Between Eternities

by Javier Marías

'A Marías sentence is a place of infinite richness and surprises, full of fascinating byways and glimpses of a distant landscape that hoves into view and then fades away' Independent

'No one else, anywhere, is writing quite like this' Daily Telegraph

A new and exhilarating collection of writings from the author ofThe Infatuations andA Heart So White

Internationally renowned writer Javier Marias is a tireless examiner of the world around us, an enthusiastic debunker of pretensions of every kind, and a true polymath. This new collection of essays shows the full extent of his curiosity and wit, ranging from the literary to the philosophical to the autobiographical, from football to cinema, comic books to mortality to 'Why Almost No One Can Be Trusted'.

Trenchant and wry, subversive and penetrating, Marias demonstrates a dazzling intellectual vigour, showing with exhilarating verve why he is so often said to be Spain's greatest living writer.

Genres: Essays, Nonfiction, Spanish Literature, Latinx

247 pages, Paperback

Published October 4, 2018

About the author

Javier Marías was a Spanish novelist, translator, and columnist. His work has been translated into 42 languages. Born in Madrid, his father was the philosopher Julián Marías, who was briefly imprisoned and then banned from teaching for opposing Franco. Parts of his childhood were spent in the United States, where his father taught at various institutions, including Yale University and Wellesley College. His mother died when Javier was 26 years old. He was educated at the Colegio Estudio in Madrid.

Marías began writing in earnest at an early age. "The Life and Death of Marcelino Iturriaga", one of the short stories in While the Women are Sleeping (2010), was written when he was just 14. He wrote his first novel, "Los dominios del lobo" (The Dominions of the Wolf), at age 17, after running away to Paris.

Marías operated a small publishing house under the name of Reino de Redonda. He also wrote a weekly column in El País. An English version of his column "La Zona Fantasma" is published in the monthly magazine The Believer.

In 1997 Marías won the Nelly Sachs Prize.

Reviews

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Javier Marias is, justifably, best known in the English speaking world as a (quite magnificent) novelist, but in his native Spain he is also a prolific essayist and newspaper columnist.

His Spanish pieces have been collected into a number of collections from 1991-2013 (among others Pasiones Pasadas, Vida del Fantasma, Literatura y Fantasma, Mano de Sombra), but have only been sporadically translated into English. So this English-language collection, published in 2017, translated by his long-term collaborator Margaret Jull Costa and selected and edited by Alexis Grohmann, is to be welcomed.

Spanning such a long period (the earliest was written in 1988, and one piece was written in 2016) and wide variety of topics, the result isn't totally coherent, although Grohmann has done a good job of grouping pieces under broad themes.

The vast bulk of the pieces are 2-3 pages, with one a few longer than this: by far the longest piece, on Venice, has already been published in English earlier in 2017 as, the slightly disappointing as not terribly insightful, Venice: An Interior (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...).

Also published in 2017 was Marias contribution to The Cahiers Series, To Begin at the Beginning (my review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...). Again I was a little underwhelmed, and arguably the c20% of the essay here on writing rather remove the need to read that book, with many of the same themes repeated.

The one post 2011 piece here, Writing a Little More (2016) explains why 6 of Marias fictional works*, and indeed one of his essay collections, take their titles and concepts from Shakespeare:

There are so many ideas that he merely noted in passing, but left unexplored ... you feel tempted to go down them, to venture along paths he merely signalled ... the energy, the rhythm, the glow of his images and metaphors, all drive us on and create in is an illusion of intuition, revelation or even sudden wisdom. Then, when you emerge from the wave and look back, you realise that there is still much to explore, to develop, to puzzle over and think about. What further encouragement does an author need to write a little more?

* Those are the 5 novels A Heart so White (Macbeth), Tomorrow in the Battle(Richard III), Dark Back of Time (Tempest), Your Face Tomorrow (Henry IV part II), Thus Bad Begins (Hamlet), the story collection When I Was Mortal (Richard III), and Seré amado cuando falte
(Coriolanus: 'I Shall Be Lov’d when I am Lack’d). See http://mookseandgripes.com/reviews/20...

Generally, there is little specific commentary on his own books, although he does, in one essay, comment on the auto-fiction nature of All Souls (not that he accepts that label - “another ridiculous concept currently in vogue) and in particular the issue he had with the character of the narrator, who was almost entirely based on himself but not actually him, an issue he ultimately resolved by having the narrator, looking back on the experiences in Oxford that he shared with the author, being (unlike Marias) married with children. The other issue raised by All Souls was the characters that were inspired, albeit much less closely based, on real-life characters from Oxford, often combinations of more than one-person: this was of course the focus of his magnificent meta-fictional ‘false novel’ Dark Back of Time.

His experience of Oxford leads him in another piece, “The Keys of Wisdom”, to hail the uniqueness of the Oxford method of inquisition of visiting scholars:

True these crucifixions were carried out with enormous delicacy, as if the pain would be lessened if the nails were hammered on very slowly and by someone wearing silk gloves ... in a litany if hesitant and extremely polite but poisonous questions (“I wonder if...” is the usual opening gambit) to which no one, however well prepared and composed they might be, will be capable of giving a satisfactory answer. Oxford, then, almost never states, it merely questions, and it does so to perfection.

Although he admits he is unable to comment as to whether this uniquness isn't, in reality, shared with Cambridge. He himself notes only the extreme superficial likeness of the two great Universities(*) which makes one suspect the existence of enormous underlying differences and notes that in contrast to the instinctive disdain for graduates from any other University in the world, [Oxford graduates] treat those who come from Cambridge with an exquisite respect tinged with deep-set loathing.

(* I can not resist but insert here the memorable moment in Blackadder when a German spy is unmasked:

Captain Blackadder: And then the final irrefutable proof. Remember you mentioned a clever boyfriend?
Nurse Mary: Yes?
Blackadder: Well, I leapt on the opportunity to test you. I asked you whether he had been to one of the great universities, Oxford, Cambridge, Hull.
Mary: Well?
Blackadder: What you didn't spot is that only two of those are great universities.
Mary: You swine!
General Melchett: That's right. Oxford's a complete dump!)

Marias, in common with many leading non-English speaking authors, is also a prolific translator, and in “My favourite book” he comments that if a writer is really honest then their favourite book will be the one they themselves have written. Which gives him the wonderful pleasure of being able to hand his accolade to Tristram Shandy since he wrote it in Spanish, being responsible for an award winning translation.

In artistic terms, Marias argues for the opposite of pretension, proclaiming the merits genre fiction (notably spy thrillers) and of Hollywood movies and Westerns in particular:

Artistic prejudices are always the most difficult to root out. Critics - whose duty should be to see beyond the pretensions of artists and the public’s passing fancies - often allow themselves to be persuaded by the way authors present their work, by what they say they have achieved, or else are guided by whatever has been a wild success - usually in order to take the opposing view - and which had been damningly labelled ‘popular.’

Admirable sentiments, and perhaps a quote all Goodreads reviewers, myself particularly, should take to heart.

However, the resulting section of this book, focusing on Westerns, and from which indeed the collection takes its title (a quote from the made for TV movie Broken Trail) and cover picture, is perhaps the weakest of the book from my perspective, since the pieces don't really without knowledge of the films or actors concerned.

And having rejected artistic pretension, it has to be said, that, as in his novels, Marias writes from a very old-fashioned, educated upper middle-class, old-fashioned and almost fusty stance towards almost anything modern: “vulgar” is perhaps, to his mind, the greatest of insults.

The two main deliberate omissions from this English-language selection are Marias' extensive writing on politics and football, which feels rather a shame, particularly given the quality of the two pieces that are included. (Albeit one wonders if his pieces on smoking (see e.g. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/22/opi...) have been deliberately omitted as out of step with UK/US attitudes.)

'No Narrative Shame' was written in 2006 as a sort of spin-off of Your Face Tomorrow, one of a number of reports, in the style of that book, on real-life figures. But it could well have been written in 2018:

Essentially the man is a bore ... even when he’s merely a guest he has to dominate ... Whenever he gets together with other heads of state, it’s obvious that. deep down, he feels like an intruder, and it’s precisely his jaunty, carefree manner that betrays his deep-seated insecurity ... this man is unscrupulous, but in the most real and radical sense of the world ... he has never rejected scruples for the simple reason that they are beyond his imagination and have never been part of his thinking, let alone his values.

The subject ... no, not who you are thinking, but Silvio Berlusconi.

(Although even this piece betrays a certain amount of snobbery as Marias is delighted to reveal that Berlusconi started as a cruise ship entertainer (shades of John Prescott) and reminds Marias of an old-style caretaker or porter ... the kind who kowtow to the owners and to the wealthier tenants, but treat delivery men and servants like dirt).

And the one piece on football included is essentially Marias' take on the 'only as good as your last game' cliche, which he endorses. He reveals that he temporarily, but quite seriously, fell out with his Barcelona based publisher, and also vowed never to again set foot in Tenerife, after the dramatic finale of the 1991-2 La Liga. He observes that while a writer, an architect or a musician can rest a little after having written a great novel, designed a marvellous building or made an unforgettable record ... some have been deemed to be good right up to their death, thanks to one estimable work written fifty years before, in sport generally and football in particular, having been the best yesterday doesn’t count today, let alone tomorrow. Past joy is as nothing compared to present anxiety.

Overall, this was certainly a significant improvement on Jose Saramago's, another great southern European peer of Marias, rather embarrasing Notebooks.

And Marias completists aside (i.e. me - this is my 18th Marias book) this is best read in place of not just Venice: An Interior, which it subsumes, but also the Cahiers Series To Begin at the Beginning.

However, this still feels like something to fill the time while one waits for Berta Isla, which seems to be garnening critical acclaim (https://www.themodernnovelblog.com/20...), to make its way into English.

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

Marias is one of the best novelists at work today. He is also, apparently, a tiresome bore who writes fluff for newspapers, and now we have proof of this second identity, in English. The editors and translators try to justify farting this out into the world, but the justification can only be that Marias is Marias, and people like me will buy whatever he writes, with a stress on the words "buy whatever he writes." There is very little merit to the essays, they tell us little about the novels that the novels don't tell us themselves, and Marias is like any other author who suddenly turns into an asshole when they leave the realm of fiction. Marias seems to think he's shocking the bourgeoisie, but he's just tiresome; take a way the irony of fictional narration, and that isn't even remotely interesting. It's interesting that his most recent novel in English is so much more politically and socially astute than anything he writes in these essays. I do wonder what that's all about.

[jeremy · Rating 3 out of 5]

i don't know if we'll ever be able to see a film about an artist or read a book about his or her life without it making us wonder if our admiration for the work of such a creature hasn't been a big mistake.

too true, of course — so perhaps we should be especially thankful a biography or documentary film about javier marías has heretofore not been made. the great spanish writer, in addition to his exceptional body of fictional offerings (and like so many non-american authors), has also accumulated a significant output of essays, newspaper columns, and other feature articles. between eternities collects some two decades worth of such writings.

any fan of marías's novels will find much to enjoy in this newly translated non-fiction collection (perhaps, most of all, his resplendent prose), yet, overall, between eternities leaves a little to be desired (though, it ought to be said, that the bar for marías's writing is already so demonstrably high given how exceptional so much of his fiction is). nonetheless, king xavier of redonda could pen nearly anything and it would command the attention of many (this reader included). between eternities explores, alights, and muses upon a rather wide swath of subjects, including film, european cities (most notably venice, which makes up the collections's longest piece), books (his own and others), authors, the writerly profession, aging, passing time, death, etc.

while marías has always seemed like a deliberate, careful, and observant writer, there's a whiff of haughtiness to some of these pieces. for such an erudite and learned fellow, one might expect a healthy and necessary dose of iconoclasm or even irreverence, yet surely none is to be found (the collection eschews politics almost entirely). nonetheless, there's much within between eternities to slake even the most ardent marías devotee's literary thirst (though it surely does not make one any less impatient for the next novel).

any feeling of pity arises, at least in my case, from the contrary idea: far from carrying a child around inside us (which would, it must be said, be a terrible nuisance), what we think we see in our photos or in our oldest memories is that the adult we are was already contained in the child that we were, and wasn't very difficult to spot either. often, in order to get a sense of someone with whom, sooner or later, i'm going to have dealings, i try to imagine what they would have been like as a child and how we would have got on, whether we would have been good friends or have hated each other's guts. one comes to realize that if anyone contains anyone, it's the child who contains the future adult and not the other way round; and when one looks at old photos, it's hard not to think, in a way, of the burden this implies. not that there's any place for self-pity here either: throughout all of history children have always been adults in the making, and the reason childhood has been seen as important is because of the way it shapes and influences what will come later, which is what matters. nowadays, on the other hand, people give importance to childhood itself, as if humanity's sole crazy aim was to shape and create eternal, perennial children. not a good idea. but that is how it is.

*translated from the spanish by margaret jull costa (saramago, pessoa, de queirós, vila-matas, cardoso, atxaga, carrasco, et al.)

3.5 stars

[Old Man JP · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic collection of essays, many with a personal connection to Marias himself and others about books, writers and movies. Most were very short, only about 3 or 4 pages but one titled Venice, an Interior was about 30 pages long. In this essay Marias talked about Venice with a lot of side stories about its people and out of the way places. Some of the other essays I especially liked were: The Modest Case of the Dead Stork about a dead stork he found in his courtyard when he returned after a short period of time away, Lady with Bombs an amusing story about an insane woman at one of his book signings, Air Ships about flying and his fear of flying and Who is Who an essay about one of his books titled All Souls in which he uses himself as the main character. There, really, weren't any bad essays in the book and, in my opinion, most were excellent.

[GONZA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a book of essays written by one author I like it is almost a gift to me, because it helped to show under a new light many of the novels he wrote and to get to know him a little bit better. So these are the reasons why I liked this collection, even if it was sometimes hard due to the fact that I had no idea about some of the topics or the people he was talking about, plus I have to say I do not think he was right describing the people of Venice, but the reasons are exactly the same: he is Spanish and I am Italian.

Leggere una raccolta di saggi di uno degli autori che mi piacciono è quanto di piú simile ad un regalo da parte loro che io possa mai ricevere. Intanto perché getta nuova luce sui libri giá letti e poi perché mi sembra dopo, di conoscerlo un po' meglio e questo credo riassuma le ragioni per cui ho apprezzato il libro. Ci sono chiaramente state molte volte in cui non avevo idea di chi fossero le persone o i libri o i film che citava, né posso dire di essere d'accordo sulla sua visione di Venezia e dei veneziani, ma per entrambe le cose la ragione sta nel fatto che lui é spagnolo mentre io sono italiana.

THANKS NETGALLEY FOR THE PREVIEW!

[Katy M · Rating 3 out of 5]

My husband, who is Spanish, recently recommended that I read Javier Marias. Several days later, at the library, I saw this book translated to English and picked it up before realizing it was a series of newspaper pieces and essays, rather than fiction. I must say, it was rather a poor introduction to Marias for me. While many of these pieces may have been quite insightful at the time they were written, without further context, many of them seemed too brief and too unconnected from anything else. Additionally, because they were grouped by topic, the reader sometimes grew weary of similar topics being raised in numerous pieces read one after the next (when in reality such works were published years apart from each other). The section grouping together some of his film criticisms included articles highlighting the same obscure films and the section with his literary criticism included similar repeated references to the same authors and works- something which seemed rather unnecessarily redundant.

I probably would have given it only two stars, but I did find two elements that I particularly loved and that alone earn an extra star. First were the brief vignettes about Spain. The story of the dead stork and the article about Spanish football loyalties- I know it’s cheap to trade on cultural stereotypes (Spanish bureaucracy, Spain as a nation of crazed football fanatics) but he does it with such warmth and affection, that anyone who has familiarity with Spain will find these stories both very funny and very true. Second, Marias finally captured for me what I have always tried to articulate when defending It’s a Wonderful Life as more than just a heartwarming Christmas story. Next time I challenge someone on this point, I fully intend to direct my opponent to his essay on this often-misunderstood film. So three stars I think is fair. When I was in the library the other day, I picked up one of Marias’ works of fiction; I look forward to seeing if it’s a little more to my liking.

[RoF · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got a free copy from Goodreads.
Overall, it is not a book that I would read again. I'd prefer to read novels from this author. It is too easy to pick such eclectic stories and pack them together to say that there is something new to sell.

Cons: This miscellaneous selection of short stories or essays lacks consistency and only scratches the surface of very different topics like reviews of western movies, details of his own childhood in Madrid and past experiences when teaching in Oxford or visiting Venice. I DNF some of them but wanted to read more about others. It is a glimpse and it may have been better to have a translation in American English too. If you have not seen the classic movies mentioned in the last part, you may not understand all the reviews. Even if we do not expect a philosophical essay about time, the sampling does not deliver a clear message about the author's vision because it presents him only as an external observer of what remains or changes.

Pros: It shows that Javier Marías has a witty mind and is a polymath with acute attention to his environment. Most of the stories have clearly something to do with time, the main topic of the book. Javier Marías was free to express himself on different matters and fortunately he did it without narcissism, wordy descriptions or bittersweet complains of nostalgia. I really appreciate this concise style.

[Grady · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of mostly short pieces - I’m guessing a significant number of them are from his weekly newspaper column. They are pleasant, often entertaining, rarely profound, and a bit repetitive when assembled this way. One reads these not for Marias’ opinions - which are asserted rather than supported with evidence, and are sometimes fairly random - but instead for the pleasure of his easy, familiar delivery, like sitting in conversation with an unguarded friend (who watches a lot of westerns). I’m guessing his novels are at least a cut above this, and that this is not a great introduction to understand why he is so well regarded as a literary figure.

[Zeynep T. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of the hilarious side of Javier Marias that is absent from his fiction books is revealed in his non-fiction works. He writes about a variety of subjects in Between Eternities, including visiting graves, his family, the cities he resided in, and deceased storks. In addition, he writes about his books, writing techniques, favorite authors, and character inspiration. I wish all writers could produce pieces such as these. Reading them is a great way to better comprehend the author's literature and, in particular, to see where the author got inspiration. If you are a fan of Javier Marías' work you should read these essays.

[Robert Diaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really loved the essays in the first section, "A Borrowed Dream". The trouble is that I did not enjoy the remaining ~200 pages, which were filled with movie/character critiques and observations on changes in society, some of which relate to his affluent upbringing. It's all fine and well-articulated writing, it just did not have the youthful, imaginative spirit that I hoped would continue throughout.

Looking back at my reading status updates for this book, I got through the first section (~40 pages) in under 2 days; the final 200 pages took me a month.

[Eduardo Blandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excelente libro que recoge diversos artículos publicados por el autor en periódicos o revistas literarias. Ofrecen sus reflexiones, acercamientos al mundo de la literatura, el cine, la política y la vida cotidiana en general. A lo lejos se evidencia no solo el universo conceptual de Marías, su formación, experiencia y sentido de la vida, sino su crítica a una cultura que resiente por superficial. Sin que esto signifique una añoranza del pasado, toma distancia de la sensibilidad atrofiada de nuestros tiempos.

Es un texto crítico y lúdico que debe leerse.

[Jonah · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge fan of Marias, I count him among my favorite contemporary novelists. I found this collection to be underwhelming, not least because Vintage didn’t edit it from British to American spelling, and that the introduction by Alexis Grohmann presumed that details of Marias’s novels were autobiography.
The last two sections of this book redeemed it from being pedestrian, as well as the longer piece about Venice.
I look forward to Javier Marias’s next novel.

[Benji Kershenbaum · Rating 4 out of 5]

From a selection of these essays I get envious of Javier Marias's sharp eyes and generally humourous style. But the envy is also quenched and is quickly turned to respect.

I would however, if read again, focus more on the "A Borrowed Dream", "All Too Few" and "Dusty Spectacle" collections, since in the others I found a little too much nostalgia and sentimentality.

[Sara · Rating 4 out of 5]

An brief insight into Marias' thinking and ideas. These are some of his articles written in newspapers over the past decennia. I loved in particular the ones dedicated to Venice and the one where he talks about how we don't carry our inner child around but the child already carries the future adult with it. I could connect much less with those related to cinema as, in my ignorance, I hadn't heard of most of the 50/60/70' actors or movies he mentioned. In any case... beautifully written, as can be expected by Marias.
Would recommend.

[Tim Hoar · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of those essay collections that’s a little topic dependent. I have little interest in Europe really. But he writes about it in a way that entrances. Makes me want to see the places he writes of. But his takes on criticism or film just didn’t capture me. He’s a sublime writer though, so being able to go along with his mind wandering is well worth the time.

[BiblioPhil · Rating 3 out of 5]

While it's good to have a selection of his newspaper essays available in English, the choices are safe.. Marias is often contentious and provocative, but that isn't represented here.

[Vivian · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable and varied collection of essays, for me, anyway. (YMMV if you don’t like old Hollywood films, particularly Westerns.) His style is very clear and engaging, kudos to the translators.

[Carmen von Rohr · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uneven, but with a few utterly captivating gems (Airships, Venice: An Interior, etc.).

[Georgia Gouros · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thought this was a collection of short stories, turns out they're newspaper opinion pieces/articles about times and places I can't relate to.

[Chris Chapman]

Includes essays on film (eg it's a wonderful life) rec'd on R4 open book)

[Helen Misiewicz · Rating 2 out of 5]

marías has great humor, but these essays dont do him justice

[Dana Clinton · Rating 4 out of 5]

"However much certain optimists may talk about the survival or possible resurrection of the Western, I fear--much to my regret--that, as a genre, it is pretty much dead and buried, a relic of a more credulous, more innocent, more emotional age, an age less crushed or suffocated by the ghastly plague of political correctness.." This is just one great quote from the book of essays by Javier Marias, Between Eternities, which I would give a 9/10 rating if that were possible on Goodreads. I like well-written essays, and these are all beautifully written, provocative and evocative, across a wide spectrum of topics. Javier is a film buff who clearly liked the classic American Westerns... but he also highly praises one of my favorite all-time films (which I used to show in my Foreign Film Club), Almodovar's Volver. There are a dozen markers in my book noting passages that I loved, but perhaps my favorite essay is "Why Almost No One Can Be Trusted". It begins: "When you think about it or look back or remember, you will probably find that you know hardly anyone who does not claim to place some rather impersonal or abstract ideal or entity above his or her relationships with other people...[one] always claims that something, usually something that does not exist--or is, at most, ungraspable, intangible, amorphous or invisible--is "above" everything else and, naturally, above other people: God or the Church, Spain, Catalonia or Euskal Herria, the company, the party, ideology, the State, the revolution, communism, fascism, the capitalist system, justice, the law, the language, this or that institution, this school, this newspaper, this bank, the Crown, the Republic, the Army, this or that TV channel, a particular brand, Barcelona football club or Real Madrid, my family, my principles, my country. Anything, from the grandiose to the trivial, can be deemed to be "above" mere people...and have no qualms about sacrificing or betraying individuals in the name of what they consider to be "sacred" or "the cause"... His writings about certain cities are riveting, and he has a wry sense of humor which makes the beautiful writing even more engaging. I really enjoyed these essays!

[Dan Santelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favourite Spanish author doesn't disappoint in his description of Venice and the beauty of the Western. One chapter I found ironically funny was Hating The Leopard. Resorts to superb dream-telling in the opening pages despite his clear distate for dreams being shared by characters or people.

The interpretation of "between eternities" I gathered was life itself, squeezed between pre-existence and death.

[M Fowler]

Found via Elisa Gabbert's "On Writerly Jealousy" for the Paris Review, December 2018. (https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2...)

Collection of weekly columns running the gamut from reminiscences of young adulthood to travel-ish pieces to many, many pieces on the Western as a dying film genre. The longest piece, "Venice, an Interior," is great.