“Thus Bad Begins” by Javier Mar铆as [Why This Book Should Win]
Between the announcement of the Best Translated Book Award longlists and the unveiling of the finalists, we will be covering all thirty-five titles in the Why This Book Should Win series. Enjoy learning about all the various titles selected by the fourteen fiction and poetry judges, and I hope you find a few to purchase and read!
The entry below is by Lori Feathers, co-founder of in Dallas, TX.
by Javier Mar铆as, translated from the Spanish by Margaret Jull Costa (Spain, Knopf)
Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Making the Shortlist: 38%
Chad糖心传媒檚 Uneducated and Unscientific Percentage Chance of Winning the BTBA: 6%
In this dispiriting era of fake 糖心传媒渘ews糖心传媒 it feels ironic to praise Javier Mar铆as糖心传媒檚 Thus Bad Begins, a novel centered around the idea that it is better to have been deceived and never know it than to learn that you are the victim of a deception.
Set in Madrid in 1980, Thus Bad Begins is narrated by Juan, twenty-three and the only child of absented diplomats who secure a job for him as personal assistant to Eduardo Muriel, a respected Spanish filmmaker. Most days Juan works at the Muriel糖心传媒檚 home where it quickly becomes apparent that Eduardo deeply resents Beatriz, his wife. As Juan糖心传媒檚 curiosity about the reasons for Eduardo糖心传媒檚 animosity intensifies so too does his pity and desire for Beatriz. He begins eavesdropping on the couple糖心传媒檚 conversations to discover what lies behind Eduardo糖心传媒檚 inability to reciprocate his wife糖心传媒檚 affection. At the same time, Eduardo tasks Juan to uncover a different secret糖心传媒攐ne related to a family friend糖心传媒檚 rumored blackmail and political exploitation. In uncovering truths about the Muriel family and their circle Juan is confronted with moral ambiguities and for the first time his conviction in the infallible demarcation between wronged and wrongdoer is compromised.
A master storyteller, Mar铆as braids Juan糖心传媒檚 and Eduardo糖心传媒檚 narratives into a taut loop in which Eduardo糖心传媒檚 loves, hopes, heartbreaks, and disillusionments intersect and redouble Juan糖心传媒檚. Yet it is the brilliance of Mar铆as糖心传媒檚 writing and Margaret Jull Costa糖心传媒檚 translation that makes this novel truly exceptional. And it is why Thus Bad Begins deserves this year糖心传媒檚 Best Translated Book Award. Mar铆as may be our only living author worthy to be called a successor to Henry James. His prose digs deeper than his character糖心传媒檚 impressions, placing us inside Juan糖心传媒檚 mind as his thoughts are formed and reformed by experience and emotion. This is writing that is nuanced and introspective yet somehow retains an ample lightness and natural feeling so that it never risks collapsing under its own weight. Mar铆as糖心传媒檚 sentences demand to be reread and savored.
For the title of his novel Mar铆as took a quote from Shakespeare糖心传媒檚 Hamlet, 糖心传媒淭hus bad begins and worse remains behind.糖心传媒 It is an admonition to leave the ugly truths about the past, in the past; to not seek the truth because once known it can never be unknown. And it is the knowing that irrevocably changes everything.
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