The Mansard Mansard Hero

Original language: castellano

Year of publication: 1983

Valuation: Recommendable

What if I don’t like the book? Because Álvaro Pombo’s novel had the honor of winning the First Herralde Prize, which not only has the endorsement of the publishing group that convenes it, but also, because it is the first, I understand that special care would be taken to reward a truly work. remarkable. So how could an amateur reviewer refute the expert judgment of people with judgment and extensive experience in the literary world? So I choose to use pragmatism, and I begin reading with a positive predisposition, lest I be exposed as a smart outsider.

Pombo locates the narrative in a family of the upper bourgeoisie of northern Spain, possibly his native Santander. In a somewhat similar scheme Up and downwe find the stern grandmother Mercedesalways escorted by her friend Maria del Carmenand the aunt Eugenia, who occupies the mansards of the family mansion, and who seems like the sister who is somewhat wayward, dreamy and, as you prefer, rather light-headed, or who loves to enjoy being single. Finally, the grandson, nicknamed Where where, who, due to the almost permanent absence of her parents, remains under the tutelage of the English governess. Below, the service personnel in which you enter to be part Juliana young man with a confusing past.

But that’s where the similarity with the Lords and Servants series ends, because the story focuses on the strange relationship between aunt Eugenia and his nephew Where where. She, now somewhat advanced in years and having lost a good part of her once dazzling beauty, seems determined to relive old adventures, while the boy seems to have always been her confidant, the recipient of real or fictitious stories about parties, trips, lovers. and luxury, things that he only half understands but that remain registered in his memory. The boy, still on his way to adolescence, has more mystery, for almost the entire narrative he is a kind of elf, a peculiar Jiminy Cricket, sometimes childish and other times of surprising maturity, a wild card who gradually begins to be the key to all plays. He is therefore Where where a rather disconcerting character, who at some point returns to being just a child whose only goal is to get rid of a dark memory that he has never shared.

As you can see, it is above all a novel about characters, almost all of them very well drawn although it is difficult to get a complete idea of ​​them, which is an added merit, because obviously (and many authors sometimes forget this) people have edges, nooks and folds that do not allow a simple definition. This, the richness of some characters, is one of the book’s assets, along with a good repertoire of narrative resources, a language that oscillates between the colloquial and the poetic, and empty spaces that invite the reader to contribute their hypotheses. The tension can be sensed, there are elements in the back room that call for confrontation, crossed frustrations that remain in the shadows or emerge half-heartedly, without it being clear whether what is visible or what is hidden is more important.

And yet, something seems to be missing. Perhaps a more solid construction that avoids the sometimes intense sensation of irregularity, or that its ellipses actually cause enough concern to play with filling them in. I want to assume that, being his second novel in a fairly long list, Pombo has subsequently acquired the substance and packaging to adjust rhythms and materials. In this installment, even though he presented estimable qualities, he was a few steps away from something truly brilliant, in what we would call here a recommendable Simply put, it’s very good but perhaps not entirely exciting.