Juan José Millás talks about forgiveness, old age, journalism and betrayal, the themes of his new novel, ‘Ese imbécil va a escribir una novela.’
The imbecile in ‘Ese imbécil va a escribir una novela’ (Alfaguara) is not Juan José Millás, the author, narrator and main character of the novel. The imbecile is Alberto, the alter ego of that narrator called Millás. And his dialogue, witty and painful at the same time, weaves together the themes of the book: forgiveness, old age, journalism, betrayal. Not fitting in, which is, in the end, the theme of all themes.
This book sounds like a comedy, but it is almost tragic. The character named Juan José Millás almost begs for forgiveness and lives in paranoia.
People tell me that they die laughing at my books. It's been happening to me since I started writing. At the beginning it bothered me a little. I thought I was writing serious things with gravity. Now I see that it's a side effect, a consequence of the way I approach things. It's like the side effects of bombing. It still surprises me, but I have understood that I have resources such as irony and paradoxical thinking. Well, the contradictions of human beings produce laughter, a slightly evil laughter aimed at laughing at ourselves.
