The essence of things by Josep Seguí Dolz

Synopsis:

From Valencia and Barcelona and back, passing through Alicante, Rome, Prague, Bogotá, Tokyo, Havana, New York, Juan Miguel Ramírez Marcial, a doctor in Philosophy, narrates some events in his life; many of them not at all common. Despite the title of this novel, its protagonist is not exactly in search of that, of the essence of things. If he could speak – he can’t anymore; he’s dead – it’s possible that he would tell us that more than that, what he has been searching for all his life is how his relationships with María, with Pili, with Paqui, with Diane Sandra, with Maikel Alejandro, with Lorraine, with Gemma have been like this. And with some other people who appear here. What our philosopher tells us are not imaginary matters. They are not real; but neither are they unreal. They are evocative. And in the evocation the binomial real/unreal is diluted. Perhaps that is the essence of things: to evoke them and, thus, to construct them. Building them in the environment of social chaos in which Juan Miguel has lived like many others who, like him, will die without knowing what those relationships and things would have been like in another world, in an imaginary one where everything was perfect and ideal; a kind of parallel universe where everything is light, balance, inner peace,… with hardly any room for emotions and passions. The novel is structured in themes rather than chapters, although they are quite intertwined with each other. Themes such as sex, politics, war, love, loneliness,… And others that seem to be more or less universal. As we say in the prologue (in the first pages you will understand why I use the plural): “Probably a good way to start this story would be with some sex, violence or mystery. Don’t worry, sex and violence are further ahead. Mystery, it is up to you to judge. As is whether that sex and violence that occasionally pepper this shared story have a more or less explicit or harsh level or whatever it is that interests you. “In any case, there is not much new under the sun in that respect” (…) “This is a story of meetings and farewells. Especially the last ones. Now that it is finished, we are going over it and we see that there are expressions like ‘we will never see each other again’, ‘I will never hear from her again’… This is neither good nor bad. After all, life is a bit like that, isn’t it? Findings, relationships, abandoning, forgetting. They are all the same. And they have their share of laughter and their share of drama.” Any resemblance or lack thereof to reality is intentional; it is not pure coincidence.