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Chilean author finds storytelling novels boring
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ALEJANDRO Zambra’s novel “Multiple Choice” is both surprising and intriguing. It reads like a set of comprehension tests that we are all familiar from our school days.
Apparently, that was deliberate.
“I am anti-novel, or to be specific, I am anti about the very idea that a novel should just tell a story,” the Chilean writer says.
While the language and context is exotic and remote at times, it is eerily similar to the college entrance exams in China. For many Chinese, the once-in-a-lifetime exams are like a single-plank bridge with more people falling off than getting through.
“When I think about the many novels I don’t like, that is exactly what they did. I like books that have a lot of intensity. I don’t like those that only tell a story,” Zambra, who is on a book tour in China, tells Shanghai Daily.
That was why, he says, he revealed the ending in the very first paragraph of his 2007 novel “Bonsai.”
“Ending is not important. What’s important is the emotional journey. ‘Bonsai’ is funny and a sad story. The only way to tell a sad story is to tell it with some fun,” he says.
“Bonsai” was his debut novel that won him international recognition. It was later adapted into a film. Following that success, Zambra made it to elite Granta’s Best of Young Spanish Language Novelists — one of his many honors.
The literary magazine’s award lists young writers to watch out for with many of them subsequently winning major prizes. In 2010, the list was devoted to Spanish-language writers.
The aphoristic story of a literature-loving youth observing a bonsai has now been translated into Chinese.
Two other books have been published along with it.
His 2011 novella “Ways of Going Home” recounts the days of growing up in Augusto Pinochet’s Chile that overlaps with the childhood and teen years of the 41-year-old author.
His 2013 book “My Documents” is a series of short stories including “The Most Chilean Man in the World.”
“It’s all about having fun when I write. That’s very important for me,” the Chilean says. “When I get bored, I change into something else.”
Q: Nobel Literature Prize winners from Chile, Gabriela Mistral and Pablo Neruda, are both poets. You are also a poet. How important is the Chilean poetry tradition for you?
A: Very important. I have a lot of literary influences, but the Chilean poetry tradition is most important. We have had a lot of great poets, and many debates around poetry. It is more than getting a few Nobel prizes, it is a long-rooted literary tradition.
Q: There is a lot of self-reflexivity in your stories. For one, many protagonists are literary persons, writing a book within a book, and often times, they are disappointed and frustrated about their writing. Are they in some way a reflection of you as the writer?
A: I am sorry they are all writers (laughing). Disappointment is part of the writing process. Writing is very much like daydreaming. Everyone who thinks about their past, their childhood is actually writing novels. When you think about your childhood, it is all fictional, you don’t remember exactly what or how it happened ... maybe when you were six months old. People construct the past in order to find the truth, and to understand the present. Many people do it every day.
Q: Your narratives are often fragmented, and you have a tattoo of tangram puzzle on your arm, is there a connection?
A: When I was little, we had these magnets on the fridge that were tangram puzzles. I played a lot, building them into houses. I like tangram puzzles. The pieces are fragmented and away from each other, but they are a house together. I didn’t think about any obsession when I chose this tattoo, but maybe unconsciously, you should talk to my psychologist (laughing).
Q: How do you like the film adaptation of “Bonsai?”
A: I didn’t recognize my book when I first watched it. I didn’t think it could be adapted. When the director (Cristian Jimenez) told me his idea, what I liked is that he was trying to create a new story, rather than a literal direct translation from the book to the screen.
And it was something new. I feel my book was lost in the process, but that’s how it is. Once the book is published, you start to lose it. It’s similar to raising a child. One day, you will need to say goodbye to him.
Now I am working with Cristian again, writing the script based on some of my other stories.
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