The writer Pedro Simón has just published ‘The following‘, a novel in which he talks about old age, the passage of time and caring for the elderly. This story closes the trilogy that began with ‘The Ingrates’ and continued with ‘The Misunderstood’‘, in which he explored childhood and the relationship between adolescents and adults. In all of them, the man from Madrid immerses himself in the heart of a family to address the universal themes of literature: love, death, loneliness, guilt…
-«The first day I had to clean my father’s ass, I lied to myself telling myself that it was the same as when I cleaned my son’s ass. But no, it is not the same. This is how a novel begins in which he talks about many things, but also about caring for the elderly..
-Yes, there is a moment in life that begins when you wipe your son’s ass and ends when you wipe your father’s ass. Seeing your octogenarian father in front of you is like seeing a spoiler of what you are going to be. And that’s always a little scary. From that moment you begin to take care of him as you would like to be taken care of. It is like a mirror of the greater you will be. In Spain there is a large elderly population and we are a society that needs care and will need it even more. In any case, I also tell you that I think we take much better care of our elders than we do our young people. Its network can be improved, but more or less solid. Young people, however, have no network. Because they don’t have one, they don’t have a home or decent salaries.
-As in ‘The Ingrates’ and ‘The Misunderstood’, the family is once again a nuclear theme in this novel. What attracts you so much about that microcosm?
-Well, I didn’t know what I was going to write about in each of the books of this trilogy. But I am clear that the great universal themes of literature are in the family: loneliness, love, death, loyalty, guilt… It would be very difficult for me to write a historical novel set in the 18th century, but I find it very It is easy to talk about someone who loses sleep because his son does not understand him or someone who is distressed because he sees that his father is losing his memory. It has to do with my daily life and my environment. That’s where my love to write about family comes from. I just think it’s the most honest thing I can write about.
-He assures that one always writes from himself. Is there a lot of you in this novel?
-Of the three it is the one that has the least to do with me, but yes, one always writes from his backpack. My parents are octogenarians and are well, although I have many friends who have given me the clay to model this book.
-Have you made your story your own?
-Well, my novels are almost always born from conversations with my friends and family. I always say that the novelist is like a dowser who goes looking for water with two crossed sticks. In these conversations, due to a simple matter of age, we have gone from talking about children to talking about parents, and a very recurring question is ‘how is your father’. That’s when I realized that there could be a novel. And thus the story of these three brothers in their 50s with a widowed octogenarian father was born.
-In all three novels there is a common ingredient. The search for the extraordinary within the ordinary.
-Yes, in the end we could all be protagonists of a novel. Not all of them have to be about a serial killer, they can also talk about someone who feels alone or has suffered a heartbreak. That’s why Antonio, the protagonist of the book, when the novel ends is not just a bus driver, but someone who has a story to tell and who, let’s say, was silenced. More than anything because there is a lot of heroism in remaining silent within a family. Those people who remain silent to keep the tribe united.
-Do these three books have anything in common beyond talking about family?
-Yes, I think all three talk about the need to show affection in time to the people you love. Generally, within the family there is little talk about sensitive and important topics. And it is a mistake. Many people have told me that they have given one of these novels as a way to say I love you to a specific person. Without a doubt, that is the best award for me.
-The passage of time is also very present in your new book. Does this matter distress you?
-Well, it is a topic that stirs me up a lot. Death is the only certainty and in some way I see the passage of time like a dentist who is tearing out all the pieces. It takes away your mobility, people you love, abilities, memory… As Pérez-Reverte said, getting older is stopping doing things that you could do before and no longer do. Time is relentless and all of that is in The Following. But when they ask me what the core theme of the novel is, I always say that it is a very rarely seen and very exemplary love story between a man and a woman.
-He also wanted to vindicate the female caregiver.
-Yes, because in this country nine out of every ten caregivers are women. We believe that we have already achieved equality, but the reality is very different and we must continue talking about this.
-Have you already seen your next book?
-I already have some ideas for another novel, but I haven’t even started to give it shape. What I do know is that there will always be a family; What may change is that they will not be so similar to the previous ones. In addition, next year Peligro de derrumbe will be reissued, which came out in 2015 and can no longer be found in bookstores.
