BOOKS

Author(s): QUIM MONZÓ and Peter Bush

Source: BOMB, No. 116 (Summer 2011), pp. XXII-XXIII
Published by: New Art Publications
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23037814
Accessed: 19-12-2018 03:53 UTC

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BOMB

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 The passionate reader has all four books in front o
can't think where to begin. The stories by the Fr
whose novel he liked several years ago? The novel
QUIM MONZO American about whom he knows nothing? That w
very likely) he finds it immediately disappointing, h
BOOKS eliminated one of the four at a stroke and will o
choose from among the other three. Obviously th
happen with the novel by the Dutch writer whom
to put down on two previous occasions, after mer
Translated from the Catalan by Peter Bush The reader opens the second book and leafs throu
the third and does exactly the same. And follows
There are four books on the passionate reader's table. He
fourth. All could
waitingchoose on the basis of the typefa
paper... He and
to be read. He went to the bookshop this afternoon, tries to find another aspect of the boo
after
decide and
spending an hour around the new releases tables for reviewing
him (an isolated sentence, a character's
the covers of his favorite authors on the shelves, he chose
layout. four.
Or paragraphing, for example. He knows
One is a book of short stories by a French writers
writer; struggle toen
he really create frequent paragraphs, whet
[ joyed a novel of his years ago. He didn't like calls forsecond
the it or not, because they think that when the
novel
the page isn't
he published that much (in fact, didn't like it all) and has now too dense, he will feel better disposed
book. The
bought this book of stories in the hope of rediscovering whatsame goes for dialogue. A serrated text,
had fired his imagination so many years ago. dialogue, is (according
The second book to current norms) a plus for m
is a novel by a Dutch writer whose two precedingThis novels
may generally
he had be the case, but has the oppos
j tried to read, but with little success, because this reader:
he'd had he both
to put finds an abundance of new parag
ing.didn't
of them down after a few lines. Strangely, this He is lead
prejudiced
him against, and mirrors, the prejud
lovers of
to abandon the idea of a fresh attempt. Strange, abundant
because usuparagraphs, who find a lack o
extremely monotonous
ally, when he can't stand 20 lines of the first book by a particular or arrogant.
writer he might try the second, but never the Where should the
third, unless he begin? The solution might be to
allpraise,
critics he trusts have singled it out for special at once,
or as he often does. Not simultaneously, o
a friend
going
has recommended it particularly enthusiastically. from
But thisone to another, just as you never watch
wasn't
nels at try?
the case now. Why did he decide to give him another the same time but flick from one to anoth
Perhaps
it's the beginning. The beginning that goes: "The bellhop rushed be a book he opens first where he
there must always
J in shouting: 'Mr. Kington! Mr. Kington, graph,
please!'a Mr.
story, a chapter, 20 percent of the pages be
Kington
on to the next.
was reading the newspaper in the lobby of the Ambassador HotelThe problem is not knowing wher
and was about to raise his hand when he realized
gets up that nobody,
and lights a cigarette. Why is lighting up a s
but nobody, knew he was there. He didn't one evendoesn't
look up know
whenwhat to do? Lighting up shows w
ing something
the bellhop walked by. It would be the most intelligent through, are meditating intensely, ar
decision
he had ever made." ing, are waiting for someone (every so often we w
the by
The third book is also a novel, the first novel curtain and look down the street) or are losing
an American
author he has never heard of. He bought it because in spite of the waiting room, its floor covered
a maternity-hospital
butts).
initial quotation ("Oh, how the tiles glinted in theOne enjoys a postcoital cigarette; one lights a
blossoming
extinguish
dawn, when the roosters' cry broke the silence it in the groin of a masochistic lover and i
with the sound..."),
arousal.
he had leafed through it and felt drawn in. The One
fourth lights
book is aa cigarette in search of inspiratio
book of short stories, also by a Dutch writer,nicotine
one who helps
had to stop us from dozing off, or so we do
been
unpublished to that point. What attracted him we are
to hungry and can't
that book? If or don't want to. The passio
he were to be sincere, it was the rich abundance
has of
oneinitials: there
last drag and goes back to the table. The f
there
are three (A., F., Th.) before the three words and,
that next
make upto them, the plastic bag bearing t
the
| surname. A total of six words: three for thered logo. Night
surname falls; a car drives by; a radio blast
and three
hear
for the first name. What's more, the first word ofa the
lot surname
of radiosisin novels? If the four books wer
all of
van. He simply adores surnames that begin with a sudden, his problem would disappear with
van.
to begin?
Why, out of the four books that the passionate He picks
reader has up the novel by the American
on his table, are two (50 percent exactly) to the first
Dutch? page. the
Because He sticks his finger forcefully bet
Book Fair held in the city was this year devoted
leaves, toto Dutch
keep lit
it open, and reads: "At the very mom
pulls the sheet up
| erature, and that meant, on the one hand, that publishers have to cover his face, the dead man op
and whispers
brought out more writers in that language recently incoherently.
and, on the The nurse screams, drops
other, that the main bookshops in the citysays
havethe patient's
created name, and takes his pulse. She runs
special
the doctor.
displays, piling tables up with these new books as well 'Doctor,
as booksthe patient in 114 isn't dead!'
by Dutch and Flemish authors that had been mean, he's notyears
published dead?' 'He's not dead. He opened hi
j ago, that are no longer new and were gathering dust in thedoctor
his pulse ...' The dis tries to hide the unease th
tributors' warehouses. of news provokes in him."

XXII FIRST PROOF

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 The reader closes the book. The first sentence, the first para Quim Monzo was born in Barcelona in
graph, the first page. The possibilities are immense, as ever. 1952. He has been awarded the National
Everything still has to fan out, gradually, as the paths at the Award, the City of Barcelona Award, the
beginning fade until finally (that is, on the final page) only one Prudenci Bertrana Award, the El Temps
remains that is generally predictable. Will the writer keep us Award, the Lletra d'Or Prize for the best
entranced to the last page? Won't there ever be a time, from here book of the year, and the Catalan Writers'
to the 5th, 18th, or 167th page when his spell will be broken? Award; he has been awarded Serra d'Or
But a narrative is never as good as the possibilities that fan out at magazine's prestigious Critics' Award
the beginning. Anyway, it's not about the reader foreseeing every four times. He has also translated numer
possible development and improving on the ones offered by the ous authors into Catalan, including
author. No way. How would he continue the story of the man Truman Capote, J. D. Salinger, and Ernest
reading the newspaper in the lobby of the Ambassador Hotel who Hemingway. "Books" appears in the collec
doesn't react when they shout out his name? It is that moment of tion Guadalajara, forthcoming from Open
indecision, when the chips are down, that attracts him. The expo Letter in July 2011. Open Letter also pub
sition vaguely reminds him of that Hitchcock film when Cary lished an English-language translation of
Grant is mistaken for another man in a hotel lobby. But he's not Monzo's novel Gasolina last spring.
interested in taking that thought further. To write the next scene,
whatever that might be, would open the way to imperfection.
Writers err when they develop their initial expositions. They
shouldn't. They should systematically set out their opening gam
bits and abandon them at the most enthralling point. Isn't that
so with everything? Of course it is! Not only in books, but also
in films or plays. Or politics. If you are ingenuous enough to
believe any of that, isn't a party's political program a thousand
times more interesting, positive, and stirring than its execution
once the party is elected to govern? Everything is idyllic about the
program. In practice, nothing is respected, everything is falsified;
reality imposes its own corrosive cruelties. And (in life outside
of books) isn't the beginning of love, the first look, the first kiss
much richer than what comes later, which inevitably turns every
thing into failure? Things should always begin and never con
tinue. Isn't a man's life enormously rich in possibilities at the age
of three? What will become of this boy who is just starting out?
And as he grows, life will wither everything: few of his expecta
tions will be fulfilled, and that's if he is lucky. But just as a pas
sionate reader cannot stop life unless he decides to cut it short,
he can stop his books at their moment of greatest splendor, when
the potential is still almost infinite. That's why it is neverending.
He only reads the beginnings, the first pages at most. When the
forking paths fanning out at the start of a story begin to fade and
the book is beginning to bore him, he puts it down and places it
on the corresponding shelf, according to the alphabetical order
of the writer's surname.
Disappointment can come at any time. In the first paragraph,
on page 38, or on the penultimate page. He once reached the last
page of a book. He was about to begin the last paragraph (a short
paragraph, about a third of a page), and hadn't yet been disap
pointed, when he took fright. What if that book didn't disap
point—even in the last line? It was altogether improbable; you
simply know disappointment had to set in, if only with the last
word, as it always did. But what if it didn't? Just in case, he
quickly looked away, five lines from that final period. He closed
the book, put it back in its place, and took a deep breath; that
demonstration of his willpower allows him to continue fantasiz
ing that sooner or later (on the most unlikely day, the moment
he finally does decide), he will have the courage to stop eternally
deferring a decision that is final.

XXIII QUIM MONZO

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