Poet, columnist, essayist, novelist and short story writer. And in all these areas with that residue of the good creator. Because Jose Maria Merino it flaunts that use of language as a total tool to spread or to excite.
In his extensive literary career has published more than 40 books and many other volumes that could be compiled from his interventions in the written press or in any other appearance as a columnist in a variety of media.
But as far as fiction is concerned, which is what interests the most in this blog, Merino is that author perhaps overshadowed by the trends of bestsellers but always valued by purists and necessary to make literature consistent beyond the fast-paced novels.
These entertainment novels, as valuable as any other for that wonderful empathy that reading brings, but lacking the value of chronicling history from intrahistories with greater substance.
An author who in historical fiction is comparable to Jose Calvo Poyato o Santiago Posteguillo, to cite two of the most representative in that rigorous fiction of other times.
Top 3 recommended novels by José MarÃa Merino
The river of Eden
Nothing more true than that that you never bathe twice in the same river, aimed at the alimón between Heraclitus and Plato. Especially if the river is the one that flows in Eden, beyond the time of men.
It is about the sensation of paradise lost, shared in this case between a father and a son about to become that man who flees, without knowing it, from the glory of childhood. A paternal-filial tandem on which the sensation of those fugitive emotions pivots, unattainable from memories even on the same stage. Because the river is never the same again. Daniel and Silvio already share that sadness for the mother and the absent woman. The compendium between the even more distressing happiness of the idealization of the lost with the melancholy determined to unleash the deepest sadness make the father and son walk a transcendental path towards nothingness, towards the past.
Because beyond the Silvio who has his whole life ahead of him, Daniel still craves the impossible revenge on the untimely loss. The intense shine, sad yes, but vital in its essence, makes up one of those novels brimming with the humanity that we are, in that transit through any valley of tears, where all the rivers in which we can never bathe again end up being born.
The visions of Lucrecia
In the mentideros of Madrid of the XNUMXth century, the case of Lucrecia comes up many times. A young woman from the service who seems to be subject to Cassandra's syndrome. Her hallucinations lead her to dramatic future events, to great historical vicissitudes, horrifying in many cases.
Between the patriomanialized fears for the religious and the interests capitalized by the great powers of the moment, Lucrecia finds herself immersed in a continuous struggle not to be used for the benefit of both. Of course, the outbreaks between ascetics and dementia will not report anything positive to a young woman finally besieged by the Inquisition. Despite the delusional nature of the matter, at times the author takes advantage of the confusion that always emanates from madness to offer possible certain connections with what Lucrecia prophesies and what may happen.
And so, with that taste for such an impressive protagonist, we are entering an otherwise rigorous novel in the historical and very rich in details whose end ends up acquiring that disturbing aftertaste of a prophecy finally fulfilled.
Adventures and Inventions of Professor Souto
José MarÃa Merino offers us in this book Adventures and Inventions of Professor Souto to an alter ego who has the possibility of fulfilling all the pending dreams of the author.
And as it happens to all of us, the first thing that stands out in the creation of the right teacher is his ability to do what comes out of there. But he always remains the author, with his particular superman costume of the letters that can do everything but at the same time determined to visit his creator again and again, to show him his progress, to rejoice in his freedom. He was always there, next to the writer, looking for his moment to make his way from page 1 of the book that awaited him. And he knows everything about the author because he accompanied him every second, and was forged with his ideas and fantasies, essential to transpose from the arid wastelands of non-fiction genres to the lushness of fiction.
An interesting book about the renowned writer José MarÃa Merino, told by that creative shadow that always accompanies an author, yearning to take on an unpredictable alter ego that may end up surprising its author.
