A book a day: Juan Marsé: The great disappointment

So, not just any writer is tempted to make a retrospective profile of two decades, the 1930s and 1940s, of enormous significance in the history of humanity. Not everyone is given absolute freedom to make of what would seem like a cautious autumnal tribute, an attractive choice of anecdotes, social and political facts, cultural elements from a wide range – here we talk about Concha Piquer and we talk about Faulkner – and, of course, because Marsé is basically a social chronicler in the strict sense, and that gives him a political nuance that, although subliminal, is still devastating. Therefore, as readers, we do not always have – Chaves Nogales comes to mind – the possibility of a narration of the story done with sufficient objectivity and at the same time with the style of Marsé, so evasive about beating around the bush, so direct and precise. The value of The great disappointment Regardless of the fact that any Marsé completist may need to read it or any sporadic reader comes out of curiosity, it is that possibility of direct dialogue with its author without an intervening character or plot. Marsé writing, because that is the unavoidable central theme and the plot point not only of this book but of the inexcrutable history of humanity at the time, about the rise of totalitarianism, about Nazism, fascism and Francoism, the Civil War Spanish, World War II, without falling into demagoguery or, for a moment, into the slightest suspicion of idolatry for anything other than cultural icons. Without downplaying everything that was happening. Marsé talking about his memories of that time is simply another way to enjoy his writing.