AUTHOR: Uxue Alberdi
PUBLISHER: Consonni
GENRE: Fiction
READER’S NAME: Annette Bridges
DATE: June 3, 2022
This engrossing novel by Uxue Alberdi is of great interest from a translation perspective. Included on this year’s “New Spanish Books” program list, Jenisjoplin was originally written in Euskara (the language of the Basque region of Spain) and has been translated into both Spanish (by Irati Majuelo) and English (by Nere Lete). The commentary below is based on my reading of the Spanish-language version.
Jenisjoplin is just under 250 pages in length and includes a brief glossary of significant Euskara words from the narrative, such as ikastola, a cooperative school that focuses on transmitting Basque language and culture, or txakurra, a pejorative term for the police. It is set in the Basque region of northern Spain during a period of time that stretches from 1982 through 2014. Many U.S. readers will have little knowledge of Basque history and culture, and in particular of the political history of the Basque separatist organization ETA (Euskadi Ta Askatasun). Alberdi’s novel incorporates some of that history and will especially appeal to readers interested in the experiences of groups that constitute a cultural minority within their own countries and speak a language entirely unrelated to the dominant language (for example, the Basque language, or the many indigenous languages of Mexico, vis-à-vis the dominant language of Castilian Spanish).
Jenisjoplin is a first-person narrative that tells the life story of a young woman named Nagore Vargas. Nagore lives intensely; she feels most alive when battling or struggling and is uncomfortable with calm and silence: “Because [violence] helps me remember that I have a body, and that it is mine.” The novel approaches the theme of identity construction from a number of unusual angles. Nagore’s identity is shaped, among other things, by her relationships, perhaps most interestingly to her presumed aunt Karmen, a heroin addict; by her political and cultural milieu, including the context of ETA, adherence to particular ideologies and the realities of socioeconomic class; and by her experience of what she describes as “my diagnosed body” (like Karmen before her, Nagore learns that she has AIDS). “Clinging to identities is dangerous,” remarks Nagore’s friend Irantzu at one point; Nagore’s story invites us to ponder this statement, interrogating the ways a person may cling to an identity as a drug addict, as a mother, as a diagnosed person, as a dissident (a term whose definition is itself closely interrogated in the course of the novel), and many others.
In this novel, Alberdi skillfully weaves together the various threads of Nagore’s story, including her varied and particular forms of attraction to each of the other characters. The author also convincingly incorporates real historical phenomena such as the violence committed by ETA, HIV/AIDS denialism, and some historical figures from rock and roll (including, of course, Janis Joplin!). The character of Nagore is unique and accessible, and the dialogue concise and dynamic. I am certain that many English-language readers would be as quickly reeled in as I was. There are relatively few Basque-language readers in the world; luckily, Jenisjoplin is likely to hold strong appeal for literary translators working into any language.
