Clever Catalan

Guadalajara by Quim Monzó

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I have no idea why it is called Guadalajara. I may have missed something obvious, but I didn't spot anything when I flipped through after I finished reading it.

I suppose these stories might be called “high concept” in that most are premised on some clever what if core. Like what if there was story that is a reverse of Kafka's Metamorphosis where a beetle wakes up as a human? Or what if your apartment building acted like a MC Escher drawing and you could never get out?

Yep. They are all very, very, clever. I am just glad they were all very short. They all interesting but you really don't care about the characters. And another thing, most of them are so high concept he doesn't bother finishing out the endings of these “what ifs”. Many of them he sets the scene makes a few moves but leaves it up to the reader to decide what happens.

OK. I liked it. But I probably won't read another book by Mr Monzó



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