When summer has said goodbye and until next year is a good time to take stock. Each of us relates summer to one thing. For example, dear reader, dear reader, there will be those who relate it to the beach, which the returnee cannot do, since they have not been on the beach for a single day. And not because he does not like the sea, which he likes very much, particularly if he can enjoy it on board any boat, but it has not been the case.
Others will associate it with vacations, but retirees notice them less, because luckily or unfortunately we do not work, we enjoy permanent vacations, even though we often long for the times when we had work obligations. Surprising isn’t it? I clarify that this nostalgia corresponds to people who have worked on something that we like. This is my case, since I retired teaching and doing theater. If he had been laying bricks or assembling metals he would surely not miss the scaffolding or the workshop.
Well, what we were going to, one associates summer with books: this has been a summer of books.
We started it by having to move a large part of the library, because the living room had to be painted. Take _________ books! I do not know if you have enjoyed the very joyous experience of moving a few kilos of books in plastic trays on loan from a fruit seller, to restore the volumes to their original location when the painting is finished. It is undoubtedly a healthy exercise, which has the additional advantage of being reunited with some titles that you had long lost sight of. It’s like meeting friends we haven’t seen in months or even years. However, I would not dare recommend it to anyone, because it is somewhat tiring.
But the important thing is that in summer we can read a lot, much more than usual. We can; another thing is that we do it. For likes there are the colors.
I have entertained myself in checking what I have been reading throughout those three months and I see that I have read a lot of detective novels, a genre that I really like. I went back to the maestro Andrea Camilleri, creator of the famous curator Montalbano, but also the author of less well-known and truly excellent works. For example “El rey campesino”, “La opera de Vigata” or “La intermitencia”. Camilleri’s world is vast and varied and I recommend visiting and enjoying it.
The Greek Petros Márkaris was another great companion of the season. Commissioner Jaritos is very different from Montalbano, because he is a very domestic and familiar policeman, but he agrees with his sense of humor, political awareness and taste for food, although his desires are much simpler; don’t take it out of the stuffed tomatoes and suvlakis. None of the maritime refinements of Motalbano.
Of course, for a police gourmet, the Pepe Carvalho of our Manolo Vázquez Montalbán, to whom I have returned with admiration and, above all with affection. One of the features of Carvalho’s novels that most interest and surprise me is the space it leaves the reader, especially in the open endings of many of his books. Manolo does not insist on delivering served dishes, but invites very stimulating final reflections.
Other readings of the genre have been Works by Jean Louis Izzo, an author I did not know. Naturally I have returned to Simenon and Agatha Christie and have discovered a French writer signed by Fred Vargas. Total: that I have drenched myself in the novel called “black”, a name that seems very debatable to me, because all generalizations are.
By the way: I have alternated reading on paper with that of the electronic book. Some purist may find this mixture unfortunate, but reading an e-book seems to me as worthy as any other. It is extremely comfortable, the books are cheaper and one can manipulate the body of the letter at will. In this, as in many other issues, I believe that one should not be prejudiced.
Some history I have also traveled. “Spain 1808 – 2008” by Raymond Carr is an excellent book, although it may suffer from an excessive economic approach, but it cannot be denied rigor and documentation. But at a closer level, no less important, I have just finished the work of my friend Joaquín García Contreras on British participation in the War of Independence. As Joaquín has done me the honor of participating in the next presentation of his book, I reserve my comments for that moment. Advancement that I really liked.
And to end with a display of immodesty, I have spent many hours of the summer reviewing a novel of mine that is coming out shortly: “J Marat poet and detective.” As we are going to present it in Chiclana in a couple of weeks, I will not anticipate anything about it. All in good time.
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