Manuel Vázquez Montalbán (1939–2003)

This book may be over my head, much of the writing I did not understand. It seemed like endless lines which should have set a tone, or a place, or performed some task, but I never figured out what it was. Maybe it is because the snapshot or timeframe of Spanish history is largely unknown to me, but somehow it seemed important.

Overall it was kind of weird. I never figured out what Pepe Carvalho was all about other than another investigator-type, in this case "private detective", with an overriding culinary streak.

Is Carvalho the original foodie? Seems like every bit of crime fiction I read nowadays has to have a strong food angle: Tannie Maria (Sally Andrew), Vish Puri (Tarquin Hall), Salvo Montalbano (Andrea Camilleri) etc. Like when did all the fictional crime-solvers become gourmands? It is because of all those baking shows on TV nowadays?

Another aspect I didn’t quite get or believe is that every single character was forever quoting from literature, or some art figure. Every person was a literary savant. In the real world no one does that.

I do not believe I had ever heard of Manuel Vázquez Montalbán before finding this book so I was trying to keep an open mind. My first impression was to call this an average story. But then I got to thinking that I didn’t care for a single character, and there were scores as the book circled back and forth between the mains. I simply wasn’t engaged in any way with the story or events so it took me a long time to read what is really a short story. When I'd pick up the book to start reading again I had little idea of what was happening so would have to glance back a few pages to try and get back into it. At the end of the day I have to go with less-than-okay for this one.

There were a few passages I liked (see below), but by the middle the book not even those could save it.

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‘What about his wife? Why is she called Mima?’

‘From Miriam. It’s quite normal. All my clients are called Popo, Puli, Peni, Chocho, Fifi or somesuch. These days it’s chic to be "tired", and nothing tires you more than having to say someone's full name.… (more)

O César o nada
Manuel Vázquez Montalbán
Publicado: 1998 | 262 páginas
Novela Histórico

O César o nada es una novela que trata del círculo que inician los renacentistas Alejandro VI, César y Lucrecia Borja y cierra Francisco de Borja como duque de Gandía, general de la Compañía de Jesús y uno de los inspiradores y ejecutores de la Contrarreforma. En una misma familia emparentada con la realeza y el poder religioso y económico de Europa y América (todavía un descendiente de los Borja ha sido en los últimos tiempos presidente de la República del Ecuador) se plasma la pulsión del cambio del humanismo renacentista y la reacción dirigida a que todo cambie para que el orden establecido cambie lo menos posible. El título homenajea a Baroja, autor de César o nada, en pleno centenario del 98, pero poco tiene que ver esta novela con la narración barojiana. Tampoco es una novela histórica al uso. Aunque el autor sitúa los hechos en su momento, utiliza un ritmo narrativo y un lenguaje que dan a aquellos sucedidos vivencia de una historia contemporánea de terror, pasión, ambición, coraje, cobardía, vanguardismo y conservadurismo. Maquiavelo, Alejandro VI, el Gran Capitán, Lucrecia Borja, Leonardo, Miguel Ángel, Savonarola, Juana la Loca presencian las «corridas» de César Borja como el empeño de un matador confiado en la virtud que reúne la razón y la fuerza contra el fatalismo de la providencia o del destino. Toda época genera sus Borja, en la versión del incestuoso Alejandro VI o en la del regeneracionista con complejo de culpa san Francisco de Borja.… (more)