What do you think?
Rate this book
Articuentos
Toda la obra narrativa de Millás es un ejemplo perfecto de literatura crítica. El nombre de "articuentos" para los textos aquí recogidos pretende subrayar su principal peculiaridad: se trata de artículos de opinión porque como tales aparecieron en la prensa pero, por sus características, están más cerca de los textos de ficción, la fábula o el microrrelato fantástico.
295 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2001
7 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Juan José Millás
97 books1,243 followersJuan 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.
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.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 6, 2009
Brilliant short essays! Very admirable for his style, originality and economy of language. Also frequently very funny.
January 7, 2014
Así como Millás no me parece un gran novelista, me parece uno de los mejores (si no el mejor) articulistas.
November 8, 2022
3,5
Diría que se trata de una colección interesante de “articuentos” de Juan José Millás, esto es, como artículos, pero de carácter más ficticio de lo habitual, y con el tono de absurdo habitual del autor. Algunos pocos son realmente geniales, la mayoría son meramente entretenidos, y otros pocos son algo flojos, pero también hay que tener en cuenta que no se escribieron para ser leídos de seguido, sino según fueran saliendo en la prensa. En conjunto la lectura me ha valido la pena, pero se me ha hecho un poco larga, quizás hubiera sido mejor una mayor selección.
Diría que se trata de una colección interesante de “articuentos” de Juan José Millás, esto es, como artículos, pero de carácter más ficticio de lo habitual, y con el tono de absurdo habitual del autor. Algunos pocos son realmente geniales, la mayoría son meramente entretenidos, y otros pocos son algo flojos, pero también hay que tener en cuenta que no se escribieron para ser leídos de seguido, sino según fueran saliendo en la prensa. En conjunto la lectura me ha valido la pena, pero se me ha hecho un poco larga, quizás hubiera sido mejor una mayor selección.
November 20, 2023
La capacidad de Juan José Millas para desarrollar textos originales e imaginativos es tan espectacular que sorprende. Una lectura fácil y agradable que se disfruta por si misma y además se puede abandonar y retomar en cualquier momento sin menoscabo de la historia, que no tiene. Sería recomendable tener post It a mano, para ir recordando algunos de los más sublimes textos.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews