Primavera de luto

by Juan José Millás

Los veintitrés cuentos que componen Primavera de luto parten de situaciones familiares protagonizadas por personajes grises, urbanos y corrientes para transformarse en historias sorprendentes que atentan contra toda lógica. En los relatos de Juan José Millás, cualquier objeto o suceso, por insignificante que parezca, puede dar pie a que lo fantástico se instale en lo cotidiano. El resultado es un apasionante collage de realidades compartidas, a medio camino entre el más bello terrorismo creativo y la pintura imposible de todos los días.

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Juan José Millás is a Spanish writer and winner of the 1990 Premio Nadal. He was born in Valencia and has spent most of his life in Madrid where he studied Philosophy and Literature at the Universidad Complutense.

His first novel was influenced by Julio Cortázar and consequently shows the influence of the then-prevalent literary experimentalism, as well as the uncertainty of a fledgling author. Although very original, his second book, Cerbero son las sombras (1975), obtained the Premio Sésamo and received a positive critical response.

Thanks to an enthusiastic member of the judges panel for the Premio Sésamo, Juan García Hortelano, he was able to publish Visión del ahogado (1977) and El jardín vacío (The empty garden) (1981) with the prestigious publisher Alfaguara. But his most popular novel was Papel mojado (1983), an assignment for a publisher of young adult literature that was a commercial success and continues to sell well. Simultaneously, he began to publish articles in the Spanish press with great success, so he left the employment of the Iberian press and now makes a living as a journalist and author.

In his numerous works, which are mostly psychological and introspective, any daily fact can become a fantastic event. He created his own personal literary genre, the articuento, in which an everyday story is transformed into a fantasy that allows the reader to see reality more critically. His weekly columns in El País have generated a great number of followers who appreciate the subtlety and originality of his point of view in dealing with current events, as well as his commitment to social justice and the quality of his writing. On the program La Ventana, on the channel Ser, he has a time slot (Fridays at 4:00) in which he encourages viewers to send short accounts about words from the dictionary. Currently, he is constructing a glossary, within which these accounts have a large role. His works have been translated into 23 languages, among them: English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and Dutch. In his 2006 novel, titled Laura y Julio, we find his principal obsessions expressed: the problem of identity, symmetry, other inhabitable spaces within our space, love, fidelity, and jealousy.

Reviews

[Txe Polon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,5. Muy interesante y sugerente recopilación de relatos en la que, sin embargo, se echa de menos una mayor variedad: todas las historias son muy similares y giran entorno a un mismo universo, lo cual da gran unidad y homogeneidad al conjunto, pero genera, al mismo tiempo, cierta sensación de repetición y merma la capacidad sorpresiva del libro.

[Unicorn Carnival · Rating 4 out of 5]

..."en fin".

[Alejandro Orradre · Rating 5 out of 5]

A través de pequeños mordiscos de realidad, Primavera de luto cuenta pequeñas historias en las que caben reglas del juego a veces extrañas, obsesiones que los protagonistas esconden de los demás y la sensación de que la vida es gris porque no nos obsesionamos lo suficiente con nuestras pequeñas manías.

Millás es un artesano del relato y este libro es otra muestra más.

[Mariano Camberos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simplemente,de lo mejor que he leído.

[Angela Ramirez · Rating 3 out of 5]

El libro está compuesto por más de 20 cuentos cortos en los que Juan José Millás explora ese otro yo, esas prótesis de personalidad que se consolidarán luego como un estilo. Sin embargo es un estilo en proceso, un comienzo y los cuentos a pesar de bien escritos están muy llenos, es como si le sobraran palabras, y además son algo X, en fin

[Jaimeoka · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.8

[Lisandro Gómez Bravo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cada vez me sorprende más la sutileza que tiene su forma de narrar para describir espacios físicos, emocionales y conceptuales.