Three enigmas for the Organization

Year of publication: 2024

Valuation: Alright

Let’s once and for all recognize that Eduardo Mendoza is the smartest Spanish writer and perhaps the smartest in the world. the evidence: he wrote almost fifty years ago a prestigious novel, despite its rather enjoyable nature, as they say now, or enjoyable despite having prestige, if you prefer). He repeated the move years later with another no less enjoyable and prestigious one and in between, some funny little novels, as if to relax the hand without losing the pulse, which also had great popularity, because everyone likes to have a laugh. Later he multiplied the game with a serialized narrative that ended up being a bombshell and the man saw it clearly… Why worry about writing more or less serious novels, undoubtedly excellent, but which enjoyed less favor from the reading public? After all, he had already demonstrated (and would still demonstrate on more than one occasion) what he was capable of doing and if the populace wanted fun and fun, then that was what he was going to give them, because there are the chines, after all. Thus, Mendoza has ended up becoming the most recognized, celebrated and, above all, rich Spanish humor author… I mean successful, since it is already known that writers do not write to make money.

In short, Mr. Mendoza has been writing novels that are more or less humorous, more or less original and more or less successful for years and decades. Of those that I have read (not everything) so far this century, I would highlight, for example, The amazing journey of Pomponio Flatowhose title simply moves people to smile or cat fightwhich, on the other hand, is not too comical, or is as comical as a subject as humorous as the Spanish Civil War can be (neither of the two novels reviewed on the blog, by the way… at the moment).

His latest creation, at least published, is, of course, another humorous novel, there is Three enigmas for the Organization, of which it is difficult to give spoilers, because its title already says it all: the aforementioned Organization is a Spanish agency of ¿ security? Intelligence? ultra-secret that is responsible for resolving cases that have been left out of the reach of the rest of the State security forces and bodies. Based in an office in the Eixample of Barcelona, ​​the Organization is the closest thing to the TIA of the longed-for Ibáñez that we can find in the literary scene and its agents no less precarious and peculiar than Mortadelo and Filemón themselves: camouflaged (?) behind war names such as Pocorrabo, Buscabrega, Monososo, Boni or Mrs. Grassiela, will strive to unravel three mysteries that the boss – simply known as the Boss – has insisted must be related to each other: the suicide of a client of a hotel in las Ramblas, the disappearance of the owner of a luxurious yacht moored in the port and the surprising maintenance of low prices by the company Conservas Fernández. Despite its ineffective appearance, the organization’s troupe does not do poorly in detective work, a bit like the occupants of Mick Herron’s Swamp House or the grilled chickens by Sóphie Hénaff, and the three cases are disentangled at the same time as they interweave with each other, however paradoxical it may be…

With these bones you can make a good broth and Don Eduardo doesn’t do anything wrong, thanks to his proverbial sarcasm, his inventiveness for extravagant characters and a language that is somewhere between slick and flat-footed, which is most effective for comic purposes. And, above all, thanks to his great craft that allows him to give what he writes a natural air, to make his books read easily without being excessively simple and always giving the impression that the author has written them with the same ease, and, above all, having a piratey time… Whether they turn out to be more or less funny later is another thing; In this case, the novel undoubtedly provokes a perennial smile and even the occasional laugh, but perhaps it is a little far from other more gloriously comic titles by this writer. Which, in any case, is not bad, given that Mr. Mendoza is already more than eighty years old, something that no one could guess reading this book. Perhaps for him and other people like him we should coin a term opposite to the popular and expressive “old man”… Young man? Young, just like that? Whatever, but for many years.

Lots of books by Eduardo Mendoza reviewed: here