Is Javier Cercas a necromancer?

Whence Cercas’ phenomenally irritating penchant for repetition in Anatomía de un instante, his history manquée (hence, surely, the label “novel” in the marketing) of the 1981 coup attempt? Too young to have fallen prey to the viscous clutch of senile dementia, and insufficiently stupid to believe that cliché-infested, rambling prose a poetic epic doth make, I wonder whether the answer doesn’t lie in numerology.

The postmodifying motif “políticamente * y personalmente roto” appears on seven occasions in the book, in application to both Suárez and Gutiérrez Mellado. On the first six {* = “acabado”}, while on the seventh it mutates most curiously to {* = “hundido”} that (deep breath) is surely inexplicable except with reference to the Black Arts. Any other feasible fetishisms out there?

[
One of the most distressing limitations on intellectual activity in Spain is the considerable sectarian expectation that if one finds oneself in concurrence with certain axiomatic aspects of the political beliefs of artists one will also enthusiastically purchase and evangelise their work.

I happen to agree with Cercas in general terms about the (necessity of the) role played by Suárez and Gutiérrez Mellado, but as a writer he is impossible to admire.

The same applies to Albert Boadella, adopted by certain classes as emblem of a campaign against the Catalan kleptocracy: my views on the post-transition political settlement generally echo his, but his political satire is crude and therefore for me at least weak, and his autobio, Adiós Cataluña, which I read the other night, has its amusing moments, but is to a great extent sentimental twaddle.
]

Similar posts

• Francisco Camps vs Fèlix Millet in the media
  What do ghit ratios from La Vanguardia, El Periodico, El País, ADN, ABC, El Mundo, Público, and Levante tell us about
• Mysterious Zaragoza nights
  Between-wars texts about Zaragoza by Germans who appear never to have visited the place.
• Revisionist histories
  Josep Maria Fàbregas notes that the remit of the campaign to “recuperate historical memory” doesn’t appear to extend to Radio Liberty,
• Ash cloud already in Asia, says the Spanish press
  Malaprensa has from JMNoticias a stupendous English-Spanish cockup. Reuters put out a story in English explaining that the chaos caused in
• Survey shows that either 20.2 or 5.5% of Spaniards don’t know what email is
  The headline figure this morning is 20%, but the survey (.doc) asks the question twice and the other answer is different.