In interview with The Day about the reissue of his storybook Distance by Ediciones Era, the Monterrey writer David Toscana recalled a scene: years ago, José Emilio Pacheco, author of Battles in the desertextended an invitation to him to join said publishing house, which has hosted figures such as Elena Poniatowska, José Revueltas or Carlos Monsiváis; However, it could not be finalized.
When you’re starting out, literary agencies seduce you
the narrator admitted, That’s why until now it happened to be in Era, which makes me very happy.
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Published for the first time in 1997, the songs that appear in Distance They are a reflection of the features that make up the author’s subsequent work, focused mainly on the novel. “At that time I wrote the book as a challenge from my friend Eduardo Antonio Parra. I didn’t drink, and that’s why he told me that I couldn’t write stories about cantinas if I only drank ‘chocolala.'”
It will be easy for readers to establish bridges between these stories and the characters that make up their literary universe. To mention an example, the protagonist of the story Welcome home
called Amaro, immediately recalls Miguel Pruneda, from his novel Duel for Miguel Pruneda (2002), for his apparently mundane life that finds in the imagination, enhanced by a few drinks, the possibility of greatness. In this regard, the author stressed that although alcohol is present, What matters are imaginary lives and dreams higher than those presented to you by reality.
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quixotic author
Born in Monterrey in 1961, Toscana is described as a quixotic writer, not only because of the obvious influence that Cervantes exerts on his work – an example of this is his most recent novel, The weight of living on earth (2022), winner of the Mario Vargas Llosa Novel Biennial–, but because its characters live, like the ingenious gentleman, trapped between the desire for redemption and the irremediable certainty that the world is broken, that reality is a cruel joke.
His work has been awarded significant prizes, consolidating him as one of the most original voices in literature in Spanish. Among them, the José Fuentes Mares Award stands out for The last reader (2004) and the Xavier Villaurrutia Award for his novel The bridges of Königsberg (2009).
Tuscany presented Distance this Monday at the Monterrey International Book Fair, which takes place at the Cintermex convention center.
-In Distance, The protagonists already have many characteristics of what we can call toscaniano
that trait composed of beings who, through drinking, excessive reading and reality, dignify failure, while heroism is both an act of resistance and madness.
–You call him that. I believe that the writer must have a personal universe, beyond having the ability to tell diverse stories and create multiple characters. There is a fingerprint that you can notice. It happens with music: you hear something without knowing what it is about, but from that trace you say ‘this is Bach, this is Mozart’. You don’t have to repeat yourself, of course, but that’s what makes a writer.
–Do you think that Don Quijote of La Mancha Is it also an important part of your style, both structurally and thematically?
–Yes, but a good part of my literature comes from chapter 15 of A bridge over the Drinaby Ivo Andric. They are small, drunk characters, but they have a lot of life in their heads.
As in said novel, the cities and spaces in the Tuscan novels are settings where the characters face the decadence, collapse and absurdity of reality. Of The last reader (2004), a novel impregnated with that atmosphere, similarities are also evident with a story called A local poet
where elements of literary criticism and the narrative tool of making it seem that the protagonists are the ones writing the stories are present.
–What relationship does it have now with the story?
–I’m not a storyteller, let’s say I no longer do it by vocation. By its nature, in the story sometimes you can only describe situations that remain at the level of the anecdote; I prefer to follow a character for several pages. In fact, if this work flies higher it is because the cantina – named the same as the book – unites all the characters and reflects my novelistic need to develop situations in the same environment.
Many people say that they no longer read stories, and I, without pointing myself out as a defender, because I like novels, it is good for any writer to have a book of that literary genre. Sometimes we novelists envy poets for the relationship they establish with their readers through their compilations. The story, by its nature, stays in the middle, and gives you the opportunity to reach more places through an anthology.
–Are you preparing your next novel?
–Yes, although for a matter of cabal I won’t say anything (laughs). I’ve had it in my head for many years now, and about six months ago I decided how to do it. I estimate to finish it in a year.