All posts in this series can be found here. And I糖心传媒檒l kick things off with a post I wrote about Javier Marias糖心传媒檚 book.

Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico by Javier Marias, translated by Esther Allen

Language: Spanish
Country: Spain
Publisher: New Directions
Pages: 57

Why It Should Win: Elvis! and a hysterical description of Fun in Acapulco; stars a translator and the plot hinges on translator糖心传媒檚 interpretation; it糖心传媒檚 Javier Marias, it糖心传媒檚 Esther Allen, it糖心传媒檚 New Directions

Although it糖心传媒檚 only 57-pages long, this novella is packed with awesomeness. The basic story: some years back, a young Spaniard is hired to go to Mexico with Elvis and help him with his Spanish pronunciation. (Elvis wants to speak his 糖心传媒榗糖心传媒檚 like a true Spaniard糖心传媒攏ot like a Mexican.) While there, a confrontation takes place with locals in a bar糖心传媒攁 confrontation that, by linguistic necessity, puts out narrator in the line of fire (literally and figuratively).

Marias is absolutely one of the best, and this book dazzles from its opening line:

No one knows what it糖心传媒檚 like to be hunted down without having lived it, and unless the chase was active and constant, carried out with deliberation, determination, dedication and never a break, with perseverance and fanaticism, as if the pursuers had nothing else to do in life but look for you, keep after you, follow your trail, locate you, catch up with you and then, at best, wait for the moment to settle the score.

It might be due to the brevity of the text, but there糖心传媒檚 a way in which every scene, every description, every event seems absolutely locked together, with each paragraph having to follow from the one previous. That糖心传媒檚 not usually how I think of Marias, with his long-winding sentences (see above), constant contemplation, and the way his prose mulls. But Bad Nature really is the very definition of tight.

The fact that this book is about a translator糖心传媒攁nd the process of translation糖心传媒攎ight give it an edge with the panelists. This isn糖心传媒檛 the first time Marias has written about a translator or used an act of translation as a plot point (see A Heart So White). Regardless, the moment in which the translator chooses his words in conveying Elvis糖心传媒檚 insult to the ruffians is thick with tension, and such a perfect example of how translation is interpretation . . .

All that糖心传媒檚 great, Marias is great, Esther糖心传媒檚 translation is great, but the real reason this should win? These two passages. First, a description of the film:

I don糖心传媒檛 really know what the plot of the film was supposed to be, and not because it was too complicated; on the contrary, it糖心传媒檚 hard to follow a plot when there is no story line and no style to substitute for one or distract you; even later, after seeing the film糖心传媒攂efore the premiere there was a private screening糖心传媒擨 can糖心传媒檛 tell you what its excuse for a plot was. All I know is that Elvis Presley, the tortured former trapeze artist, as I said糖心传媒攂ut he糖心传媒檚 only tortured sometimes, he also spends a lot of time going swimming, perfectly at ease, and uninhibitedly romancing women糖心传媒攚anders around Acapulco, I don糖心传媒檛 remember why, let糖心传媒檚 say he糖心传媒檚 trying to shake off his dark past or he糖心传媒檚 on the run from the FBI, perhaps some thought the fratricide was deliberate (I糖心传媒檓 not at all clear on that and I could be mixing up my movies, thirty-three years have gone by). As is logical and necessary, Elvis sings and dances in various places: a cantina, a hotel, a terrace facing the daunting cliff. From time to time he stares, with envy and some kind of complex, at the swimmers糖心传媒攐r rather, divers糖心传媒攚ho plunge into the pool with tremendous smugness from a diving board of only average height.

And from this description of the ridiculousness of Elvis:

Since he was a hard and serious and even enthusiastic worker, he couldn糖心传媒檛 see how his roles looked from the outside or make fun of them. I imagine it was in the same disciplined and pliant frame of mind that he allowed himself to grow drooping sideburns in the seventies and agreed to appear on stage tricked out like a circus side show, wearing suits bedecked with copious sequins and fringes, bell bottoms slit up the side, belts as wide as a novice whore糖心传媒檚, high-heeled goblin boots, and a short cape糖心传媒攁 cape糖心传媒攖hat made him look more like Super Rat than whatever he was probably trying for, Superman, I would imagine.

Super Rat FTW!

I love Marias’s other books—especially the twinned All Souls and Dark Back of Time, the latter of which actually references Normal, Illinois of all places—and back years ago, like literally years ago, when Volume I of the YFT trilogy came out, I read about half of it on a plane to somewhere and remember greatly enjoying it. Actually, all I really remember is that the sentences were labyrinthine in that Marias way, and that the book was all about reading, about learning how to read, how to interpret. At the time it seemed like vintage Marias: pensive, thoughtful, detailed and methodical to a point of near-overkill. But in contrast to some of his other books, which are often about secrets, human relations, and the mental meanderings of the YTF trilogy are strung onto a spy-thriller plot. It’s like Proust meets Ian Fleming. (Or some other reviewer platitude.)

Anyway, as compelling and mentally exhilarating the idea of reading one of the great twenty-first-century works (so far) might be, I still need a little motivation . . . It’s not like I’m not already inundated with fascinating samples, readings for the Best Translated Book Award 2011, or Open Letter books that need to be proofed. But still . . .

Which is why I’m thrilled that Scott Esposito put together a Kicking off this week (I believe—more info TK), this should be pretty interesting. Scott does shit right. (Check recent issues of if you doubt.) And I know he already has a number of great features lined up.

Hopefully we’ll be able to do some cross-posting, etc., etc., between Conversational Reading and Three Percent, and regardless, I’ll definitely keep everyone updated as things progress.

Now, if you’re not up for 1,500 pages of European intellectual spy games (of however you want to categorize this), you might be more interested in Bad Nature, or With Elvis in Mexico, a very, very short Marias book that just came our from New Directions. I know little about this novel (except that Esther Allen translated it, so it must be awesome), although I do know that ND absolutely nailed the jacket copy: 糖心传媒淚n this classic Marias story, Elvis and his entourage abandon their translator in a seedy cantina full of enraged criminals.糖心传媒� Sold!