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Four by Four
At Wybrany College, there are two kinds of student: the children of the rich and powerful, and the ‘Specials’ – recipients of a mysterious scholarship. Sealed off from the decaying world outside, the school promises safety, order and, for the Specials, the chance of a different life. But when one of them disappears, the illusion begins to crack. Hidden hierarchies shift. The line between protector and predator blurs.
294 pages, Paperback
First published November 22, 2012
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About the author
Sara Mesa
37 books1,451 followersSara Mesa is the author of eight works of fiction, including Scar (winner of the Ojo Critico Prize), Four by Four (a finalist for the Herralde Prize), An Invisible Fire (winner of the Premio Málaga de Novela), and Cara de Pan (forthcoming from Open Letter). Her works have been translated into more than ten different languages, and has been widely praised for her concise, sharp writing style.
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December 13, 2022
‘One escapes the external evils, certainly, but monsters are generated inside these walls.’
The need for safety is a powerful motivation, and one that has been exploited time and time again for purposes of power. Sara Mesa’s Four by Four is a profoundly chilling investigation into the hierarchies of power, privilege and the abuse that spills out from them. Told in three sections spiraling through multiple perspectives and a ‘found documents’ technique, Mesa’s tells the story of Wybrany College: an elite boarding school that offers a stable education and protection from the violence and degradation occurring in the cities. For a hefty price, that is, which for some means money and for the less fortunate means something far more sinister. Behind the walls of the school meant to keep riots and danger out, we find it is often the wall builders who are the true evils. Mesa’s sharp, concise language constructs a neo-gothic atmosphere where violence and corruption feel overwhelmingly present yet can’t seem to be directly understood or observed. With each new revelation the horrors build to a fever pitch but the ability to address them diminishes. Four by Four is a ‘mystery about rules that are established but never completely defined,’ the way these rules enforce a hierarchy of power where one will always oppress anyone below themselves and the unspeakable fates that befall those who would challenge this order or get in their way.
‘The rules exist. They’re strong, unquestionable, but they’re not written anywhere. Therefore, they can’t be obeyed or disobeyed.’
(TW for the book: sexual abuse, suicide, animal cruelty)
The majority of the book is spent in the confines of Wybrany College--the ‘colich’ as it is always referred in the text--which is purported to have been started long ago by a Polish immigrant. The school, however, seems far too recently constructed to fit this narrative thus beginning the countless obfuscating aspects of all life and behavior on school grounds. Wybrany, meaning ‘selected’ in Polish, lives up to it’s name through maintaining an elitism and respectability with students from notable families in the political, entertainment and business realm who pay seemingly exorbitant tuition in order to keep their children there. There is a second class student, the ‘specials’ as opposed to the ‘normals’, who are part of the scholarship program which typically means a parent is part of the work staff. While headmaster Señor J. assures parents there is no difference in treatment between the two classes, the treatment--especially between the students themselves--is markedly different. The school is also divided into a boys and girls school, and the two rarely interact. Order and control is immediately apparent here and Mesa’s approach of contrasting the instability of the novel’s narration with the extreme hierarchy of order at the school is delightfully destabilizing.
Each section of the novel offers a different voice and perspective of the school. Part one rotates between a first-person POV with Celia, a young “special” from a broken home in the poverty-stricken districts of the city who is considered difficult and volatile by staff and peers, with the third person story of Ignacio. Ignacio’s narrative follows him from being bullied to being a bully under the guidance of the Headmaster, who considers him his Garasim from The Death of Ivan Ilych. Similarly, Celia is taken under the wing of the Advisor (called the assistant headmaster in pt 2), granted visits to her mother and a cat in a shadowy and menacing exchange the reader only understands in whispers. Part 2 and 3 are written as “found documents”, the first being the diary of substitute teacher Isidor Bedragare who, in reality, took the position under false pretenses, and the latter being a surreal and sinister short story written by the teacher Bedragare has replaced.
‘Plenty of matters that are best kept secret. The thing is to pretend you don’t notice.’
Each section is like a different flashlight beam into a dark pit of depravity, bringing certain dark truths out of the shadows yet still lost in a menacing unknown where the unseen and unspoken seems to be screaming. The reader must piece together impressions and half-told stories to get at the heart of darkness that casts its gruesome shadow over the school, though even after the timeline of events is ironed out and the stories told we can never fully know the truth in its totality. ‘That’s how sewers work,’ Bedragare writes, ‘occasionally, the stench seeps out, we smell it, but the sewers remain below, out of sight, unmentioned. As if they don’t exist.’ And though ‘we all know more than we pretend to,’ this unseen, unspokeness of Wybrany becomes it’s entire essence from the purpose of its power structures to the unspoken social rules that seem to dictate everyone’s lives but can never be quite explained with words. Despite the crystal clear prose, everything in the novel is blurry and out of focus--much like Bedragade’s worsening eyesight--as Mesa teases each mystery to a fever pitch of frustrated reality.
‘We’ve entered a new age,’ Bedragare muses in his diary, ‘from now on, we will be ruled by other codes, other norms, a hostile environment to which we must adapt to survive.’ And Mesa crafts a perfectly horrifying hostile environment indeed, one that cuts deep into the inherent violence of social hierarchies. ‘Certain students are afforded special protections that also serve the protector,’ Bedragare observes, particularly noting that Ignacio’s blatant sexual violence against his classmates goes unpunished while the victim is left to face reprimands and social shame from the encounter. Those further up the hierarchy also tend to always punch down on those below them, a near law of society that entrenches those with a little bit of power in a position above those with less.
Ignacio was once beaten and mocked but once he had the protection of the headmaster, he channels his rage into a quest for power, sexually assaulting other submissive students until he has a achieved a bully status that is glorified by the other bad-actors of the institution and quickly becomes top of the food chain amongst students. The book shares a kindred spirit with Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite as a criticism of the forces that build such oppressive hierarchies and the hope they instill in us that if we just climb their ladder we can escape the worst oppressions below us but in doing so must inevitably become the oppressor.
‘You speak and they listen. You order and they obey.’
The second section thrusts the reader into the chaotic reality of the teachers, who were mostly shadowy figures in the former section. Here Mesa details an equally sinister hierarchy, dominated by the Headmaster Senor J., the now-assistant headmaster, and Marieta, in charge of curriculum and seemingly has replaced the female administrator--dubbed The Booty--from the previous section, though her existence seems to have vanished without a trace. Mesa imbues these authorities with an air of menace, such as Marita where ‘her smile has all the beauty of a mask,’ combining a vibe both totalitarian and straight from a horror film. Contrast these with Bedragare, a ‘from-below sort’ with an extreme case of imposter syndrome where his necessity for laying low is always at odds with his moral sense to sniff out the unknown evils of the colich. For the most part, with the exception of one particular teacher who’s conscience has him noticeably sickened, the teachers seem content to let the lurking evils of Wybrany go ignored. Professor Martinez mentions that it’s best to just enjoy the comfortable lifestyle the school affords, which recalls Hannah Arendt’s concept of the ‘banality of evil’ and serves as a direct indictment to those who allow the greatest ills of the world to linger as long as they don’t affect them directly. They allow evil to occur through their inaction.
What is particularly brilliant in Mesa’s crafting of the school is that, for all its pomp and circumstance and elite-level fees, we are told it isn’t all that prestigious. There are dignitaries, sure, but not the upper-elites, and the staff is qualified but nothing noteworthy. It seems they have risen to comfort status in society and created a microcosm where they are the top, or, as Laurence Peter once satirized ‘In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.’ The formation of a self-enclosed hierarchy is what helps retain power, and weapons of gaslighting and isolationism are used to enforce it the way bullies, abusive husbands and dictators have done to keep their victims subjugated.
Though Wybrany College is not mere buffoonery as we learn while details slowly creep in. What happens to the students who do not succeed, the ones Senor J. remarks ‘we remove them from the bushel before they spoil the rest.’ Why has a girl “special” disappeared? Who beheaded the cat and why are their multiple suicides (and are they truly suicides)? And why will nobody do anything to stop it? These mysteries amalgamate with a slow ominous swelling to the point of pure terror in Mesa’s expert hands.
‘It’s a simple trade, a healthy, hygienic exchange in which both parties benefit; this exchange has always existed, no point in denying it.’
Perhaps the most important theme of the novel, however, is how this was able to happen. It is a simple trick, one used by tyrants since the dawn of time. ‘The nicer it is in there,’ Celia thinks, ‘the more disturbing it is to go out.’ This is equally reinforced by fear-mongering about the outside world, highlighting the violence and riots that are occuring in the streets-- a tactic which, politically, is used to delegitimize movements against oppressive rulers. ‘Throughout our nervous history, we have constructed pyramidic towers of evil, ofttimes in the name of good,’ observed Maya Angelou in a 1982 interview. We see this in Wybrany. Wybrany built its walls to keep the students in--for safety-- pledging ‘solidarity with the neediest’ as a marketing promise with no intention of upholding it. It is about creating the image of good and care (anyone currenty observing the US will be familiar with the bad-faith rhetoric of walls ). Here the students and teachers are able to feel comfortable from the evils trumped up by their leaders and become resigned as a herd of livestock, well-tended, comfortable livestock.’
They are perfect victims for those in power. We watch them be stripped of their ability to address the ills around them (‘language is useless’ Ignacio remarks when he is being bullied), and without the language to address what they are experiencing they are unable to really name it. Hence why everything evil there ‘happens without words.’ In her essay on climate change--it is hinted in the book that this has ravaged the countryside--Rebecca Solnit wrote that ‘any revolt against brutality begins with a revolt against the language that hides that brutality’. Hierarchies of power, as seen here, work by controlling the narrative and rhetoric, so that you cannot even have the language to argue against it. We see this with bad-faith framing all the time in politics where their name does not match their intents or meaning. And anyone who tries is either punished or framed as inept. This, perhaps, is the true evil lurking in the heart of the school, the inability to fight against your own victimization.
Four by Four is a horrifying yet incredibly well-crafted and engaging novel. It’s a book that serves the patient reader well and it’s best to just get lost in the disorienting labyrinth of narrative instead of fighting for comprehension. Like real life, many answers are unclear and many things never explained. This frustration is part of the point, and Mesa does an extraordinary job of delivering that message without it sullying the enjoyment or leaving the ending feeling incomplete. This is a powerful criticism of the powerful and the hierarchies they enforce to attain and then retain that power, as well as their selective ‘grace’ to pick and choose from the oppressed who may rise up and who will be feasted upon. Even in a time when gothic novels and boarding school novels seem to have oversaturated the market, this one stands out as truly unique and an intellectual success. This is a truly haunting novel, one that won’t soon be forgotten.
4.5/5
‘I lost my sense of clarity a long time ago. The world seems like a work of fiction; the things that happen are like projections on a movie screen...I can’t change--or even understand--them.’
The need for safety is a powerful motivation, and one that has been exploited time and time again for purposes of power. Sara Mesa’s Four by Four is a profoundly chilling investigation into the hierarchies of power, privilege and the abuse that spills out from them. Told in three sections spiraling through multiple perspectives and a ‘found documents’ technique, Mesa’s tells the story of Wybrany College: an elite boarding school that offers a stable education and protection from the violence and degradation occurring in the cities. For a hefty price, that is, which for some means money and for the less fortunate means something far more sinister. Behind the walls of the school meant to keep riots and danger out, we find it is often the wall builders who are the true evils. Mesa’s sharp, concise language constructs a neo-gothic atmosphere where violence and corruption feel overwhelmingly present yet can’t seem to be directly understood or observed. With each new revelation the horrors build to a fever pitch but the ability to address them diminishes. Four by Four is a ‘mystery about rules that are established but never completely defined,’ the way these rules enforce a hierarchy of power where one will always oppress anyone below themselves and the unspeakable fates that befall those who would challenge this order or get in their way.
‘The rules exist. They’re strong, unquestionable, but they’re not written anywhere. Therefore, they can’t be obeyed or disobeyed.’
(TW for the book: sexual abuse, suicide, animal cruelty)
The majority of the book is spent in the confines of Wybrany College--the ‘colich’ as it is always referred in the text--which is purported to have been started long ago by a Polish immigrant. The school, however, seems far too recently constructed to fit this narrative thus beginning the countless obfuscating aspects of all life and behavior on school grounds. Wybrany, meaning ‘selected’ in Polish, lives up to it’s name through maintaining an elitism and respectability with students from notable families in the political, entertainment and business realm who pay seemingly exorbitant tuition in order to keep their children there. There is a second class student, the ‘specials’ as opposed to the ‘normals’, who are part of the scholarship program which typically means a parent is part of the work staff. While headmaster Señor J. assures parents there is no difference in treatment between the two classes, the treatment--especially between the students themselves--is markedly different. The school is also divided into a boys and girls school, and the two rarely interact. Order and control is immediately apparent here and Mesa’s approach of contrasting the instability of the novel’s narration with the extreme hierarchy of order at the school is delightfully destabilizing.
Each section of the novel offers a different voice and perspective of the school. Part one rotates between a first-person POV with Celia, a young “special” from a broken home in the poverty-stricken districts of the city who is considered difficult and volatile by staff and peers, with the third person story of Ignacio. Ignacio’s narrative follows him from being bullied to being a bully under the guidance of the Headmaster, who considers him his Garasim from The Death of Ivan Ilych. Similarly, Celia is taken under the wing of the Advisor (called the assistant headmaster in pt 2), granted visits to her mother and a cat in a shadowy and menacing exchange the reader only understands in whispers. Part 2 and 3 are written as “found documents”, the first being the diary of substitute teacher Isidor Bedragare who, in reality, took the position under false pretenses, and the latter being a surreal and sinister short story written by the teacher Bedragare has replaced.
‘Plenty of matters that are best kept secret. The thing is to pretend you don’t notice.’
Each section is like a different flashlight beam into a dark pit of depravity, bringing certain dark truths out of the shadows yet still lost in a menacing unknown where the unseen and unspoken seems to be screaming. The reader must piece together impressions and half-told stories to get at the heart of darkness that casts its gruesome shadow over the school, though even after the timeline of events is ironed out and the stories told we can never fully know the truth in its totality. ‘That’s how sewers work,’ Bedragare writes, ‘occasionally, the stench seeps out, we smell it, but the sewers remain below, out of sight, unmentioned. As if they don’t exist.’ And though ‘we all know more than we pretend to,’ this unseen, unspokeness of Wybrany becomes it’s entire essence from the purpose of its power structures to the unspoken social rules that seem to dictate everyone’s lives but can never be quite explained with words. Despite the crystal clear prose, everything in the novel is blurry and out of focus--much like Bedragade’s worsening eyesight--as Mesa teases each mystery to a fever pitch of frustrated reality.
‘We’ve entered a new age,’ Bedragare muses in his diary, ‘from now on, we will be ruled by other codes, other norms, a hostile environment to which we must adapt to survive.’ And Mesa crafts a perfectly horrifying hostile environment indeed, one that cuts deep into the inherent violence of social hierarchies. ‘Certain students are afforded special protections that also serve the protector,’ Bedragare observes, particularly noting that Ignacio’s blatant sexual violence against his classmates goes unpunished while the victim is left to face reprimands and social shame from the encounter. Those further up the hierarchy also tend to always punch down on those below them, a near law of society that entrenches those with a little bit of power in a position above those with less.
’Ceding to power, power expands: one plus one is always one more.
The rest of us are left out of this equation.
We add nothing. We take nothing away.’
Ignacio was once beaten and mocked but once he had the protection of the headmaster, he channels his rage into a quest for power, sexually assaulting other submissive students until he has a achieved a bully status that is glorified by the other bad-actors of the institution and quickly becomes top of the food chain amongst students. The book shares a kindred spirit with Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite as a criticism of the forces that build such oppressive hierarchies and the hope they instill in us that if we just climb their ladder we can escape the worst oppressions below us but in doing so must inevitably become the oppressor.
‘You speak and they listen. You order and they obey.’
The second section thrusts the reader into the chaotic reality of the teachers, who were mostly shadowy figures in the former section. Here Mesa details an equally sinister hierarchy, dominated by the Headmaster Senor J., the now-assistant headmaster, and Marieta, in charge of curriculum and seemingly has replaced the female administrator--dubbed The Booty--from the previous section, though her existence seems to have vanished without a trace. Mesa imbues these authorities with an air of menace, such as Marita where ‘her smile has all the beauty of a mask,’ combining a vibe both totalitarian and straight from a horror film. Contrast these with Bedragare, a ‘from-below sort’ with an extreme case of imposter syndrome where his necessity for laying low is always at odds with his moral sense to sniff out the unknown evils of the colich. For the most part, with the exception of one particular teacher who’s conscience has him noticeably sickened, the teachers seem content to let the lurking evils of Wybrany go ignored. Professor Martinez mentions that it’s best to just enjoy the comfortable lifestyle the school affords, which recalls Hannah Arendt’s concept of the ‘banality of evil’ and serves as a direct indictment to those who allow the greatest ills of the world to linger as long as they don’t affect them directly. They allow evil to occur through their inaction.
What is particularly brilliant in Mesa’s crafting of the school is that, for all its pomp and circumstance and elite-level fees, we are told it isn’t all that prestigious. There are dignitaries, sure, but not the upper-elites, and the staff is qualified but nothing noteworthy. It seems they have risen to comfort status in society and created a microcosm where they are the top, or, as Laurence Peter once satirized ‘In a hierarchy every employee tends to rise to his level of incompetence.’ The formation of a self-enclosed hierarchy is what helps retain power, and weapons of gaslighting and isolationism are used to enforce it the way bullies, abusive husbands and dictators have done to keep their victims subjugated.
Though Wybrany College is not mere buffoonery as we learn while details slowly creep in. What happens to the students who do not succeed, the ones Senor J. remarks ‘we remove them from the bushel before they spoil the rest.’ Why has a girl “special” disappeared? Who beheaded the cat and why are their multiple suicides (and are they truly suicides)? And why will nobody do anything to stop it? These mysteries amalgamate with a slow ominous swelling to the point of pure terror in Mesa’s expert hands.
‘It’s a simple trade, a healthy, hygienic exchange in which both parties benefit; this exchange has always existed, no point in denying it.’
Perhaps the most important theme of the novel, however, is how this was able to happen. It is a simple trick, one used by tyrants since the dawn of time. ‘The nicer it is in there,’ Celia thinks, ‘the more disturbing it is to go out.’ This is equally reinforced by fear-mongering about the outside world, highlighting the violence and riots that are occuring in the streets-- a tactic which, politically, is used to delegitimize movements against oppressive rulers. ‘Throughout our nervous history, we have constructed pyramidic towers of evil, ofttimes in the name of good,’ observed Maya Angelou in a 1982 interview. We see this in Wybrany. Wybrany built its walls to keep the students in--for safety-- pledging ‘solidarity with the neediest’ as a marketing promise with no intention of upholding it. It is about creating the image of good and care (anyone currenty observing the US will be familiar with the bad-faith rhetoric of walls ). Here the students and teachers are able to feel comfortable from the evils trumped up by their leaders and become resigned as a herd of livestock, well-tended, comfortable livestock.’
They are perfect victims for those in power. We watch them be stripped of their ability to address the ills around them (‘language is useless’ Ignacio remarks when he is being bullied), and without the language to address what they are experiencing they are unable to really name it. Hence why everything evil there ‘happens without words.’ In her essay on climate change--it is hinted in the book that this has ravaged the countryside--Rebecca Solnit wrote that ‘any revolt against brutality begins with a revolt against the language that hides that brutality’. Hierarchies of power, as seen here, work by controlling the narrative and rhetoric, so that you cannot even have the language to argue against it. We see this with bad-faith framing all the time in politics where their name does not match their intents or meaning. And anyone who tries is either punished or framed as inept. This, perhaps, is the true evil lurking in the heart of the school, the inability to fight against your own victimization.
Four by Four is a horrifying yet incredibly well-crafted and engaging novel. It’s a book that serves the patient reader well and it’s best to just get lost in the disorienting labyrinth of narrative instead of fighting for comprehension. Like real life, many answers are unclear and many things never explained. This frustration is part of the point, and Mesa does an extraordinary job of delivering that message without it sullying the enjoyment or leaving the ending feeling incomplete. This is a powerful criticism of the powerful and the hierarchies they enforce to attain and then retain that power, as well as their selective ‘grace’ to pick and choose from the oppressed who may rise up and who will be feasted upon. Even in a time when gothic novels and boarding school novels seem to have oversaturated the market, this one stands out as truly unique and an intellectual success. This is a truly haunting novel, one that won’t soon be forgotten.
4.5/5
‘I lost my sense of clarity a long time ago. The world seems like a work of fiction; the things that happen are like projections on a movie screen...I can’t change--or even understand--them.’
August 16, 2020
Here's something new (to me, at least): Spanish Gothic.
This is a new English translation of the 2012 novel by Spanish writer Sara Mesa. Can I just say how I just LOVE the growing availability of translated works now? I read a ridiculous amount of American fiction (rarely dipping a toe into my own country, the shame!) so I'm happy this year thus far I've read 7 translated books from 5 different countries. What a gift that can only serve to broaden my horizons.
This book intrigued me from the get-go because it is described as mysterious and Gothic. A swanky, progressive private school where frightening secrets fester. Power inequalities abound. Wrongful exchanges take place.
Four by Four delivers on that promise. There are many classic Gothic tropes here to satisfy that particular appetite:
* A beautiful place shrouded in mystery (in this case, Wybrany College, a private school)
* Sinister secrets that lurk and tease (there's something terrible going on here, never said out loud)
* Illuminating letters or papers left behind by someone deceased (perhaps under questionable circumstances)
* Encroaching madness, disease / unreliable narrator
* The death of an animal
* Unexplained disappearances
The book is written in three parts. The first is from multiple student perspectives, which I have to say, had me a bit impatient. I didn't like the head-hopping much. I found the mysteriousness a bit heavy handed. I worried I was reading something YA, which I hoped was only a function of the school setting and the teenage characters.
The story picks up in the second part. Comprised of the diary entries of a substitute teacher who has secrets of his own, the writing is spare and powerful. I found myself engaged and moving along quickly.
The third part (papers that were written by a former teacher) I found to be less powerful, written in a somewhat cryptic, poetic fashion via a series of short sections. What I longed for - a satisfying reveal - doesn't really manifest. While the ending IS disturbing and revealing of a terrible abuse of power and deathly 'exchanges', I found myself longing for something more tangible.
But perhaps that's not a realistic expectation of a story told in the Gothic tradition. After all, classics The Turn of the Screw and My Cousin Rachel don't provide easy answers either. Instead of looking for answers, I should probably focus on the "sewers" of society that Mesa describes, these underground messes that take place with the rest of us wandering around above, undisturbed by the knowledge that just below our feet, something is unthinkably rotten.
3.5 stars
This is a new English translation of the 2012 novel by Spanish writer Sara Mesa. Can I just say how I just LOVE the growing availability of translated works now? I read a ridiculous amount of American fiction (rarely dipping a toe into my own country, the shame!) so I'm happy this year thus far I've read 7 translated books from 5 different countries. What a gift that can only serve to broaden my horizons.
This book intrigued me from the get-go because it is described as mysterious and Gothic. A swanky, progressive private school where frightening secrets fester. Power inequalities abound. Wrongful exchanges take place.
Four by Four delivers on that promise. There are many classic Gothic tropes here to satisfy that particular appetite:
* A beautiful place shrouded in mystery (in this case, Wybrany College, a private school)
* Sinister secrets that lurk and tease (there's something terrible going on here, never said out loud)
* Illuminating letters or papers left behind by someone deceased (perhaps under questionable circumstances)
* Encroaching madness, disease / unreliable narrator
* The death of an animal
* Unexplained disappearances
The book is written in three parts. The first is from multiple student perspectives, which I have to say, had me a bit impatient. I didn't like the head-hopping much. I found the mysteriousness a bit heavy handed. I worried I was reading something YA, which I hoped was only a function of the school setting and the teenage characters.
The story picks up in the second part. Comprised of the diary entries of a substitute teacher who has secrets of his own, the writing is spare and powerful. I found myself engaged and moving along quickly.
The third part (papers that were written by a former teacher) I found to be less powerful, written in a somewhat cryptic, poetic fashion via a series of short sections. What I longed for - a satisfying reveal - doesn't really manifest. While the ending IS disturbing and revealing of a terrible abuse of power and deathly 'exchanges', I found myself longing for something more tangible.
But perhaps that's not a realistic expectation of a story told in the Gothic tradition. After all, classics The Turn of the Screw and My Cousin Rachel don't provide easy answers either. Instead of looking for answers, I should probably focus on the "sewers" of society that Mesa describes, these underground messes that take place with the rest of us wandering around above, undisturbed by the knowledge that just below our feet, something is unthinkably rotten.
3.5 stars
August 12, 2020
Rating: 4.25🍌
When Michel Foucault published Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison in 1975, he radically shifted the discourse around power, freedom, discipline, punishment, and prisons. His work in this volume, as well as earlier works such as Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, and The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language influenced countless scholars, artists, and philosophers over the next several decades. It would seem that Foucault influenced Sara Mesa, as well -- at least if FOUR BY FOUR is anything to go by. The Spanish novelist's slim 2012 offering can be seen in many ways as a working out of the concepts present in Foucault's oeuvre.
Set in the exclusive, secluded private "colich" of Wybrany, Mesa's tripartite novel leans heavily on Gothic and dystopian elements to explore how power structures work in both society and institutions. The story opens from the point of view of the students at the school and focuses on Celia and Ignacio, two students who take very different approaches to dealing with the institution's established power structure. The combination of multiple perspectives/multiple timelines in this section is a bit disorienting (unproductively so in my opinion) and the vaguely YA-ish tone a bit cloying, but impatient readers should persist.
The novel begins to coalesce in the second section, switching style and tone as we join Isidro Bedragare ("bedragare" means "imposter" in Swedish, one of a few elements of the book that is perhaps too on the nose), who is posing as his former brother-in-law to take a much-needed job as a substitute teacher at Wybrany. Bedragare arrives out of sorts, unable to figure out what is going on at the school or even where the bathroom is. Worse, nobody wants to tell him -- instead, he must piece together the institution's sinister secret through elliptical conversations, half-understood observations, and fragments of writing left behind by his predecessor. Soon both Bedragare and the reader learn Wybrany's secret, which is sinister indeed. Furthermore, both the reader and our hapless hero then apprehend that this secret serves the school’s true, perhaps even more insidious purpose: to create individuals who understand, accept, and reproduce the intact power structures both in the school and in society.
Indeed, symbols and systems of power, control, and discipline abound, some of them enforced, others unenforced but nevertheless followed, all of them serving to reinforce the flow of power: the administrators referred to only by the names of their roles; the watchdog who functions more as an idea of control than an actual guard dog; the fence that doesn't actually keep anybody out or in -- even the frequent chess matches Bedragare loses to one of his fellow teachers allude to the mechanism of power constantly at work. Here we begin to think of Foucault and his fascination with how power reproduces itself not by overt rules and brute force but through a system of surveillance and conditioning, as he notes in Discipline and Punish: "Disciplinary power… is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility."
In the third and final section, FOUR BY FOUR turns its attention to the institutional structure of the school (and by extension society) itself in the form of a cryptic story ostensibly written by Bedragare’s predecessor. The text makes repeated reference to the tyranny of language and conditioned discipline, as well as the workings of silence, surveillance, and Foucault's panopticon, including one memorable passage that overtly compares language to watchtowers. Most importantly, this is the section in which the significance of the title is made clear, turning the story’s central image into an allegory that serves as a metaphor of both school and society while offering a lens through which to examine the previous sections. The reader is left with questions: How might this circuit of power be interrupted? Is it even possible?
In the cloistered boarding school setting and the heavy emphasis on rules and order, FOUR BY FOUR will no doubt remind Fleur Jaeggy fans of Sweet Days of Discipline; in the diary format of the second section, Gothic horror fans will be reminded of Dracula. However, Mesa's interests are more overtly philosophical than either of those two books, as the third section makes explicit. Though each element of FOUR BY FOUR -- the Gothic touches, the dystopian society, or the philosophical musings -- feels familiar in its component part, I've never seen them combined in quite this way, and Mesa conjures a wonderfully eerie and claustrophobic atmosphere, particularly in the novel's second section. But make no mistake -- this is not a book that one reads for prose or style (with the caveat that I read the translation), and it falls a bit short for me in that comparatively amateurish opening section. Additionally, the sinister activities on which the central plot hinges feels to me more nominal and symbolic than well integrated into the text.
Still, FOUR BY FOUR offers many pleasures both at the reading and conceptual levels, and like many dystopian and Gothic stories it feels uncomfortably relevant in the current global environment. In a world in which those in power maintain that power through media manipulation, gaslighting, and convincing their followers they've always believed things they've never believed, I am again reminded of Foucault: "A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas."
When Michel Foucault published Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison in 1975, he radically shifted the discourse around power, freedom, discipline, punishment, and prisons. His work in this volume, as well as earlier works such as Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, and The Archaeology of Knowledge & The Discourse on Language influenced countless scholars, artists, and philosophers over the next several decades. It would seem that Foucault influenced Sara Mesa, as well -- at least if FOUR BY FOUR is anything to go by. The Spanish novelist's slim 2012 offering can be seen in many ways as a working out of the concepts present in Foucault's oeuvre.
Set in the exclusive, secluded private "colich" of Wybrany, Mesa's tripartite novel leans heavily on Gothic and dystopian elements to explore how power structures work in both society and institutions. The story opens from the point of view of the students at the school and focuses on Celia and Ignacio, two students who take very different approaches to dealing with the institution's established power structure. The combination of multiple perspectives/multiple timelines in this section is a bit disorienting (unproductively so in my opinion) and the vaguely YA-ish tone a bit cloying, but impatient readers should persist.
The novel begins to coalesce in the second section, switching style and tone as we join Isidro Bedragare ("bedragare" means "imposter" in Swedish, one of a few elements of the book that is perhaps too on the nose), who is posing as his former brother-in-law to take a much-needed job as a substitute teacher at Wybrany. Bedragare arrives out of sorts, unable to figure out what is going on at the school or even where the bathroom is. Worse, nobody wants to tell him -- instead, he must piece together the institution's sinister secret through elliptical conversations, half-understood observations, and fragments of writing left behind by his predecessor. Soon both Bedragare and the reader learn Wybrany's secret, which is sinister indeed. Furthermore, both the reader and our hapless hero then apprehend that this secret serves the school’s true, perhaps even more insidious purpose: to create individuals who understand, accept, and reproduce the intact power structures both in the school and in society.
Indeed, symbols and systems of power, control, and discipline abound, some of them enforced, others unenforced but nevertheless followed, all of them serving to reinforce the flow of power: the administrators referred to only by the names of their roles; the watchdog who functions more as an idea of control than an actual guard dog; the fence that doesn't actually keep anybody out or in -- even the frequent chess matches Bedragare loses to one of his fellow teachers allude to the mechanism of power constantly at work. Here we begin to think of Foucault and his fascination with how power reproduces itself not by overt rules and brute force but through a system of surveillance and conditioning, as he notes in Discipline and Punish: "Disciplinary power… is exercised through its invisibility; at the same time it imposes on those whom it subjects a principle of compulsory visibility."
In the third and final section, FOUR BY FOUR turns its attention to the institutional structure of the school (and by extension society) itself in the form of a cryptic story ostensibly written by Bedragare’s predecessor. The text makes repeated reference to the tyranny of language and conditioned discipline, as well as the workings of silence, surveillance, and Foucault's panopticon, including one memorable passage that overtly compares language to watchtowers. Most importantly, this is the section in which the significance of the title is made clear, turning the story’s central image into an allegory that serves as a metaphor of both school and society while offering a lens through which to examine the previous sections. The reader is left with questions: How might this circuit of power be interrupted? Is it even possible?
In the cloistered boarding school setting and the heavy emphasis on rules and order, FOUR BY FOUR will no doubt remind Fleur Jaeggy fans of Sweet Days of Discipline; in the diary format of the second section, Gothic horror fans will be reminded of Dracula. However, Mesa's interests are more overtly philosophical than either of those two books, as the third section makes explicit. Though each element of FOUR BY FOUR -- the Gothic touches, the dystopian society, or the philosophical musings -- feels familiar in its component part, I've never seen them combined in quite this way, and Mesa conjures a wonderfully eerie and claustrophobic atmosphere, particularly in the novel's second section. But make no mistake -- this is not a book that one reads for prose or style (with the caveat that I read the translation), and it falls a bit short for me in that comparatively amateurish opening section. Additionally, the sinister activities on which the central plot hinges feels to me more nominal and symbolic than well integrated into the text.
Still, FOUR BY FOUR offers many pleasures both at the reading and conceptual levels, and like many dystopian and Gothic stories it feels uncomfortably relevant in the current global environment. In a world in which those in power maintain that power through media manipulation, gaslighting, and convincing their followers they've always believed things they've never believed, I am again reminded of Foucault: "A stupid despot may constrain his slaves with iron chains; but a true politician binds them even more strongly by the chain of their own ideas."
August 7, 2020
Oh-my-god, this was weird!
And Nightmarish!
And so bloody addictive!!!
I usually don’t do plot summaries in my reviews but this time I’m making an exception. Here we go then: so this is the story of some f*cked up place inhabited by equally f*cked up people doing f*cked up nasty things to one another (and animals).
I know, I know, it all sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?
There was a constant eerie feeling throughout and I couldn’t wait for the next nasty thing to happen. I’ll have to be honest though and admit I didn’t know what was happening most of the time.
So yeah, this was a totally crazy read packed with gothic (and also some dystopian) elements and the ending left me with more questions than answers. But because I couldn’t quite manage to stop myself from turning the pages and actually read it in two sittings I guess I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was weird, yes, but I love it weird anyway.
4 stars for the most addictive literary weirdness of the year (so far).
Thank you to the Newest Literary Fiction Group for bringing this novel and its author to my attention. I’m certainly checking out more of Sara Mesa’s daring work.
Did I already say how much I love weirdness?
And Nightmarish!
And so bloody addictive!!!
I usually don’t do plot summaries in my reviews but this time I’m making an exception. Here we go then: so this is the story of some f*cked up place inhabited by equally f*cked up people doing f*cked up nasty things to one another (and animals).
I know, I know, it all sounds fascinating, doesn’t it?
There was a constant eerie feeling throughout and I couldn’t wait for the next nasty thing to happen. I’ll have to be honest though and admit I didn’t know what was happening most of the time.
So yeah, this was a totally crazy read packed with gothic (and also some dystopian) elements and the ending left me with more questions than answers. But because I couldn’t quite manage to stop myself from turning the pages and actually read it in two sittings I guess I thoroughly enjoyed it.
It was weird, yes, but I love it weird anyway.
4 stars for the most addictive literary weirdness of the year (so far).
Thank you to the Newest Literary Fiction Group for bringing this novel and its author to my attention. I’m certainly checking out more of Sara Mesa’s daring work.
Did I already say how much I love weirdness?
August 5, 2020
Wybrany College has the appearance of being an ideal place to keep kids safe from the world's dangers. Staff members have the appearance of acting in the best interests of those children. They magnanimously take in scholarship kids, as well as the children of the wealthy, to give them equal opportunities for betterment. But Wybrany is not immune from the dangers of mixing power differentials with the worst of human nature, and the reader is pulled through one troubling life corridor after another, as bargains and transactions shed light on the true nature of what one finds within these walls.
"Wybrany's isolation had a flip side, one escapes the external evils, certainly, but monsters are generated inside these walls."
A story that illuminates how easily we can participate in looking away, keeping silent, pretending all is well, pretending we are someone or something we aren't, and trading what we have to get what we want; and how doing all those things can change us and rip us apart at the seams, or create monsters.
"...transactions created to paper over each new disaster...create a channel where (chaos) can flow in secret."
"There are no watchmen. The wall wasn't built to prevent people from crossing; it isn't high enough to stop someone from jumping over. The wall only prevents one from seeing. Its opacity is its only purpose: there is no other. It creates a giant, compliant, orderly four by four."
There are no watchmen that keep us from seeing. Only our own willingness to look...at each other and ourselves, and to speak the truth. A story with some pretty heavy themes, told slowly, with dark hints and slow reveals.
This book offers a pretty experimental style for creating a story. It begins focused on a group of children in a boarding school, its initial sections fluctuating between first and third person POV. The second section is entirely from the point of view of a substitute teacher who is new to the school, and the last section is a story written by a former teacher which appears to be an allegorical representation of things that troubled him before he was gone. It is a confusing read, and can be a bit frustrating at times as you flounder around trying to connect dots that don't stand still. After I was done, I re-scanned it in order to answer some lingering questions. If you don't read it quickly, you can easily lose the threads that hold it together. I'd give the content a 4 but the delivery a 2, for an average of 3. Ultimately it was worth reading, but has a very unusual flow.
"Wybrany's isolation had a flip side, one escapes the external evils, certainly, but monsters are generated inside these walls."
A story that illuminates how easily we can participate in looking away, keeping silent, pretending all is well, pretending we are someone or something we aren't, and trading what we have to get what we want; and how doing all those things can change us and rip us apart at the seams, or create monsters.
"...transactions created to paper over each new disaster...create a channel where (chaos) can flow in secret."
"There are no watchmen. The wall wasn't built to prevent people from crossing; it isn't high enough to stop someone from jumping over. The wall only prevents one from seeing. Its opacity is its only purpose: there is no other. It creates a giant, compliant, orderly four by four."
There are no watchmen that keep us from seeing. Only our own willingness to look...at each other and ourselves, and to speak the truth. A story with some pretty heavy themes, told slowly, with dark hints and slow reveals.
This book offers a pretty experimental style for creating a story. It begins focused on a group of children in a boarding school, its initial sections fluctuating between first and third person POV. The second section is entirely from the point of view of a substitute teacher who is new to the school, and the last section is a story written by a former teacher which appears to be an allegorical representation of things that troubled him before he was gone. It is a confusing read, and can be a bit frustrating at times as you flounder around trying to connect dots that don't stand still. After I was done, I re-scanned it in order to answer some lingering questions. If you don't read it quickly, you can easily lose the threads that hold it together. I'd give the content a 4 but the delivery a 2, for an average of 3. Ultimately it was worth reading, but has a very unusual flow.
November 18, 2020
A lot of atmosphere. A secluded college, a system of caste and a vague lurking of shadows make for a swiftly established microcosm in Four by Four. Even though the story banks on its characters’ perceptions and a progressive revealing of secret social rules for plot advancement, the book's dreamlike streak of impressionism enjoys a fast-paced, bite-sized delivery. In fact, you could say the story hops rather than puddles. I found it had allure, in its simplicity.
Four by Four came into my life at the right moment - during the rather dull fall of 2020 - and it broke some kind of reading funk I had been feeling as of late. I'm grateful for that.
Four by Four came into my life at the right moment - during the rather dull fall of 2020 - and it broke some kind of reading funk I had been feeling as of late. I'm grateful for that.
January 10, 2026
four stars for four by four
January 2, 2021
Planteamiento y ambientación muy buenos. Desarrollo flojo. Este libro ha defraudado un poco mis expectativas.
Con un toque gótico muy atractivo, la autora nos introduce en un internado exclusivo apartado del mundo en el que el aroma del mal flota en el ambiente. Me ha parecido encontrar ecos de Nunca me abandones de Izhiguro, pero el resultado es mucho más superficial. El tono críptico general – no sabemos en qué época está situado, si es una distopía, a qué obedece la degeneración de la ciudad frente a la cual el internado es una especie de refugio-fortaleza para los hijos de las élites – ahorra las explicaciones y hay muchos temas que al final quedan sin definir. Las relaciones de dominio psicológico entre los alumnos y de los profesores respecto a ellos se adentran en terrenos escabrosos de humillación y abuso sexual. También aparece la opresión de clase, a través del trato discriminatorio que se dispensa a los alumnos becados que son una excepción en un colegio para las élites.
La segunda parte está narrada en forma de diario, escrito por un joven profesor que llega al internado e intenta comprender lo que sucede con la información que él tiene. Este artificio narrativo – tan decimonónico – me ha gustado mucho de entrada, pero su desarrollo no acaba de satisfacer.
Quizá la conclusión es una especie de ‘homo homini lupus’ generalizado pero hay muchos comportamientos o situaciones que parecen gratuitos. De todas maneras, creo que la novela es un buen intento de elaborar un producto original y hay una escritura muy personal y calidad literaria. Sin ser redonda, es una obra que tiene cualidades apreciables y ciertamente una autora a seguir
Con un toque gótico muy atractivo, la autora nos introduce en un internado exclusivo apartado del mundo en el que el aroma del mal flota en el ambiente. Me ha parecido encontrar ecos de Nunca me abandones de Izhiguro, pero el resultado es mucho más superficial. El tono críptico general – no sabemos en qué época está situado, si es una distopía, a qué obedece la degeneración de la ciudad frente a la cual el internado es una especie de refugio-fortaleza para los hijos de las élites – ahorra las explicaciones y hay muchos temas que al final quedan sin definir. Las relaciones de dominio psicológico entre los alumnos y de los profesores respecto a ellos se adentran en terrenos escabrosos de humillación y abuso sexual. También aparece la opresión de clase, a través del trato discriminatorio que se dispensa a los alumnos becados que son una excepción en un colegio para las élites.
La segunda parte está narrada en forma de diario, escrito por un joven profesor que llega al internado e intenta comprender lo que sucede con la información que él tiene. Este artificio narrativo – tan decimonónico – me ha gustado mucho de entrada, pero su desarrollo no acaba de satisfacer.
Quizá la conclusión es una especie de ‘homo homini lupus’ generalizado pero hay muchos comportamientos o situaciones que parecen gratuitos. De todas maneras, creo que la novela es un buen intento de elaborar un producto original y hay una escritura muy personal y calidad literaria. Sin ser redonda, es una obra que tiene cualidades apreciables y ciertamente una autora a seguir
September 1, 2019
a hidden outline betrays the present in the past, tracing the lines drawn by fear.a finalist for the prestigious herralde prize (bolaño, pitol, vila-matas, villoro, sada, pauls, enrigue, nettel, et al.), sara mesa’s four by four (cuatro por cuatro) is a dark novel of shadow, insinuation, and institutional depravity. the spanish author’s foreboding tale is set at the fictional wybrany college (“the colich”), an institution comingling the progeny of both the well-to-do and the needy, a place where everything seems just ever so slightly off — with the sinister and the strange forever looming like an undetectable, yet ultimately deadly airborne pathogen.
what a novel, i thought. torture, imprisonment, insanity, illness. and yet, i was struck by the notion that this was all somewhat familiar to me: an indeterminate, disquieting similarity i couldn’t place.mesa’s book is split into three parts, each offering an angled perspective rich in atmospherics and eerie tableaus. stylistically, four by four’s narrative structure is both dazzling and dizzying, as its perfect pacing only enhances the metastasizing dread and dis-ease. the effortless shift in mesa’s storytelling arc works brilliantly in building suspense, offering the reader tantalizing clues apportioned out like the next needed hit of a dystopic drug dependency.
weekends here are strange. slow and tedious. people disappear, or retreat. there’s an unhealthy stillness, something crouching behind the silence. i’ve flattened by interia, this glacial slowing of hours. am i complaining? do i dare complain?power, subterfuge, order, façade, abuse, privilege, agenda, there is so much nefariousness swirling amidst the pages of mesa’s novel, it is at once deeply unsettling, yet also uncannily realistic. nestled within the adjoining realms of works like one flew over the cuckoo’s nest, lord of the flies, and andrés barba’s such small hands (with remnants of kafka and our vile news cycle for flavor), four by four is a haunting, harrowing novel, nearly flawless in its execution and excoriating in its implication. mesa’s four by four compels an unadulterated gaze, revealing a glimpse of a turpitudinous reality we may well wish didn’t exist, but proliferates all around us just the same. mesa exposes the thin veneer of venerability to be hiding something menacing and unforgivable — and four by four lays it bare for all the world to see.
”all we have left is shame, torrents of shame, rivers and seas of shame. what kind of world is this, where we’re told by a madman that we should be ashamed? the greatest evil of our time is that there are no maestros left to follow. but we must stop a moment. we must listen to all the hopeless voices.”
*translated from the spanish by katie whittemore
October 19, 2022
Wybrany College. Pronounced “güibrani colich.” Founded in 1943 by a Polish businessman who was one of the richest men in Europe but during the war lost most of his wealth. He invested in the future, in children. An alternative school for “rich children to orphans.” Two hundred children. No more, no less.
When the outside world becomes overwhelming, one needs a sanctuary to learn how to deal with the world. A new inner world. But what happens when the inner world takes on the same violent aspect as the outer world?
This is the premise. Sara Mesa uses an interesting technique by dividing the book into two main sections. We get two points of view that culminates in a sort of mystery novel.
The first, Nunca más de doscientos, is told by the view of one of the teen girls. Many have nicknames like el guía, la cula, la poquita or Gerasim. It starts with a group of girls, lead by a star student, Celia trying to flee the confines of the school, which fails. Then it follows through with what happens to various students and staff to the end of the school year. It is a very eye-opening experience.
The second part, Diario de un sustituto, is exactly this. A substitute teacher, Isidro Bedragare is hired to replace a teacher García Medrano who is “on medical leave.” Isidro is an odd character, claiming teaching is easy. As the book goes on, we learn there are some very troubling things going on. When Isidro calls his sister who lives in the big city, violence all around threatens her. Is Isidro safer in the “colich?” Things are also disturbing inside the “colich.” Discovering what happened to García Medrano opens more issues.
That leads to a third part of the book, a mysterious piece of writing by García Medrano. This is strange, terrifying and dystopian piece that ends with a cryptic poem be Alfred de Musset. Four by four? Scary.
This is one of those books where I can’t reveal too much without giving away the plot. The characters are full of faults, there is a lot of seedy stuff going on leading to a climactic ending. My first Sara Mesa book, who is hailed as one of Spain’s new writers. Judging by this book alone (her more famous one is Amor), I can see why. Very good writing with intricate plots and cryptic messages make this a very good read.
Maybe 4.5 stars
When the outside world becomes overwhelming, one needs a sanctuary to learn how to deal with the world. A new inner world. But what happens when the inner world takes on the same violent aspect as the outer world?
This is the premise. Sara Mesa uses an interesting technique by dividing the book into two main sections. We get two points of view that culminates in a sort of mystery novel.
The first, Nunca más de doscientos, is told by the view of one of the teen girls. Many have nicknames like el guía, la cula, la poquita or Gerasim. It starts with a group of girls, lead by a star student, Celia trying to flee the confines of the school, which fails. Then it follows through with what happens to various students and staff to the end of the school year. It is a very eye-opening experience.
The second part, Diario de un sustituto, is exactly this. A substitute teacher, Isidro Bedragare is hired to replace a teacher García Medrano who is “on medical leave.” Isidro is an odd character, claiming teaching is easy. As the book goes on, we learn there are some very troubling things going on. When Isidro calls his sister who lives in the big city, violence all around threatens her. Is Isidro safer in the “colich?” Things are also disturbing inside the “colich.” Discovering what happened to García Medrano opens more issues.
That leads to a third part of the book, a mysterious piece of writing by García Medrano. This is strange, terrifying and dystopian piece that ends with a cryptic poem be Alfred de Musset. Four by four? Scary.
This is one of those books where I can’t reveal too much without giving away the plot. The characters are full of faults, there is a lot of seedy stuff going on leading to a climactic ending. My first Sara Mesa book, who is hailed as one of Spain’s new writers. Judging by this book alone (her more famous one is Amor), I can see why. Very good writing with intricate plots and cryptic messages make this a very good read.
Maybe 4.5 stars
January 25, 2021
Global Read Challenge 46: Spain
I could not get into this book. There were a million loose threads that were never explored at all. Why was Lux killed? The professor? How did his ex-girl friend find him and what was her purpose? What happened to Booty? Then there's this big bombshell of maybe sex trafficking but it isn't explored or fleshed out. It was like the author had a good idea but didn't bother to do the actual work of turning it into narrative.
Also, I could not get past the author's description of fat people. There was just so much disdain for Valen and Sacra, it dripped off the page. Most people's physical descriptions were minimal but the author went to great pains to let you know how odious these people were.
I could not get into this book. There were a million loose threads that were never explored at all. Why was Lux killed? The professor? How did his ex-girl friend find him and what was her purpose? What happened to Booty? Then there's this big bombshell of maybe sex trafficking but it isn't explored or fleshed out. It was like the author had a good idea but didn't bother to do the actual work of turning it into narrative.
Also, I could not get past the author's description of fat people. There was just so much disdain for Valen and Sacra, it dripped off the page. Most people's physical descriptions were minimal but the author went to great pains to let you know how odious these people were.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 29, 2020
Not bad, though not exactly my cup of tea
Read
June 24, 2024The novel is broken up into 3 acts with unique POVs and style--the voice a fifteen year-old female scholarship student, and a third-person narrator.
Part 1 is set at Wybrany College, an isolated Spanish boarding school cut off from an increasingly violent/dystopian world. The college is a sanctuary for students with exceptional "quality" or elite circumstances. It's obvious that there is a pervasive, unsettling vibe among the students and an unsettling atmosphere. I wondered if what was going on in the world was seeping into this sheltered school. Part Two, the narration is comprised of journal entries written by a newly arrived substitute taking the place of a teacher who has gone missing. The epilogue is the missing teacher, García Medrano’s, brief reflections detailing the mystery of what’s really happening at the school. The book explores themes of isolation, abuse of power and position, society, and sexual manipulation.
Part 1 is set at Wybrany College, an isolated Spanish boarding school cut off from an increasingly violent/dystopian world. The college is a sanctuary for students with exceptional "quality" or elite circumstances. It's obvious that there is a pervasive, unsettling vibe among the students and an unsettling atmosphere. I wondered if what was going on in the world was seeping into this sheltered school. Part Two, the narration is comprised of journal entries written by a newly arrived substitute taking the place of a teacher who has gone missing. The epilogue is the missing teacher, García Medrano’s, brief reflections detailing the mystery of what’s really happening at the school. The book explores themes of isolation, abuse of power and position, society, and sexual manipulation.
December 11, 2018
La novela se ambienta en un lugar indefinido, en un contexto político vagamente distópico. Creí que se trataba de una intriga detectivesca en un internado, lo que despertaba cierta curiosidad, y los primeros capítulos, muy breves y calculados, se dejaban leer. Pasadas cien páginas cambia la perspectiva de la narración, con una voz apenas diferenciada, y la trama se disuelve en una alegoría inane, ambiental, con una violencia, una perversión y una locura icónicamente patéticas, que —respectivamente— no conmueve, excita ni interesa. Llego al final por inercia, contando las veces que aparece la expresión «engurruñar los ojos».
October 12, 2023
"-Trata sobre un misterio
-Qué misterio?
-El de unas reglas que alguien establece y que nadie define del todo. El extraño no conoce las reglas. Las reglas existen, son fuertes, taxativas, pero no están escritas en ningún sitio. Por tanto, no se pueden obedecer ni desobedecer."
Después de la decepción que supuso para mí Cara de pan, Sara Mesa consigue en Cuatro por Cuatro recuperar esa atmósfera claustrofóbica y espeluznante que construyó en Un Amor (aunque Cuatro por Cuatro es mucho anterior) y que me conquistó.
El escenario de esta historia es un internado elitista que se encuentra a las afueras de una ciudad ficticia y en el que conviven hijos de altos estamentos sociales con alumnos becados.
Durante la mayor parte del libro vas a ciegas, pero con esa sensación constante de que pasan un montón de cosas turbias, de que el mal está al acecho, aunque no sepas determinar exactamente dónde o por qué. Algunos de los misterios se irán desvelando en la segunda parte del libro. Otros quedan a interpretación del lector. Sara Mesa juega en este libro con los silencios, no necesita describir ni nombrar el mal para conseguir esa atmósfera asfixiante y perturbadora. También con unos personajes con muchas sombras, absolutamente incómodos y desagradables, que contribuyen a crear esa tensión constante a lo largo de la lectura.
Como ya me pasó en Un Amor, tengo la sensación de que hay cosas que se me han escapado, silencios que no he sabido interpretar del todo. Y aún así, ha sido una lectura atrapante que me reconcilia con la autora.
Es cierto que terminé el libro con la sensación de haber necesitado más de esta historia: más explícita, más clara, más desarrollada. Pero creo que es marca de la casa dejarte con esa sensación de "qué acabo de leer?"
Si os gustó la atmósfera que consiguió crear Sara Mesa en Un Amor, creo que os gustará este libro. A mí desde luego me ha gustado un montón 😊
-Qué misterio?
-El de unas reglas que alguien establece y que nadie define del todo. El extraño no conoce las reglas. Las reglas existen, son fuertes, taxativas, pero no están escritas en ningún sitio. Por tanto, no se pueden obedecer ni desobedecer."
Después de la decepción que supuso para mí Cara de pan, Sara Mesa consigue en Cuatro por Cuatro recuperar esa atmósfera claustrofóbica y espeluznante que construyó en Un Amor (aunque Cuatro por Cuatro es mucho anterior) y que me conquistó.
El escenario de esta historia es un internado elitista que se encuentra a las afueras de una ciudad ficticia y en el que conviven hijos de altos estamentos sociales con alumnos becados.
Durante la mayor parte del libro vas a ciegas, pero con esa sensación constante de que pasan un montón de cosas turbias, de que el mal está al acecho, aunque no sepas determinar exactamente dónde o por qué. Algunos de los misterios se irán desvelando en la segunda parte del libro. Otros quedan a interpretación del lector. Sara Mesa juega en este libro con los silencios, no necesita describir ni nombrar el mal para conseguir esa atmósfera asfixiante y perturbadora. También con unos personajes con muchas sombras, absolutamente incómodos y desagradables, que contribuyen a crear esa tensión constante a lo largo de la lectura.
Como ya me pasó en Un Amor, tengo la sensación de que hay cosas que se me han escapado, silencios que no he sabido interpretar del todo. Y aún así, ha sido una lectura atrapante que me reconcilia con la autora.
Es cierto que terminé el libro con la sensación de haber necesitado más de esta historia: más explícita, más clara, más desarrollada. Pero creo que es marca de la casa dejarte con esa sensación de "qué acabo de leer?"
Si os gustó la atmósfera que consiguió crear Sara Mesa en Un Amor, creo que os gustará este libro. A mí desde luego me ha gustado un montón 😊
April 21, 2020
Is it fair to say the topic of power dynamics is having a moment in culture and the media? Sure, when has it not been, but in the wake of sexual assault/harassment reckonings, post-2016 political polarization, pandemic corporate bailouts, the rise of socialism among the young, amongst other things, power, who has it, who wields it, and who suffers at the hands of unchecked power, is front of mind for many of us. Because we also exist in the same era as clickbait media, it’s increasingly difficult to find, for me at least, discussions of power in nuanced ways. Mary Gaitskill’s recent novella "This Is Pleasure” is one such example. Four by Four, from author Sara Mesa, and translated from Spanish by Katie Whittemore, is another, longer-form example; one you must all read!
Subtle and intense, perverse and inquisitive, Four by Four explores power dynamics at Wybrany College, an elite school for the rich and exclusive, but also for the intelligent and impoverished scholarship students it also accepts. It’s a slow burn, but as you see a map of manipulation and exploitation unfold before you, you’ll feel the simultaneous revulsion at how morality rots so easily and quickly, and admiration for how Mesa weaved this brilliant, eerie web. The tension feels like it could crack at any moment; the next sentence could reveal what lurks beneath the cloudy lake of investors, professors, students, faculty, and staff. Latent violence hangs in the air like a fog.
This is also a book of questions; questions about hierarchy and isolation, about fear breeding oppression; about secrets and complicity that allow corruption to thrive. The final sections of Four by Four are bone-chilling good. All the thanks to @openletterbooks for sending me an early copy! Out in May ✨
Subtle and intense, perverse and inquisitive, Four by Four explores power dynamics at Wybrany College, an elite school for the rich and exclusive, but also for the intelligent and impoverished scholarship students it also accepts. It’s a slow burn, but as you see a map of manipulation and exploitation unfold before you, you’ll feel the simultaneous revulsion at how morality rots so easily and quickly, and admiration for how Mesa weaved this brilliant, eerie web. The tension feels like it could crack at any moment; the next sentence could reveal what lurks beneath the cloudy lake of investors, professors, students, faculty, and staff. Latent violence hangs in the air like a fog.
This is also a book of questions; questions about hierarchy and isolation, about fear breeding oppression; about secrets and complicity that allow corruption to thrive. The final sections of Four by Four are bone-chilling good. All the thanks to @openletterbooks for sending me an early copy! Out in May ✨
July 9, 2020
Mesa’s novel is a gradual reveal in three parts, set in an exclusive boarding school in Spain at a time when the country is ravaged by civil unrest.
The first part concerns a young scholarship student named Celia, not from a wealthy family like the majority of other students. She attends to escape the danger of the surrounding country just for her final year, but struggles to cope.
The second part is series of journal entries made by a substitute teacher at the school. Dark secrets emerge and the novel takes on a more gothic feel, even a trace of horror. This is the largest of the three sections, and by some way the most compelling.
The final part is a brief exposition by one of the College’s former teachers. But I was disappointed by this as an ending. Mesa successfully builds up an atmosphere of fear within the College, the false sense of security that it claims to have created. As a teacher in similar schools for many years, she gets the dynamics of the College setting spot on; the role of authority and social structures, and the morals of turning a blind eye to a corruption one cannot control.
The first part concerns a young scholarship student named Celia, not from a wealthy family like the majority of other students. She attends to escape the danger of the surrounding country just for her final year, but struggles to cope.
The second part is series of journal entries made by a substitute teacher at the school. Dark secrets emerge and the novel takes on a more gothic feel, even a trace of horror. This is the largest of the three sections, and by some way the most compelling.
The final part is a brief exposition by one of the College’s former teachers. But I was disappointed by this as an ending. Mesa successfully builds up an atmosphere of fear within the College, the false sense of security that it claims to have created. As a teacher in similar schools for many years, she gets the dynamics of the College setting spot on; the role of authority and social structures, and the morals of turning a blind eye to a corruption one cannot control.
May 21, 2022
I really didn't like this and I'm at a bit of a loss to really explain why. It's a real bummer, too — it was basically hand-sold to me at AWP by the founder of the press, and the description seemed very up my alley: mysterious goings-on at a shadowy boarding school in rural Italy, out of sight of the creeping badness of the nearest city. Okay.
But the book wound up to be only mystery and creeping; it took a very very long time for anything at all to be revealed, and the characters doing the revealing (or not doing it) were nearly all pretty loathsome, which even that was put together only in askant hints. It was the opposite of, say, The Night Circus, which was so much sugary light it had no substance; this, instead, was so much dark it had no meaning, or anyway none that I could really discern. Too bad. : (
But the book wound up to be only mystery and creeping; it took a very very long time for anything at all to be revealed, and the characters doing the revealing (or not doing it) were nearly all pretty loathsome, which even that was put together only in askant hints. It was the opposite of, say, The Night Circus, which was so much sugary light it had no substance; this, instead, was so much dark it had no meaning, or anyway none that I could really discern. Too bad. : (
June 3, 2025
2 estrellas está bien porque lo terminé a pesar de que algo me decía que no iba a haber nada especial al final.
Los personajes: que niños tan maliciosos y los adultos que aburrimiento la verdad.
Los nombres que les dio a algunos de verdad que flojera “la poquita” “la culo” ay yaaa next.
La ejecución de la novela ¡que pesadez! la primera parte me estaba enganchando, iba rápida la trama y permanecía esa idea de que lo mejor venía pero yo esperaba más al final y fue desinflándose con un globo barato y queda todo saggy. Creo que Sara sabía que no le había quedado muy bien por qué ahí al final la sentí queriendo dar explicaciones de más en las referencias.
Mis grandes respetos a mi misma por haberlo terminado, no había necesidad.
Farewell Sara, definitely!
Los personajes: que niños tan maliciosos y los adultos que aburrimiento la verdad.
Los nombres que les dio a algunos de verdad que flojera “la poquita” “la culo” ay yaaa next.
La ejecución de la novela ¡que pesadez! la primera parte me estaba enganchando, iba rápida la trama y permanecía esa idea de que lo mejor venía pero yo esperaba más al final y fue desinflándose con un globo barato y queda todo saggy. Creo que Sara sabía que no le había quedado muy bien por qué ahí al final la sentí queriendo dar explicaciones de más en las referencias.
Mis grandes respetos a mi misma por haberlo terminado, no había necesidad.
Farewell Sara, definitely!
December 17, 2023
Four by Four - Sara Mesa
تدور أحداث هذه الرواية في عالم ديستوبي-على ما يبدو، هناك إشارات؛ مثل المدن غير الآمنة ومناطق آمنة مثل المدرسة التي تدور بها كل الأحداث، وفي جو قوطي.
تتركز الأحداث في مدرسة خاصة ذات تاريخ غريب وقوانين أكثر غرابة، وفي ثلاثة أقسام تروى هذه الرواية؛ القسم الأول يرويه طالبان في المدرسة، الأولى سيليا ابنة عائلة فقيرة حصلت على منحة للدراسة، وعلاقاتها مع الطالبات وصفقة غريبة عقدتها مع أحد المعلمين، والطالب الآخر إغناسيو الذي تربطه علاقة مريبة بالمدير ونرى تفاعله مع زملائه ورحلة تحول شخصيته.
القسم الثاني من الرواية عبارة عن يوميات معلم بديل وجديد دخل إلى المدرسة منتحلًا هوية زوج شقيقته ويسير بروية لاستكشاف عالم المدرسة الغريب وتتكشف له كل الأسرار.
القسم الثالث ربما لم أفهمه لكنه كتابات عن طالبة/فتاة محتجزة في مكان ما بالمدينة.
لا تربطني علاقة جيدة بالأدب القوطي ونادرًا ما يعجبني، حتى حينَ يكون مغلفًا بصورة جذابة في عالم ديستوبي ولدي مشاعر متضاربة حول هذه الرواية، ربما يعود الأمر لطرحها الغريب لمواضيع حساسة وصادمة وربما لطرق كتابتها، لا أعرف، ولا أعرف كيف أقيمها.
ما أعرفه أني لست بمزاج متسامح، لذا 3 نجمات هي أقصى ما يمكنني تقييمه بها.
تضم قائمة التحذيرات لهذه الرواية:
اعتداءات جنسية على قصر والعنف ضد الحيوانات والانتحار وصور مختلفة من العنف.
تدور أحداث هذه الرواية في عالم ديستوبي-على ما يبدو، هناك إشارات؛ مثل المدن غير الآمنة ومناطق آمنة مثل المدرسة التي تدور بها كل الأحداث، وفي جو قوطي.
تتركز الأحداث في مدرسة خاصة ذات تاريخ غريب وقوانين أكثر غرابة، وفي ثلاثة أقسام تروى هذه الرواية؛ القسم الأول يرويه طالبان في المدرسة، الأولى سيليا ابنة عائلة فقيرة حصلت على منحة للدراسة، وعلاقاتها مع الطالبات وصفقة غريبة عقدتها مع أحد المعلمين، والطالب الآخر إغناسيو الذي تربطه علاقة مريبة بالمدير ونرى تفاعله مع زملائه ورحلة تحول شخصيته.
القسم الثاني من الرواية عبارة عن يوميات معلم بديل وجديد دخل إلى المدرسة منتحلًا هوية زوج شقيقته ويسير بروية لاستكشاف عالم المدرسة الغريب وتتكشف له كل الأسرار.
القسم الثالث ربما لم أفهمه لكنه كتابات عن طالبة/فتاة محتجزة في مكان ما بالمدينة.
لا تربطني علاقة جيدة بالأدب القوطي ونادرًا ما يعجبني، حتى حينَ يكون مغلفًا بصورة جذابة في عالم ديستوبي ولدي مشاعر متضاربة حول هذه الرواية، ربما يعود الأمر لطرحها الغريب لمواضيع حساسة وصادمة وربما لطرق كتابتها، لا أعرف، ولا أعرف كيف أقيمها.
ما أعرفه أني لست بمزاج متسامح، لذا 3 نجمات هي أقصى ما يمكنني تقييمه بها.
تضم قائمة التحذيرات لهذه الرواية:
اعتداءات جنسية على قصر والعنف ضد الحيوانات والانتحار وصور مختلفة من العنف.
October 2, 2018
Con “Cicatriz” y “Mala letra”, Mesa me conquistó. Como quien no quiere la cosa, he ido leyendo cada uno de sus libros y estoy simplemente fascinada con su prosa. En esta nueva entrega, nos sumerge en una trama cargada de adolescencia y enigmas, cuya experiencia será distinta para cada lector.
Un grupo de chicas, lideradas por Celia, se escapa de un internado incomunicado del exterior, exclusivo para familias de dinero, pues solo ellos pueden salvarse del mundo descompuesto que los rodea fuera del Wybrany College. Sin embargo, el tan famoso colegio también acoge a los “especiales”, chicos becados cuyos padres trabajan al servicio del lugar. Entre ambos puntos, Mesa construye una trama dominada por la manipulación y el aislamiento, que se divide en dos partes que se intercambian preguntas y respuestas, pues mientras que la primera parte se maneja con una prosa indirecta y fragmentada, la segunda es narrada por el profesor Isidro, quien recoge en un diario su visión particular de los secretos que se ocultan tras las paredes del internado.
Mesa, de nuevo, convierte a su novela en un enigma inquietante que se define por unas normas propias, llenas de una violencia latente, siempre a punto de estallar, paseándose por los distintos personajes, a quienes ataca de manera particular. Así, entre los límites de la realidad, incluye personajes desolados y tristes, haciendo una oda a la libertad a través de la opresión, el aislamiento y un mundo exterior que genera bestias. En una especie de pesadilla, la española se sumerge en este tema tan complejo con un lenguaje breve y contundente, dejando detalles sueltos, que, al atarse, conforman hilos de dolor por donde todos levitamos.
Sara Mesa Reflexiona sobre las jerarquías que se producen en pequeños espacios, en un micromundo compuesto por alumnos, profesores y directivos. Así, ella genera una metáfora exquisita, donde muestra que en el “exterior” está el peligro, pero en el “interior” está el mal que lo hace así. De esta manera, logra demostrar que los secretos, la diferencia de clases, la opresión y el abuso de poder son los puntos comunes que hay en todo grupo humano, dejando claro que la violencia se ejerce sobre los más débiles, en un ambiente de crueldad aislado del mundo, repleto de personajes cargados de matices, que se describen desde lo más hondo de su ser, dando como resultado una novela que explota el horror de la crudeza cotidiana, en un ambiente repulsivo, inquietante, que genera rechazo y que parece ser el verdadero protagonista de la historia.
Mesa dice que la literatura es una linterna que nos permite explorar las tinieblas del alma humana y, sin duda alguna, su obra se adapta perfectamente a esta definición, ya que en Cuatro por cuatro deja claro que no hay violencia que no se funde en la opresión, que no hay dictadura más potente que aquella que ya no necesita ser represiva y que no hay resistencia que no empiece con un no, construyendo así una potente metáfora, sustentada en la manipulación sobre el totalitarismo.
En definitiva, esta es una novela cargada de símbolos y preguntas que encuentran su respuesta en el epílogo que une los cabos sueltos y da sentido al título, pues dentro de nuestras eternas relaciones viciadas por el miedo y la violencia, parecemos estar eternamente en un espacio de cuatro por cuatro.
http://mariana-is-reading.blogspot.co...
Un grupo de chicas, lideradas por Celia, se escapa de un internado incomunicado del exterior, exclusivo para familias de dinero, pues solo ellos pueden salvarse del mundo descompuesto que los rodea fuera del Wybrany College. Sin embargo, el tan famoso colegio también acoge a los “especiales”, chicos becados cuyos padres trabajan al servicio del lugar. Entre ambos puntos, Mesa construye una trama dominada por la manipulación y el aislamiento, que se divide en dos partes que se intercambian preguntas y respuestas, pues mientras que la primera parte se maneja con una prosa indirecta y fragmentada, la segunda es narrada por el profesor Isidro, quien recoge en un diario su visión particular de los secretos que se ocultan tras las paredes del internado.
Mesa, de nuevo, convierte a su novela en un enigma inquietante que se define por unas normas propias, llenas de una violencia latente, siempre a punto de estallar, paseándose por los distintos personajes, a quienes ataca de manera particular. Así, entre los límites de la realidad, incluye personajes desolados y tristes, haciendo una oda a la libertad a través de la opresión, el aislamiento y un mundo exterior que genera bestias. En una especie de pesadilla, la española se sumerge en este tema tan complejo con un lenguaje breve y contundente, dejando detalles sueltos, que, al atarse, conforman hilos de dolor por donde todos levitamos.
Sara Mesa Reflexiona sobre las jerarquías que se producen en pequeños espacios, en un micromundo compuesto por alumnos, profesores y directivos. Así, ella genera una metáfora exquisita, donde muestra que en el “exterior” está el peligro, pero en el “interior” está el mal que lo hace así. De esta manera, logra demostrar que los secretos, la diferencia de clases, la opresión y el abuso de poder son los puntos comunes que hay en todo grupo humano, dejando claro que la violencia se ejerce sobre los más débiles, en un ambiente de crueldad aislado del mundo, repleto de personajes cargados de matices, que se describen desde lo más hondo de su ser, dando como resultado una novela que explota el horror de la crudeza cotidiana, en un ambiente repulsivo, inquietante, que genera rechazo y que parece ser el verdadero protagonista de la historia.
Mesa dice que la literatura es una linterna que nos permite explorar las tinieblas del alma humana y, sin duda alguna, su obra se adapta perfectamente a esta definición, ya que en Cuatro por cuatro deja claro que no hay violencia que no se funde en la opresión, que no hay dictadura más potente que aquella que ya no necesita ser represiva y que no hay resistencia que no empiece con un no, construyendo así una potente metáfora, sustentada en la manipulación sobre el totalitarismo.
En definitiva, esta es una novela cargada de símbolos y preguntas que encuentran su respuesta en el epílogo que une los cabos sueltos y da sentido al título, pues dentro de nuestras eternas relaciones viciadas por el miedo y la violencia, parecemos estar eternamente en un espacio de cuatro por cuatro.
http://mariana-is-reading.blogspot.co...
January 18, 2020
Terriblemente adictivo, estaba deseando que estas vacaciones mi casa se quedara libre para poder leer sola. Hacía tanto que un libro no me enganchaba tanto que ahora sólo quiero leerme lo que haya escrito esta señora.
Para sinopsis ya tenéis la contraportada, sólo diré que es una historia que se deja ver entrelíneas, cargada de misterio, tensión y mal rollo que engancha. Hay distintos narradores, por lo tanto distintas formas de descubrir una misma historia. El final es horrible, aviso. Peta un poco la cabeza pero llegar hasta él a través de la escritura de Sara Mesa ha sido una gozada.
Para sinopsis ya tenéis la contraportada, sólo diré que es una historia que se deja ver entrelíneas, cargada de misterio, tensión y mal rollo que engancha. Hay distintos narradores, por lo tanto distintas formas de descubrir una misma historia. El final es horrible, aviso. Peta un poco la cabeza pero llegar hasta él a través de la escritura de Sara Mesa ha sido una gozada.
February 25, 2024
Tiene todo lo que me gusta de Sara Mesa: la insinuación constante, lo crepuscular, la incomodidad silenciosa e inteligente. Aún así, el estilo, narrado primero de forma normativa pero después a modo de diario, me ha descentrado un poco. Cuando ya me había acostumbrado a la promesa de una novela inquietante y había imaginado el final, esta cambia y rebaja las expectativas, adormece el deseo. La promesa queda en promesa.
August 5, 2020
A dark and twisty gothic gem of a novel from Spain (wonderfully translated by Katie Whittemore) about power dynamics and the separation of appearances vs reality at an isolated private school. I need to think about this book more, and perhaps reread parts to examine facets of it more closely, but this is impressive work.
Can't wait for more Sara Mesa from Open Letter.
Can't wait for more Sara Mesa from Open Letter.
July 24, 2025
The substitute will watch it from afar, and it will be incomprehensible to him. He won’t dare to ask, and nobody will have the compassion to tell him.
That’s the way things are here.
Four by Four is Katie Whittemore's translation of Sara Mesa's 2012 novel Cuatro por cuatro.
The English translation was published in the US in 2020 by Open Letter, and in the UK in 2025 by Peirene Press who are featuring a number of Mesa's works in translation with Un Amor in 2024 and The Family (La familia) forthcoming in 2026. A fondness for the author's work which they share with footballer Héctor Bellerin.
The novel is set in Wybrany College 'which we pronounce gwee-brah-nee colich', whose official history has it founded in 1943 by a Polish businessman forced into exile in WW2, but in practice the school is no more than 15 years old.
With the outside world seemingly collapsing - it is noted that a nearby town Vado has been depopulated and the nearest town Cárdenas seems very unsafe - the boarding 'colich' offers a safe-haven and a high quality (if liberal) education for the children of the elite, educated in two separate single-sex buildings but run by the same teaching staff. Alongside the 'Normals', a 'Specials', scholorship students, often the children of those who work at the colich.
[as an aside Open Letter when they published the book observed that 'the city of Cárdenas appears in almost all the rest of Mesa’s work, including several of the stories in the collection Mala letra. And her first novel, An Invisible Fire, relates the last days of the city of Vado]
The first part of this book - called 'Never More than Two Hundred' after the colich's strict limit on pupil numbers - has two entwined narratives, from each gendered side of the school.
- the first narrated in the first person by Celia, one of the 'Specials' and particularly wilful. As the novel opens she is leading a group of fellow students, including one 'Normal' on an escape / attempt to reach the nearest town where her mother lives, although they are tracked down (note the first four-by-four reference):
I see them coming in the four-by-four, up the narrow, dusty path. They're coming towards us and there we are, stopped, as stopped as time. I get a rush: anticipating a lecture from the Arse or punishment from the Headmaster makes me feel better.
The 'Arse' is the assistant head, who has a rather perverse relationship with the Headmaster, although Celia herself becomes entangled with the Counsellor, the third key member of the non-teaching administration.
- the second, in the third person, centres around a boy Ignacio who is bullied by the other students, but who comes under the protective wing of the Head, who calls him his Gerasim (after the servant and companion of Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy's novel. He becomes obsessed with a new pupil, Héctor, although the newcomer is himself more interested in a new female teacher.
The reader would assume the two narratives are set at the same time, although it becomes clear at the section's end that the second starts as the first ends, a slot opening up for Héctor when Celia vanishes.
The second section, A Substitute's Diary, is set around three years later, and, as the title suggests, is in the form of a diary of a substitute teacher Isidro Bedragare, the fate of whose predecessor no one seems to want to explain. And Isidro himself is an imposter - the role was actually offered to his brother-in-law but the latter left his wife, Isidro's sister, and he stepped in.
Since the first part, the deputy head has been displaced by the counsellor, and the new female teacher has stepped up to that role.
Early on Isidro is reading a book - which the reader instantly recognises as La calera, the Spanish language translation of Thomas Bernhard's brilliant Das Kalkwerk.
I concentrated on reading, even though I wasn't really following the story of the obsessive man who locked himself in a limestone quarry with his paralysed wife so he could finish a scientific treatise on auditory perception. What a novel, I thought. Torture, imprisonment, insanity, illness. And yet, I was struck by the notion that this was all somewhat familiar to me: an indeterminate, disquieting similarity I couldn't place.
Mesa herself has commented on the novel's "una relación entre hermanos enfermiza, rara, turbia. Es imposible que eso no esté en mí" ("A sick, strange, murky relationship between siblings. It's impossible that this isn't in me" - per Chat GPT). And while there are no siblings in the story, the colich is certainly full of sick, strange, murky relationships between the administration, the teachers, the pupils (particularly the Specials) and the staff.
Isidro himself forms a relationship with his cleaner, who trusts him with the papers of his predecessor García Medrano (who she reveals died of suicide), and which contain in particular an allegorical story, which forms the ending section of the novel 'Heroes and Mercenaries: The Papers of García Medrano':
Twelve pages total. It appears to be the outline tor a story, or maybe an essay. A mix of typed and handwritten pages. The action, which is confusing, takes place in an imaginary city with a brutal, medieval way of life based on trade. Little girls locked in cells appear obsessively throughout the text. Heroes and mercenaries, too. The handwriting is tight, tense. Lots of words are crossed out, the paper stained with drips of coffee and olive oil.
I don't think I can decipher all this.
The story itself begins:
FOUR METRES BY FOUR METRES. Her little world. The girl paces the room, goes to bed, gets up. Waits.
Sometimes they open the door. It's usually to leave her food, good food served on plastic plates with small plastic utensils. But sometimes they open the door to let her out for a bit, too.
And from the allegory as well as Isidro's own discoveries, some of the colich's secrets are revealed.
Impressive and a strong International Booker contender
That’s the way things are here.
Four by Four is Katie Whittemore's translation of Sara Mesa's 2012 novel Cuatro por cuatro.
The English translation was published in the US in 2020 by Open Letter, and in the UK in 2025 by Peirene Press who are featuring a number of Mesa's works in translation with Un Amor in 2024 and The Family (La familia) forthcoming in 2026. A fondness for the author's work which they share with footballer Héctor Bellerin.
The novel is set in Wybrany College 'which we pronounce gwee-brah-nee colich', whose official history has it founded in 1943 by a Polish businessman forced into exile in WW2, but in practice the school is no more than 15 years old.
With the outside world seemingly collapsing - it is noted that a nearby town Vado has been depopulated and the nearest town Cárdenas seems very unsafe - the boarding 'colich' offers a safe-haven and a high quality (if liberal) education for the children of the elite, educated in two separate single-sex buildings but run by the same teaching staff. Alongside the 'Normals', a 'Specials', scholorship students, often the children of those who work at the colich.
[as an aside Open Letter when they published the book observed that 'the city of Cárdenas appears in almost all the rest of Mesa’s work, including several of the stories in the collection Mala letra. And her first novel, An Invisible Fire, relates the last days of the city of Vado]
The first part of this book - called 'Never More than Two Hundred' after the colich's strict limit on pupil numbers - has two entwined narratives, from each gendered side of the school.
- the first narrated in the first person by Celia, one of the 'Specials' and particularly wilful. As the novel opens she is leading a group of fellow students, including one 'Normal' on an escape / attempt to reach the nearest town where her mother lives, although they are tracked down (note the first four-by-four reference):
I see them coming in the four-by-four, up the narrow, dusty path. They're coming towards us and there we are, stopped, as stopped as time. I get a rush: anticipating a lecture from the Arse or punishment from the Headmaster makes me feel better.
The 'Arse' is the assistant head, who has a rather perverse relationship with the Headmaster, although Celia herself becomes entangled with the Counsellor, the third key member of the non-teaching administration.
- the second, in the third person, centres around a boy Ignacio who is bullied by the other students, but who comes under the protective wing of the Head, who calls him his Gerasim (after the servant and companion of Ivan Ilyich in Tolstoy's novel. He becomes obsessed with a new pupil, Héctor, although the newcomer is himself more interested in a new female teacher.
The reader would assume the two narratives are set at the same time, although it becomes clear at the section's end that the second starts as the first ends, a slot opening up for Héctor when Celia vanishes.
The second section, A Substitute's Diary, is set around three years later, and, as the title suggests, is in the form of a diary of a substitute teacher Isidro Bedragare, the fate of whose predecessor no one seems to want to explain. And Isidro himself is an imposter - the role was actually offered to his brother-in-law but the latter left his wife, Isidro's sister, and he stepped in.
Since the first part, the deputy head has been displaced by the counsellor, and the new female teacher has stepped up to that role.
Early on Isidro is reading a book - which the reader instantly recognises as La calera, the Spanish language translation of Thomas Bernhard's brilliant Das Kalkwerk.
I concentrated on reading, even though I wasn't really following the story of the obsessive man who locked himself in a limestone quarry with his paralysed wife so he could finish a scientific treatise on auditory perception. What a novel, I thought. Torture, imprisonment, insanity, illness. And yet, I was struck by the notion that this was all somewhat familiar to me: an indeterminate, disquieting similarity I couldn't place.
Mesa herself has commented on the novel's "una relación entre hermanos enfermiza, rara, turbia. Es imposible que eso no esté en mí" ("A sick, strange, murky relationship between siblings. It's impossible that this isn't in me" - per Chat GPT). And while there are no siblings in the story, the colich is certainly full of sick, strange, murky relationships between the administration, the teachers, the pupils (particularly the Specials) and the staff.
Isidro himself forms a relationship with his cleaner, who trusts him with the papers of his predecessor García Medrano (who she reveals died of suicide), and which contain in particular an allegorical story, which forms the ending section of the novel 'Heroes and Mercenaries: The Papers of García Medrano':
Twelve pages total. It appears to be the outline tor a story, or maybe an essay. A mix of typed and handwritten pages. The action, which is confusing, takes place in an imaginary city with a brutal, medieval way of life based on trade. Little girls locked in cells appear obsessively throughout the text. Heroes and mercenaries, too. The handwriting is tight, tense. Lots of words are crossed out, the paper stained with drips of coffee and olive oil.
I don't think I can decipher all this.
The story itself begins:
FOUR METRES BY FOUR METRES. Her little world. The girl paces the room, goes to bed, gets up. Waits.
Sometimes they open the door. It's usually to leave her food, good food served on plastic plates with small plastic utensils. But sometimes they open the door to let her out for a bit, too.
And from the allegory as well as Isidro's own discoveries, some of the colich's secrets are revealed.
Impressive and a strong International Booker contender
November 30, 2023
my fav part was when the professor guy got lasagna flung onto his face
Read
May 26, 2020Originally published on The Nerd Daily | Review by Beth Mowbray
Sara Mesa’s new novel Four by Four invites the reader into the dark world of Wybrany College, a private school that claims to keep the children of the elite safe from the horrors of the world around them. Set in Spain where civil unrest has spread throughout the country, Mesa creates an alternate reality of sorts which still mirrors our own world in many ways. When compared to the outside world, this exclusive boarding school appears as an oasis amidst the chaos; but sometimes appearances can be deceiving.
Read the FULL REVIEW on The Nerd Daily
Sara Mesa’s new novel Four by Four invites the reader into the dark world of Wybrany College, a private school that claims to keep the children of the elite safe from the horrors of the world around them. Set in Spain where civil unrest has spread throughout the country, Mesa creates an alternate reality of sorts which still mirrors our own world in many ways. When compared to the outside world, this exclusive boarding school appears as an oasis amidst the chaos; but sometimes appearances can be deceiving.
Read the FULL REVIEW on The Nerd Daily
Want to read
September 4, 2021need to temporarily quit this one bc i just realized i didn’t bring my copy to uni with me and home is 3,000 miles away…😐
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since i start school at my old, creepy campus in two weeks, i feel like it's time to read this book about bad people at an old, creepy campus. you know, as preparation.
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omg 🥺💖💖 thank you so so so so much lemony snicket for sending me this book for christmas!!! thank you so much for doing this holiday "campaign" to make the season less sucky 😭😭 can't believe i actually received this as a gift from one of my favourite authors of all time - cannot WAIT to read it!!!
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since i start school at my old, creepy campus in two weeks, i feel like it's time to read this book about bad people at an old, creepy campus. you know, as preparation.
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omg 🥺💖💖 thank you so so so so much lemony snicket for sending me this book for christmas!!! thank you so much for doing this holiday "campaign" to make the season less sucky 😭😭 can't believe i actually received this as a gift from one of my favourite authors of all time - cannot WAIT to read it!!!
December 12, 2020
This book sucked. The end.
January 12, 2022
Finished my third book, Four by Four by Sara Mesa 💖💖💖1/2, rounded up
Still trying to process this strange read. The GR page has few reviews or ratings, tagged science fiction/ dystopian/ science fiction-fantasy along with tags like Spanish, gothic, horror, mystery, thriller, literary fiction. My best “classification” is Bizarre Dysfunctional Spanish Gothic. Science Fiction classification would depend on the reader’s interpretation.
Set in three sections, the first is multiple POVs of occupants of the “school”, the second is a “diary” of a substitute teacher, and the third is the writing another teacher who no longer is at the school. This is translated but I think some of my issues were not due to the translation but my lack of understanding of some of the author’s influences. Curious to see if anyone else has tried this. I need to digest this and possibly reread.
Still trying to process this strange read. The GR page has few reviews or ratings, tagged science fiction/ dystopian/ science fiction-fantasy along with tags like Spanish, gothic, horror, mystery, thriller, literary fiction. My best “classification” is Bizarre Dysfunctional Spanish Gothic. Science Fiction classification would depend on the reader’s interpretation.
Set in three sections, the first is multiple POVs of occupants of the “school”, the second is a “diary” of a substitute teacher, and the third is the writing another teacher who no longer is at the school. This is translated but I think some of my issues were not due to the translation but my lack of understanding of some of the author’s influences. Curious to see if anyone else has tried this. I need to digest this and possibly reread.
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