I will have the pleasure and honor to present Revista del Vinalopó 24 (Centre d’estudis locals del Vinalopó (CEL), 2021), directed by Francisco José Palomares, on Thursday, September 21 at 20:00 at the Paurides Foundation in Elda. Alfonso has an excellent file on Rafael Azuar. This is why I re-read his best-known novel, Modorra (1967; Institute of Alicante Studies, 1970, digital edition https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra/modorra-971417/); Winner of the Café Gijón award, an award-winning short novel dated 1967 that, like the kiss in the couplet, was not given to everyone in that decade. And I repeat what this novel has already produced in me, the pleasure of a slow, calm reading in which all the existential transcendence of life is extracted from rural everyday life.
Over the course of 37 short sequences, through an omniscient narrator with a poetic and existential vision of the good and the great: “Pain is like a dull wind that comes from the depths of oneself and groans against the limits of time” (p. 71), but without breaking away from it, Rafael Azuar says With a recognizable realistic technique resulting from a magnificent observation, he presents to our eyes the stillness of Salinas, a town in the interior of the province of Alicante, in August; a truth accurately synthesized in the name that gave the study its name: “Drowsiness, deep sleep” (DLE, 2023).
Through the “one after the other” technique and the use of fragmentation and therefore ellipse, the reader contemplates the landscapes in such a way: mountain slopes, vines, almond trees, meadows, agricultural fields. The terraces and everything surrounding the city are visited by the reader as if they were there. Masterfully, it is the beginning of the novel with the horse’s tail or horse’s tail, the old gypsy and the place, all are described and presented using the cinematographic technique of sequence shooting. In any case, the main stage in the town is the bar, which has always been a unifying element for almost all residents, both those who go there and those who pass through the door. All of them stand out in their lives and static relationships, as well as in their condemnation of the impoverished life of rural day laborers or the always poetic and painful existence of gypsies, “children”, according to social realism. of the sun.” and the flies» (p.98). In this setting, a single narrative element emerges with a certain continuity, offering a certain dramatic tension in a love affair, such as the story of Pedro, who returns to the city as an immigrant in France.
Perhaps due to the realistic need of the work, Rafael Azuar reveals a clear desire for linguistic characterization of the region, but with only small examples, never excessive or repetitive, so as not to fall into the most clichéd localism. Thus, in some cases, he uses the form “let’s get started” with the past perfect simple form “let’s get started” from the mouth of one of the characters (p.13); Add a Valencian word: “María la de tots” (p.14); introducing certain vulgarities, using the diminutive suffix “throw ahead” (p.39) or -ico, “bring me an absence” (p.39), curiously referring to Elda, where they went to the party and where they came from They are party friends of one of the characters .
Sometimes, with the passage of time, it is not easy to explain how a good work, viewed through today’s eyes, could not achieve the literary success it truly deserved (the print run was only 500 copies), but perhaps the explanation is the same, that is, in the present time of the novel, at the end of the sixties, Modorra is in the Spanish literary panorama It would not be new in terms of subject, structure or style. Other works were being studied and developed: not better novels, but more avant-garde and influential novels.
So why should you read this novel? Because, in addition to confirming the identity of Rafael Azuar as a good writer, one enjoys a good read that reflects a way of describing reality and a certain period when narration gave way to quality poetic prose. And as we say about my people, because Modorra is a true “jewel”.