Reading 1001 discussion

2 stars
finished 5 Feb 2018

An unnamed Spanish lecturer at Oxford describes some of his life there--his lover, his mentor, other lecturers, the used bookshop staff, the places he goes and where he lives.

And it's all long stream-of-consciousness paragraphs. Not my thing. What happens? Not much, really. A lot of speculation about what happened, what will happen, and what happened a lifetime ago for some of the characters.

Rating: 3 stars


A Spanish lecturer's musings on his experiences at Oxford University, told in first person. In terms of plot, not a lot happens here. Instead, we are taken inside the mind and thoughts of the main character through steam-of-consciousness narrative. I did enjoy Marias' prose and his off-topic ramblings about various topics. He basically interjected essays into a work of fiction, which is clever in and of itself.

I have to admit that I love Javier Marías's writing. Here is a short book with barely amusing witticisms about Oxford academic life, no real plot to speak of and little character development other than that the main character is striving mightily to learn where his engagement with the world begins and ends. At first blush I thought it was nothing, a shame to have such amazing writing and philosophical reflections carrying no other weight than a predictable adulterous affair, some male lustful longings and a deep sarcasm about university pomp. Perhaps the first blush is also the last as I did not come away thinking this was a great book, only that Marías is a great writer.
Marías writes sentences that can fill up a page, uses repetitions in an interesting way and spins off on tangents that suddenly come to a stop and transitions to another topic without warning.
By the end, however, I did see the book contained a delicately balanced treatise on death and dying, and how people carry their past in different size packages and schedules as they climb up into life and descend toward death.
Also, I have read other books about the beginning of the AIDS but this captured something I had not read before. Of course, it does not mention AIDS so I may have added that on my own.

Witty and rather dark outsider’s perspective on Oxford, “a city preserved in syrup”, where Marías himself spent time as a lecturer in a similar way to his narrator. The visiting Spanish academic becomes involved in an affair with a fellow tutor, Clare Bayes, and spends the time when he cannot be with her wandering from one second hand bookshop to another.

This was a rather intriguing book, with themes of loneliness, transience, loss and displacement gradually appearing through the narrator’s encounters. The start is funny and perceptive, as Marías skewers various academic types, with their petty jealousies and gossip. I enjoyed these sections set in the academic world most of all.

The tone becomes more sombre as the book progresses and the author weaves in some unexpected connections between the various aspects of his narrator’s Oxford experience - this was quite reminiscent of Sebald, especially the connections with a particular obscure author whose books the narrator encounters. These give rise to the poignant and memorable scenes that occur as the narrator painfully extracts himself from Oxford to return to his home city.

I thought this was beautifully written with restraint and a wry tone that blended surprisingly well with the often melancholy account of two years in Oxford. I found my first Marías book rather unsatisfying, but this one had much more appeal and will not be quickly forgotten

This was like his Fever and Spear without the plot. At least one character reappears. 3 stars - I might have given it 4 for the smooth writing, but I was too annoyed with him writing "everyone in Oxford" when he meant "all of the academic staff of Oxford University", which is actually a very small proportion of the city's population.