Gustavo Martin Garzo: “I never know what book I’m writing. It’s as if I’m reading a book that doesn’t exist yet.”



A few years ago Gustavo Martin Garzo (Valladolid, 1948) This journalist was quoted in a field near his hometown, as if he had gone there to listen better to the mechanisms of inspiration that prompted him to books like this one he is now publishing, The last sunset (Gutenberg Galaxy), and many more.

But the thing is, the journalist wanted in the last to see regions or regions, or isolates, of this narrative which take place in a place like this, wild, like the one to which he took us, or at least as far away from city life as in who was there when you brought us together. The taxi together, let us say, ‘a very small town, with scarcely three hundred inhabitants, located in the center of the Montes Torosos district, in the province of Valladolid & rdquor ;. It was that geography, desolate or quiet, where a doctor who is the protagonist of her latest novel has taken refuge.

It is impossible to read this book without feeling his presence with him, as if he is also the doctor who lost his father, facing the work of healing as if he is also healing himself. Martín Garzo sometimes responds as if he were the narrator, as if he was transforming into the protagonist. Other books of his made of this kind, such as where you are not also Dream tree Or whatever you’re looking for, ok What he says and what he dreams about, and therefore what he writes, seems to derive from a fantasy that prolongs, also in the interview, what later became a metaphor that carries his literature.

So, talking to Martín Garzo is like stepping into his dreams. Therefore, let him answer as if, instead of the Hotel Santo Mauro in Madrid, where we talked, we were in that city to which he once took us to tell us also, a story he had come up with to explain. Who knows what metaphor.

s. How did all those advertisements that later became your books come to you?

R. It is as if they come into their own during the writing process. I never know which book to write. It is as if you are reading a book that does not yet exist. Or better yet: the book is being written and I am reading it. So I don’t know what’s coming. In this case, I must admit that it was very useful for me to know from what point of view I had to say it, with what voice & mldr;

Q: And this “ignorance” won’t make you dizzy?

R.No. That’s what’s attractive! If there were no unexpected things coming to you that you weren’t expecting, the long writing process probably wouldn’t be bearable. The most exhilarating part of writing is witnessing the unexpected. It’s an adventure, it’s entering areas you don’t know with the conviction that things will happen there.

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Q: What was your first goal when you started writing this novel?

R. The starting point was the story of this wounded, unhappy young woman, outlined by the shadow of her father, who, like him, decided to study medicine. In fact, the whole novel is a dialogue between this girl and her father. She goes to a town in search of him, and upon arriving at that place, begins to see a series of strange connections between what happened to her and the movie she saw at the age of fourteen that stays with her forever. There is fantasy, legend, and mldr; And a series of questions that raise what has not been said. or silent.

Q: Is your resume here?

Yes, let’s see: this novel is a rather old project. In addition to the protagonist, here is a beautiful shepherd, as if an angel, one of those attractive beings that you have no other solution than to follow, even though he may be the bearer of death. They say every angel is terrible, right? It is a novel that explores the world of myth, which is what fuels our lives and, above all, our imagination.

P. Among those worlds that you tell us about, are there any that you are afraid of?

R. It is to the point where you take steps without knowing where, you enter a world of fear and fascination at the same time. Arriving in an enchanted place gives you the possibility to establish a deep connection with objects and with the mystery. This is what happens in this novel: a woman approaches an attractive young man without knowing exactly why. Perhaps because he believes that where there is danger, there is salvation.

Q: What do these personalities have about yourself?

R. Somehow these characters have something to do with me, yeah. It’s like the media you use to take you to areas you couldn’t get to without it. Today we are constantly presented with the idea of ​​a closed world over which we have no power. But literature gives us the power to interpret, to play, and to take us into the realms of freedom. And risky too.

Q: Why did you choose a woman and not a man to star in this story?

R. is that the female characters in my books are always plenty. I think it is because of the fascination that the world of women causes me, which I think is more open and more dangerous than the world of men. In this sense, the female character presents you with many possibilities.

Q: How do you, novelist, reach the reality of women?

R. guided by fascination with the female world. when i read In search of lost timeI was fascinated by the scene in which the Proust child waits for his mother to arrive to kiss her goodnight. It shocked me because it was a scene from my childhood. I couldn’t sleep without a kiss from my mother. That woman arriving in the dark and leaning over to kiss you is a mantra moment. And I don’t think I can get out of there. It was my first infatuation and I always come back to it. Women, in addition, like literary more, right? Women in general have not been able to have the life they wanted and that is why they live in dreams and in their imaginations. Fortunately, now more and more women are achieving their goals, but their imagination has always been superior to that of men.

Q: I was going to tell you exactly: You seem to be haunted by the child that has been inhabiting you.

A. Totally. Yes Yes. Something is being said here in the novel: We are not just language. Indeed, man arrives late at language. The child is slow to speak, he has an earlier period in which he learns things and survives later. They say that before all peoples had a common language to speak with divinity. Before the Tower of Babel, what Yaffe does is impose a penalty: lose the unique language. That language is the language of literature, the one that allows you to communicate with the whole world. It’s a journey into the beginning realm, isn’t it?

Q: Speaking of literature, how do you see Spanish literature today?

R. Well, every writer does what they can. But it is true that there is an excessive attachment to reality and this is something that exhausts me sometimes. I am interested in what is not real in reality. What can reveal the secret of it. In short, the world of desire, dreams, and fantasy. Objects that look real but don’t exist. This fascinates me. It’s just that I really like to be proud of him.

Q: What is your personal relationship to the world you describe here?

R. This is my legendary land. It is Tierra de Campos, the place where I spent part of my childhood, endless summers, full of mountains, lakes and mldr; The place where I saw the world for the first time and everything was new and everything stimulated me.

Q: There are wounds here. To what extent does it harm you, your family or your acquaintances?

R. This novel has a pain point or wounds as you say. But he also has joy and desire and funny things happen. In fact, it was one of the first titles I thought of for this novel ways of love. Because I get the impression that he was trying to write some sort of modernization of Ovid’s book. Love drives us crazy and makes us do stupid things. We are never dumber and funnier than when we fall in love. Actually comedy is born from there, right? Of the entanglements that fill a love affair.

Q: But did you feel pain when writing?

A: No, no. This was a very exhilarating novel to write, there are things that are funny and funny. There is also pain, yes. But I like to think there’s more to joy and fascination than anything else.

Q: There are also many messages.

R. Yes, because it is a book that aspires to provide an account of our imagination. This should always be what literature aspires to. I’ve always lived in a dream world, probably because facing reality is too hard for me. I love reality as long as it can be turned into fantasy.

Q: It is sometimes reality seems more than fiction.

R. Fantasy everywhere. We always want to let go of reality and enter a “Cinderella moment,” a fabulous moment, right?

Q: Did this novel affect you more than others?

R. It touches me the most because it is the last one, the one closest to me. She has a lot of my own and … I will be older and the things of my age are already written which are some summary of your life. I’ve also noticed that I worry a lot about ‘saving’ characters not condemning them.

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p. The novel is peppered with narrated films, right up to the arrival of the police.

A: Yes, yes. [risas]. The arrival of the police is like the sudden arrival of reality in a fantasy world. I quote some movies and some books & mldr; This means: art that preserves the human being. Then there is a fact and it must be cited as well.

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