What is the first book, or the first books, that changed your life?
As much as changing my life, no, but the first readings that interested me, I barely read what is considered youth literature, were ‘Robinson Crusoe’, by Defoe, and ‘Oliver Twist’, by Dickens, which were at my parents’ house . Later, already bought by me, as a teenager, or given as gifts: ‘The colonel has no one to write to him’, ‘The funerals of the big mom’ and ‘One hundred years of solitude’, the three by García Márquez, and ‘The city and the dogs’ by Mario Vargas Llosa.
And the one who revealed the powers of literature to him?
Especially the Hispanic Americans of the so-called ‘boom’ and their antecedents, which I discovered at the same time, as one led me to others, following the books by Luis Harss (‘Our Ours’) and Andrés Amorós (‘Introduction to the current Hispanic American novel’ ). In addition to those mentioned: César Vallejo, Pablo Neruda, Juan Rulfo, Juan Carlos Onetti, Alejo Carpentier, Julio Cortázar, Guillermo Cabrera Infante …
Who are the literary critics of your life?
Among the Spaniards, Ricardo Senabre, Robert Saladrigas, Santos Sanz Villanueva, Juan Antonio Masoliver Ródenas, Ángel Basanta, Anna Caballé, José María Pozuelo and José-Carlos Mainer, who exercise less than I would like. And among the youngest, Ángel L. Prieto de Paula, Selena Millares, Domingo Ródenas de Moya and Jordi Gracia.
What is being a literary critic?
It consists of reading carefully, knowing the literary history and showing a certain taste, criteria, to analyze, contextualize and value the books, reasoning the judgments, in a clear text, written with ease, with the right dose of passion, as it must be able to be read with interest. The critic must try to be equanimous, understanding and generous with those who begin and demanding with the consecrated.
Is the critic, as some say, a frustrated writer?
It doesn’t seem that way to me in most cases. It seems sadder to me that some writers have turned criticism into a mere trump.
From whom or what does a critic learn?
Of notable critics, such as those I have pointed out, or of foreign literary essayists such as G. Steiner or H. Bloom, just to mention two well-known names, and of some writers who have cultivated the essay or criticism (Cernuda, Borges, Octavio Paz, Ricardo Piglia, Mario Vargas Llosa, Andrés Ibáñez), from interviews with writers …, or from literary historians, such as José-Carlos Mainer.
What books accompany you always, or almost always?
The classics (Fernando de Rojas, San Juan de la Cruz, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Moliére, Goldoni, Balzac, Dickens, Galdós, Chejov, Brecht, Kafka, Pinter, to name just a few) and the Spanish contemporaries that I prefer (Juan Ramón Jiménez, Valle-Inclán, Lorca, Cernuda, Max Aub, Rafael Chirbes …).
What do you look for in literature, in which you read and in which you edit?
The complexity of the world, that of feelings and behaviors, surprise and emotion, the subtlety of the use of language, the well-behaved humor, the critical attitude, not very accommodating. In short, a different tone, a personal accent, those books that combine tradition and originality and make their characters real.
What book of literary theory or essay would you rescue from oblivion?
CS Lewis’s, ‘Literary Criticism’: An Experiment, which Antoni Bosch edited almost four decades ago.
The last three books, more or less recent, that have touched you?
‘Sur’, by Antonio Soler; ‘Easy reading’, by Cristina Morales, and ‘Canto yo y la Montaña baila’, by Irene Solà (Cálamo Prize), which whoever can should read in Catalan.
“In literature I look for the complexity of the world, that of feelings and behaviors, surprise and emotion, the subtlety of the use of language, well-behaved humor, a critical attitude, not very accommodating”
Does any author collect?
I’m trying to get hold of all the writers’ photo books, as well as the interview books.
What is the book (or books) in your library that has a special, unique, or emotional story?
Some first editions of Galdós that the teacher Alberto Blecua gave me, when he was almost recently graduated, he asked me to replace him in some classes, although I am afraid they must not have been very good. And those books dedicated, and some also drawn, by writers that I appreciate.
Have you done more crazy things for love or for literature?
The love affairs are not to be counted here, even if they are few and modest, they may not be crazy; on the other hand, I don’t know whether to consider madness, or mere fetishism, my love of visiting the graves of the writers and artists that I appreciate.
Is there a quote, a fragment or a micro-story from a book that defines you or that you particularly like?
Yes, the final paragraph of the prologue that Cervantes put to ‘Persiles’: «Goodbye, thank you; goodbye, graces; goodbye, rejoicing friends, that I am dying and wishing to see you soon happy in the other life ». I always remember it in the voice of Alberto Blecua who liked to recite it by heart.
What is reading?
In collecting, concentrating and letting yourself be carried away by the book, trying to understand in order to appreciate it.
What is the current moment of literary criticism in Spain?
I think there are good critics in the written media and I think it could be improved on the Internet.
“The literary critic must try to be fair, understanding and generous with those who start and demanding with the consecrated”
Recently Javier Cercas, at the EPS, said that literary criticism no longer mattered to anyone. Is right?
It matters to some curious readers, and almost all writers, starting with Cercas.
Which is worse: the critic who abuses dithyramb or the sufficient critic who spares the life of the writer?
Both are bad. The critic must try to be equanimous, understanding and generous with those who begin and demanding with the consecrated.
In the same supplement, Javier Marías was devastating with the literary awards. Are the critics for sale?
I imagine there is everything, but in the juries that I have been, I have never seen a critic who defends interests that are not strictly literary, and in the few cases that have not been so, they have not achieved what they set out to do either.
He has always claimed authors who have fallen into oblivion. Who would I do it to now more than ever?
To Miguel Espinosa, the author of ‘Escuela de mandarines’ and La ‘ugly bourgeoisie’, and to those writers from the republican exile that we still don’t know how they deserve (Tomás Segovia, José de la Colina, Angelina Muñiz-Hubermann …), although much has been done in recent years.
What would you like to achieve at the head of the Spanish Association of Literary Critics?
I would like you to continue to maintain your independence and success in awarding the prizes, which must be given to ambitious books that provide novelties, to those that make us feel better about the world in which we live. In this sense, the work of my predecessor has been impeccable. And on the practical side, we need a web page to upload the history of the award, the data and graphic documents that we keep.
He has been an editor for Lesscuarto for years, especially short stories. Are we a country of storytellers?
I think that in the 20th century we have had great short story writers, but with a discontinuous tradition.
What four or five storybooks would you recommend?
I am going to focus on Spanish authors, on names, rather than on specific works, who did much of their work after the civil war: Manuel Chaves Nogales, Francisco Ayala, Max Aub, Ignacio Aldecoa, Juan Eduardo Zúñiga, Luis Mateo Díez, José María Merino, Cristina Fernández Cubas and Javier Marías.
Has the short story gone out of fashion, which has interested you so much?
Yes, the fashion has passed to establish itself as a genre that must be normalized, as one more narrative form, along with the short story, the short novel and the novel. But the important thing is that we already have good books and anthologies, both Spanish and Latin American.
How do you see, from Barcelona and from Germany, the moment of Aragonese letters? Who do you follow closely?
There are good editors (Jekill & Jill or Xordica), a great magazine (‘Turia’), and there have been great writers in recent decades, from Sender to Ramón Gil Novales, Antonio F. Molina, Javier Tomeo and José Luis Borau, and in the Today, in addition to the new names of interest (Cristina Grande, Carlos Castán, Ismael Grasa, Daniel Gascón, Miguel Serrano Larraz …), I follow Ignacio Martínez de Pisón above all. There are others, very present in the media, whose work I am sorry I do not know well. And I am sorry that Fernando Aínsa, essayist and fiction author, died without being awarded the Aragonese Literature Prize.
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