Books March 2010
Digression as progress
A review of Poison, Shadow & Farewell by Javier Marías.
Javier Mar?as -->reviewed by Tess Lewis -->
One could be forgiven for suspecting the indefatigable Spanish novelist Javier Marías of waging a one-man campaign to rejuvenate that aging and underappreciated genre, the novel of ideas. He has written over two dozen books, less than half of which have been translated into English, and for all their postmodern antics—unreliable narrators, shaggy-dog asides, a blending of the biographical and the fictional, and the radical indeterminacy of truth—there is a seriousness of purpose, an eagerness to engage with philosophical and metaphysical questions and to incorporate them into a gripping story. In an interview ten years ago, Marías outlined the intent that underlies his...
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