Sinaloa, Mexico. “After a while, a marriage is a succession of lists”, says the first line of the real places (Alfaguara), the new novel by the writer Gaston Garcia Marinozzia story where the Argentine talks about the obsession with love and how a couple, after several years of marriage, decides to separate after coming to feel like two strangers.
the theme of obsession
The story of the real places takes place in a single day, and is starred by Pedro and Ana, who are challenged and obsessed by love, and whose memories refer them to crises, frustrations and the intoxicating passage of time. In an interview for DEBATE, Gaston Garcia Marinozzi reveals that the novel stems from his interest as a reader of Moby-Dick. “I think it is a novel that tells us mainly about obsessions. But I wanted to transfer that idea of obsession, which in Moby-Dick it is the whale and everything that it represents and means, to the obsession with love, which could exist in a small great moment of a couple about to break up. She wanted to tell how at the time of goodbyes we were still obsessed with something as important as love”.
Even the very title of his novel comes from the Herman Melville classic. “(Moby-Dick) says that the true places are not on the maps, they never are, so I was wondering what our true places are, what are those of this couple, who are separating. And it is not that they do not exist, but that they are not visible to others, they are very personal moments that we have in our intimacy and with the people around us, whom we love and who love us”, specifies the author.
This story takes place during Christmas, which is also Pedro’s 40th birthday, and both he and Ana will be surrounded by a group of friends who are unaware of their decision to divorce. Here, the also chronicler and essayist wanted to talk about “those moments we have with so many people without being able to connect”. “With these friends, who are like family and with whom they meet every year, they have been doing the same thing for two decades. They have all grown, but they have also grown towards different interests and places. In each of these ritual encounters, they repeat the same jokes, tell the same anecdotes. This time they realize that no one is listening, no one is watching anyone.”
reader and creator
An important part of a writer’s training is the reading he does. Gaston Garcia Marinozzi He points out that he is definitely a lifelong reader and is also interested as a creator in asking himself questions and sharing them with others. “If those questions end up in the form of a novel and continue a conversation with the readers and try to get answers about the times we live in and the things that concern us, I think it’s great to achieve it. It’s a gift”.
“As a reader, I am constantly looking for those kinds of questions, those kinds of answers, trying to understand the world from other much more gigantic authors like Borges, whom I keep reading all the time; Melville himself, but also other contemporaries. I am very interested in John Cheever, the great American short story writer. In fact, this novel has an inspiration, not to say a robbery of the scene in the house by the sea, from the story goodbye my brotherwhich has a very similar farewell atmosphere,” he adds.
Likewise, cinema is another art that seems fundamental to him in a personal way, with filmmakers like Rosellini and Buñuel with the exterminating angel. She even finds a similar spirit of the real places with recent Oscar nominees Licorice Pizza Y the worst person in the world. “I mean, the novel was already published, but I loved finding a possible dialogue with those atmospheres, with that way of understanding relationships, how life goes on and imposes itself with the best it has.”
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