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Mutlu Kent
Yetişkinlerin dünyasında iki farklı kimliğe ait çocuk yüzü. Çin’den daha güzel bir hayat için İspanya’ya göçmüş ailenin küçük oğlu Chi-Huei ile evsiz bir adamın sürekli gülümsemesine neden olan Sara. Bu iki çocuğun yüzü, 2010 yılında İspanya’nın en iyi genç yazarı olarak seçilen Elvira Navarro’nun büyüleyici kaleminde masalsı birer kahramanın yüzleri gibi. Pırıl pırıl. İnsanlığından uzaklaşan toplumun baskıları, ikiyüzlülüğü, gerçeklerinin rezil birer yalan oluşu, hırslarının tuhaflıkları bu iki çocuğun gözlerinden seyrediyoruz. Yalnız çarpıcı bir ayrıntı var Mutlu Kent’te. O da Elvira Navarro cümlelerinin yapısı, noktasızlığı, nefes nefese akışı. Avangart bir tutumla nefes bu küçük roman, tamamlandığında koca bir şiire dönüşüveriyor zihinde. Küçük bir itiraf: Mutlu Kent, içtenliği ve şıklığıyla Emil Ajar’ın Onca Yoksulluk Varken’i de hatırlattı ilk okurlarına ve eşsizliklerinden bahsedersek Mutlu Kent’in sırlarını açığa çıkarmış olmaktan çekiniyoruz. Siz ilk sayfaları karıştırmaya başladınız, en iyisi biz şöyle diyelim kısaca: Yetişkinlerin tuhaf dünyasından sıkılan, baktıklarını çocuk gözleriyle görme berraklığına sahip olmak isteyen romanı, yetişkinlerin.
- GenresSpainSpanish Literature
141 pages, Paperback
First published July 15, 2010
10 people are currently reading
166 people want to read
About the author
Elvira Navarro
29 books93 followers(Huelva, 1978) es licenciada en Filosofía. En 2004 ganó el Certamen de Jóvenes Creadores del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, y entre 2005 y 2008 disfrutó de una beca de creación en la Residencia de Estudiantes. En 2007 apareció su primer libro, La ciudad en invierno (Caballo de Troya), que fue acogido calurosamente por la crítica y distinguido como Nuevo Talento Fnac. En 2009 publicó La ciudad feliz (Mondadori), que obtuvo el XXV Premio Jaén de Novela y el IV Premio Tormenta al mejor nuevo autor, y que resultó elegido por Culturas del diario Público como uno de los libros revelación del año. Elvira Navarro fue incluida en la lista de los 22 mejores narradores en lengua española menores de 35 años de la revista Granta.
Ha colaborado con revistas como El Cultural de El Mundo, Ínsula, Letra Libres, Quimera, Turia o Calle 20, y con los diarios Público y El País. Ejerce la crítica literaria en Qué Leer y en el blog La tormenta en un vaso, e imparte talleres de escritura.
Ha colaborado con revistas como El Cultural de El Mundo, Ínsula, Letra Libres, Quimera, Turia o Calle 20, y con los diarios Público y El País. Ejerce la crítica literaria en Qué Leer y en el blog La tormenta en un vaso, e imparte talleres de escritura.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
June 21, 2019
رواية تتناول رؤية الأطفال لعالم الكبار وطبيعة العلاقة بينهم
مُقسمة بين قصتين لولد وبنت من الأسر المهاجرة لأسبانيا
من خلال الحكي عن شخصيات كل أسرة ومشاهد من حياتهم اليومية
تعرض الكاتبة اختلاف تعامُل الأولاد مع ما يُفرض عليهم
ونظرتهم أو رفضهم للأسباب التي يُبرر بها الأهل تصرفاتهم
المُميز في الرواية هي الفكرة الجيدة
مُقسمة بين قصتين لولد وبنت من الأسر المهاجرة لأسبانيا
من خلال الحكي عن شخصيات كل أسرة ومشاهد من حياتهم اليومية
تعرض الكاتبة اختلاف تعامُل الأولاد مع ما يُفرض عليهم
ونظرتهم أو رفضهم للأسباب التي يُبرر بها الأهل تصرفاتهم
المُميز في الرواية هي الفكرة الجيدة
October 10, 2017
Zaman zaman hakkında hiç bilgi sahibi olmadığım kitaplar okurum, elime denk gelir ve o belirsizliğin tadını çıkarırım, ayrı bir zevk veriyor bu durum. Mutlu Kent'te böyle elime aldığım kitaplardan ancak ne yazık ki bu kitaptan zevk alamadım hiç.
Mutlu Kent, üslubu farklı ve alışılmadık kitaplardan, yazar dili farklı bir biçimde kullanmış ve art arda gelen cümlelerin hepsi birbiri ile bağlantılı olmayabiliyor, çoğu zamanda olaylar o kadar hızlı akıyor ki cümlelere yetişmek biraz zorlayıcı olabiliyor. Daha önce aynı Mutlu Kent gibi hem hakkında bilgi sahibi olmadığım hemde üslupları farklı olan kitaplar okudum, Yalnızlık Avutmaz, Son Okur gibi. Ancak o kitapları çok sevmesem bile bana kattığı şeyler olmuştu, farklılıkları ve anlatmak istedikleri ile beni etkilemişti. Mutlu Kent'ten de bunu beklemiştim ama bu hiç olmadı.
Yazar bir şeyleri eleştirmek ya da bazı noktalara değinmek istiyor gibi ancak bunu başarabildiğini düşünmüyorum. Bazı bölümleri okurken sık sık bu bölümü neden yazmış diye de düşünmeden edemedim. Kitabın ikinci yarısı ilk yarısından daha iyi olsa da iki kısım arasındaki kopukluk ve anlatım tarzı farkından da hiç hoşlanmadım, yazar öylesine bir şeyler karalamış gibi. Bu arada belirtmek isterim ki kitabın arka kapak yazısıyla bir alakası yok, en azından ben kitapta arka kapak yazısında yazanları bulamadım, birazı var ama genel anlamda şişirilmiş bir tanıtım olmuş.
Mutlu Kent şunun için yazılmış diyebileceğim bir kitap değil, açıkçası kitaptan bir şey anlamadım, yazar tam bir şeyleri yakalayacak derken kitap bitti. Beni düşündüren ya da bana yeni bir şeyler keşfetme şansı sunan her kitaba saygım artar ve bu da puanıma yansır, kitabı sevmesem bile. Ancak bu kitabı ne sevdim, ne de bir şeyler düşünmeme sebep oldu. Üzülerek 1 puan veriyorum, üzülerek çünkü kitaplara düşük puan vermeyi hiç sevmiyorum, her kitap değerlidir.
January 7, 2019
En general me gusta Elvira Navarro, pero esta vez estamos ante un libro cojo. Una pena porque parte de una premisa muy interesante
May 5, 2022
En la primera historia ha reflejado bien la realidad por la que pasa una familia asiática, pero la segunda historia no me llegó a gustar nada. No le veo sentido. Además, la narración es extraña. No sé. No me gustó. :(
December 19, 2016
This intriguing little novel is split into two very distinct parts - first third person, then first, first an immigrant Chinese family in Madrid, then a privately educated Spanish girl, first impersonally, almost factual related, then an emotional inner monologue. The two stories do connect. The narrator of the second part is the first romantic interest of the Chinese boy in the first part. The connections, however, seem deliberately irrelevant. The female narrator mentions her Chinese friend only in passing, her mind occupied by a growing obsession with a homeless man who is amiably stalking her.
Individually, both stories work. Together they create a miniature community portrait of a small quarter of Madrid. Navarro is a good writer, in both styles. She meticulously and knowledgeably relates the arrival of a young, intelligent Chinese boy burdened by the strict expectations of his family. She reveals the success of their business enterprises, based around the Happy City restaurant, and mixes it in with a story of acceptance and integration as the children learn Spanish and attempt to make friends. The relationship with mother and father are very interesting - the father is suffering trauma from a short, torturous spell in prison and has shut himself off from communication with his dictatorial father and wife, yet opens himself up to the new language, Spanish, using it to communicate with his two sons partly because neither their mother nor their grandfather have bothered to learn the language and therefore can't understand him. These inter-familial divides look at the heart of immigrant stories and the difficulties, and complexities of integration, topics so often portrayed as very black and white.
The mother is portrayed in a cold, practical light. She is responsible for the running of the restaurant as well as many of the family decisions. The last section, told in repetitive dialogues between mother and son, show her trying to distance her family relations and separate them from the practicalities of making the move from China and starting up a business. The children are seen as commodities, the older to work, the younger to study. In contrast, the first sexual experiences with the incoming narrator for the stories second half are full of the freedoms and confusions of youth. Navarro's distant, documentary style makes for an interesting vignette of immigrant life and the challenges of growing up between worlds.
The change is jolting, and I was always waiting for a return to the Happy City. It felt like a story unfinished, and similarly the second half ends with things untold. The creepy, coming of age story about a young girl and her relationship with a young man who rejects society and the conventions of work, is very different and full of tension. When the two meet and create a kind of friendship in a local bar, their dialogues become a dark, searching longing for answers, for the grown-up world and for a sense of understanding. By the end, the young girl is left more confused, more adult, and less rooted. The homeless man acts as a symbol of her questioning, her rebellion and her desire to break out from the the confines of family and parental control.
Two good novels joined together with some measure of success, The Happy City left me wanted a little bit more of both stories and perhaps some attempt to reconcile them both, two parallel stories existing in the same world. 7
Individually, both stories work. Together they create a miniature community portrait of a small quarter of Madrid. Navarro is a good writer, in both styles. She meticulously and knowledgeably relates the arrival of a young, intelligent Chinese boy burdened by the strict expectations of his family. She reveals the success of their business enterprises, based around the Happy City restaurant, and mixes it in with a story of acceptance and integration as the children learn Spanish and attempt to make friends. The relationship with mother and father are very interesting - the father is suffering trauma from a short, torturous spell in prison and has shut himself off from communication with his dictatorial father and wife, yet opens himself up to the new language, Spanish, using it to communicate with his two sons partly because neither their mother nor their grandfather have bothered to learn the language and therefore can't understand him. These inter-familial divides look at the heart of immigrant stories and the difficulties, and complexities of integration, topics so often portrayed as very black and white.
The mother is portrayed in a cold, practical light. She is responsible for the running of the restaurant as well as many of the family decisions. The last section, told in repetitive dialogues between mother and son, show her trying to distance her family relations and separate them from the practicalities of making the move from China and starting up a business. The children are seen as commodities, the older to work, the younger to study. In contrast, the first sexual experiences with the incoming narrator for the stories second half are full of the freedoms and confusions of youth. Navarro's distant, documentary style makes for an interesting vignette of immigrant life and the challenges of growing up between worlds.
The change is jolting, and I was always waiting for a return to the Happy City. It felt like a story unfinished, and similarly the second half ends with things untold. The creepy, coming of age story about a young girl and her relationship with a young man who rejects society and the conventions of work, is very different and full of tension. When the two meet and create a kind of friendship in a local bar, their dialogues become a dark, searching longing for answers, for the grown-up world and for a sense of understanding. By the end, the young girl is left more confused, more adult, and less rooted. The homeless man acts as a symbol of her questioning, her rebellion and her desire to break out from the the confines of family and parental control.
Two good novels joined together with some measure of success, The Happy City left me wanted a little bit more of both stories and perhaps some attempt to reconcile them both, two parallel stories existing in the same world. 7
August 29, 2020
I wanted to like this book more; after all, I picked it up in a bookstore in Spain, and those memories are precious—I hoped to make this a souvenir. The writing is good, and the story is compelling, but both novellas feel vaguely unsatisfying in their current forms. I liked their ideas, their tone, the way Navarro wanted to touch on the teen angst, the disillusionment, etc. But ultimately both simply—ended. Both felt like introductions to a protagonist, both ended abruptly. The second had more of an arc, the first was connected small tales of a young boy's life. But neither really made it there for me. I'll have to try another book from Navarro.
June 26, 2019
الرواية مجملًا جميلة، مختلفة بعض الشيء، وفرصة طيبة للتعرف على كاتبة إسبانية جديدة.
الرواية مكونة من جزءين، الجزء الأول عن المطعم الصيني اللي بطله تشي-هوي، والجزء الثاني عن البنت سارا، وعلاقتها بالصعلوك، اللي كان كل رغبته هو المناقشة، ومحاولة إيجاد تفسير لبعض الأمور.
عجبني الجزء الثاني أكتر، الجزء الأول كان فيه أجزاء ممله، وكنت حابب لو اتكمل كرواية.
في النهاية تجربة جميلة.
وشكرًا على الترجمة الأجمل للمترجمة شرين عصمت.
الرواية مكونة من جزءين، الجزء الأول عن المطعم الصيني اللي بطله تشي-هوي، والجزء الثاني عن البنت سارا، وعلاقتها بالصعلوك، اللي كان كل رغبته هو المناقشة، ومحاولة إيجاد تفسير لبعض الأمور.
عجبني الجزء الثاني أكتر، الجزء الأول كان فيه أجزاء ممله، وكنت حابب لو اتكمل كرواية.
في النهاية تجربة جميلة.
وشكرًا على الترجمة الأجمل للمترجمة شرين عصمت.
August 27, 2020
The title is, of course, ironic. These two novellas, linked together only by the geography of an urban quarter in Madrid, are explorations of adolescent angst. Nobody's happy at all. However these stories transcend the typical YA preoccupation with relevance and relatability (see Felicity Castagna's thoughts about this here) with circumstances that are not typical at all.
The first novella, The Story of the Chinese Restaurant 'Happy City' is about a family of Chinese migrants. The younger son, Chi-Huei, was left behind in China when the family migrated to Spain, and the story begins when he rejoins the family after an absence that was longer than originally planned. This first part covers familiar territory — the confusions of a young child experiencing migration: negotiating a new language and encountering different traditions of school and play.
As is usually the case, the boy learns the language of his new country with more dexterity than adult members of the family. Within the household his mother, stepmother and grandfather speak Chinese albeit with a different accent because the family came from the north, while the aunt with whom Chi-Huei lived in the south spoke the H. dialect and a thickly-accented Mandarin. This was the language his aunt had always used when she spoke to him, and the one they used at school, although the predominant language in the streets [was] the H. dialect. [Probably either Hokkien or Haikou, which are southern dialects). After an initial period of awkwardness Chi-Huei becomes adept at switching accents depending on who he's talking to, and soon also not only speaks Spanish with his older brother, but also with his father.
Navarro deftly explains why the family migrated in this sequence about languages. Chi-Huei's father was briefly imprisoned in China, and although it's not named as such and one needs to read between the lines, he is suffering PTSD from the interrogation. He can't now, in Chinese, answer any questions, about anything, because in the interrogation, he had to give the 'right' answer, not the truth (whatever that was), and he had to guess what was wanted without incriminating himself. The Chinese-speaking members of the family have to tell him what to do, never to ask him what he wants or thinks, because it sends him into panic. But in Spanish, which he learned quickly and speaks easily with his sons, he's not the fool he's thought to be by his wife, his father and his stepmother. Not much is made of this in the story because the focus in on the boy's difficult relationship with his mother, but it's an illuminating example of the after-effects of torture. It also explains the family preoccupation with making enough money to be secure in their new home.
In adolescence Chi-Huei begins to chafe at the duty he is expected to fulfil. His older brother is destined to work in the business (a take-away chicken shop that gradually morphs into a somewhat shabby restaurant) while he is expected to study hard and enter one of the professions. He despises the family preoccupation with money because he comes to realise that it was the reason for his long absence in China. His relationship with his mother is conflicted partly because she is the driving force in the business and works at it seven days a week and into the night as well, and he doesn't share her value system that money is security for the family and her sons in the future. But he also resents her abandonment of him.
She in return intrudes on his nostalgic memories of his childhood past with his aunt in China.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/08/27/t...
The first novella, The Story of the Chinese Restaurant 'Happy City' is about a family of Chinese migrants. The younger son, Chi-Huei, was left behind in China when the family migrated to Spain, and the story begins when he rejoins the family after an absence that was longer than originally planned. This first part covers familiar territory — the confusions of a young child experiencing migration: negotiating a new language and encountering different traditions of school and play.
As is usually the case, the boy learns the language of his new country with more dexterity than adult members of the family. Within the household his mother, stepmother and grandfather speak Chinese albeit with a different accent because the family came from the north, while the aunt with whom Chi-Huei lived in the south spoke the H. dialect and a thickly-accented Mandarin. This was the language his aunt had always used when she spoke to him, and the one they used at school, although the predominant language in the streets [was] the H. dialect. [Probably either Hokkien or Haikou, which are southern dialects). After an initial period of awkwardness Chi-Huei becomes adept at switching accents depending on who he's talking to, and soon also not only speaks Spanish with his older brother, but also with his father.
Navarro deftly explains why the family migrated in this sequence about languages. Chi-Huei's father was briefly imprisoned in China, and although it's not named as such and one needs to read between the lines, he is suffering PTSD from the interrogation. He can't now, in Chinese, answer any questions, about anything, because in the interrogation, he had to give the 'right' answer, not the truth (whatever that was), and he had to guess what was wanted without incriminating himself. The Chinese-speaking members of the family have to tell him what to do, never to ask him what he wants or thinks, because it sends him into panic. But in Spanish, which he learned quickly and speaks easily with his sons, he's not the fool he's thought to be by his wife, his father and his stepmother. Not much is made of this in the story because the focus in on the boy's difficult relationship with his mother, but it's an illuminating example of the after-effects of torture. It also explains the family preoccupation with making enough money to be secure in their new home.
In adolescence Chi-Huei begins to chafe at the duty he is expected to fulfil. His older brother is destined to work in the business (a take-away chicken shop that gradually morphs into a somewhat shabby restaurant) while he is expected to study hard and enter one of the professions. He despises the family preoccupation with money because he comes to realise that it was the reason for his long absence in China. His relationship with his mother is conflicted partly because she is the driving force in the business and works at it seven days a week and into the night as well, and he doesn't share her value system that money is security for the family and her sons in the future. But he also resents her abandonment of him.
She in return intrudes on his nostalgic memories of his childhood past with his aunt in China.
To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2020/08/27/t...
May 4, 2019
Vidas de dos personajes, un niño, chino, y una niña mediterránea. De él, su niñez y adolescencia; su adaptación al nuevo entorno y el descubrimiento de algunos detalles desconocidos. En la niñez somos pequeños ignorantes... De ella, un episodio puntual, que pudiera suceder, aunque algo increíble dada la supuesta edad en que le ocurre y cómo responde e interactúa ante dicha situación.
July 5, 2024
Elvira Navarro se inclina en su escritura hacia la expresión de lo complejo.
https://www.lecturasalazar.com/art%C3...
La infancia es una parte intrincada de la vida.
https://www.lecturasalazar.com/art%C3...
La infancia es una parte intrincada de la vida.
November 20, 2023
بسيط جميل ممكن يخلص في قعدة او قعدتين
عن المدينة لاسعيدة مدريد وحكاية الطفل الصيني وصديقته
عن المدينة لاسعيدة مدريد وحكاية الطفل الصيني وصديقته
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January 20, 2019Lo interesante de esta novela es cómo muestra, describe y analiza el mundo de los niños y sus conflictos con los adultos a través de un punto de vista que es el de los menores, pero al mismo tiempo con un lenguaje y capacidad de comprensión totalmente adulta. Una tensión que acerca su literatura a la de Sara Mesa. Navarro describe una ciudad ficticia con retazos de alguna gran ciudad española (Barcelona?), pero nunca la nombra o lo hace por iniciales, igual que los lugares de donde vienen los protagonistas de la primera parte en China. No entiendo muy bien el recurso y creo que le quita verosimilitud a las cosas y genera desconfianza sobre el realismo de los personajes chinos, cuyas relaciones entre sí están urdidas de manera magistral. Es una novela con pequeños defectos, pero que merece muchísimo la pena.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews