A Heart So White
Javier Marias’ A HEART SO WHITE won the Impac Dublin Literary Prize the year when Antonio Tabucchi’s PEREIRA DECLARES, another great European novel destined to be a classic, was shortlisted for the prize.
Juan and Luisa, both working at UN as translators/interpreters for diplomats, were newly wed. While in honeymoon in a hotel in Havana, they overheard a curious conversation coming from the adjacent room. They feared this incident, which they thought had affected them in a way or another, would be a menace to the future of their marriage. Later, Juan, in his work-related trips abroad, would witness other incidents that could or could not have been associated with the incident in Havana, or with the incidents in his family’s past that he knew nothing about. In the first few pages of the book, Teresa, the wife of Juan’s father (Ranz) commits suicide shortly after returning from their honeymoon. We’ll learn later that later Ranz married Teresa’s younger sister, Juana, Juan’s mother.
A Heart So White, to briefly describe what it is about, is a novel that chronicles the resonating effect of the past, despite the major protagonist (Juan) not knowing it. It may sound simple; however, the prose has been written in a way so elegantly and intelligently that its anti-detective “feel” blends well with the ambivalence of Juan to know the secrets of his family’s past and his coming into terms with it.
{August 7, 2009}
Juan and Luisa, both working at UN as translators/interpreters for diplomats, were newly wed. While in honeymoon in a hotel in Havana, they overheard a curious conversation coming from the adjacent room. They feared this incident, which they thought had affected them in a way or another, would be a menace to the future of their marriage. Later, Juan, in his work-related trips abroad, would witness other incidents that could or could not have been associated with the incident in Havana, or with the incidents in his family’s past that he knew nothing about. In the first few pages of the book, Teresa, the wife of Juan’s father (Ranz) commits suicide shortly after returning from their honeymoon. We’ll learn later that later Ranz married Teresa’s younger sister, Juana, Juan’s mother.
A Heart So White, to briefly describe what it is about, is a novel that chronicles the resonating effect of the past, despite the major protagonist (Juan) not knowing it. It may sound simple; however, the prose has been written in a way so elegantly and intelligently that its anti-detective “feel” blends well with the ambivalence of Juan to know the secrets of his family’s past and his coming into terms with it.
{August 7, 2009}
Comments