is the way Lionel is, a real lad: the tracksuit, the dogs, the beer hangovers, muscle-building as a lifestyle, awful diction and the innate tendency to do evil. Lionel hates people who yearn to learn, he believes in the annihilation of talent, and the...
Books and wine, infamous pleasures
Books and wine. Behind this combination of words, products, and above all, hobbies, is hidden Tipos Infames, a Madrilenian meeting point for literature lovers who enjoy it more adding to it a first-rate glass of wine. This establishment, located in the center of Malasaña and born from the passion of its creators, offers a selection...
Dangers of being a rock star
LA CALLE GREAT JONES Don DeLillo 293 pgs Seix-Barral Don DeLillo (New York, 1936) wrote Great Jones Street, his third novel, the same year as Carrero Blanco was flying through the air here. Maybe in 1973 Spain was not in the mood for stories about rock stars who ended up consumed by their own fame,...
Moral tales
Published in their day by several media like The New Yorker or Harper’s, the ten stories that make up Tenth of December confirm George Saunders’ (Texas, 1958) good condition. The author plays with genres, points of view and syntax to create astonishing voices; dubious minds and damaged consciences we get to know in depth, from...
Palahniuk in Hell
Madison Spencer is thirteen years old and she is dead. She is the daughter of a Hollywood celebrity couple, and she died of marijuana overdose – or so she believes. The thing is that now, just like that, she lives in hell with four new companions: a punk-rocker called Archer, a nerd Leonard, Babette the...
Scars
Vladimov places us in a ghostly setting; a cold and misty forest, at the gate to a Russian work field which, to the surprise of one of its guards, Ruslan the dog, is open. The wires are of no use anymore. There are no more prisoners to scare off or fugitives to hunt. There are...
There is no turning back
Let me tell you immediately that Something Happened is not just any novel. It is a colossal work that will require all your bravery as exquisite readers to go through its more than 600 pages of soliloquy plagued with inner demons, fear and guilt. Listen closely: I have here the endless monologue of a restless...
The prince, the fabric and the crow.
A maiden with hair like threads of gold and the skin of the colour of a cloud was among the most brilliant of the court. Her name was Ivanna. Among the other maidens she would keep the queen company, but due to her exquisite drawing abilities that were discovered accidentally in a game were she...
The Godfather of punk (Belfast City Rockers)
Terri Hooley is the hero in the shadows. He was the man who made it possible for Northern Ireland to have its own rock’n’roll at the end of the 70’s. Owner of the legendary store Good Vibrations, he strained to introduce the world to the bands he liked the most, and did not care if...
Se busca editor. Razón hambre by Rosko Ruiz
Oksor Ziur has hit rock bottom. He is a writer, but survives thanks to the alms outside churches and performances on the Ramblas, as a living statue. After a few months of living in this way, he decides to become rich and well-known by publishing his own book. Led by dreams of richness and opulence,...
It wasn’t Eva’s fault
* – Adam, I think I’m pregnant… – Are you sure it’s mine? Stress, corruption, violence, diseases, natural disasters, absurd accidents… Adam, and specially his wife, have always carried the blame for our entanglements, betraying God’s trust and confining us to this pseudo-hell pre-paradise. And beyond the metaphor, whatever Eva’s transgression may be, the oldest legend...
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