Life and literature are connected to each other with a very thin bond. It is an almost invisible unity and we can rarely distinguish one from the other. It is a mixture of fiction and reality, and writers use these as tools to support their stories. Throughout literary history, this has happened all over the planet. The art of storytelling is something universal that helps us understand ourselves and the world around us. Often this reality/fiction duality pushes us towards knowledge or discovery of the microcosm in which we move, and this is where literature displays its knowledge.
Uzumut, written by Eduardo Almiñana de Cózar, published by Osadía Ediciones with a foreword by Pilar Pedraza, are stories in which reality and fiction intertwine to tell a story. Eduardo gives us an example of twenty-seven pieces forming a puzzle. Grapevine, like a novel by Julio Cortázar, can be read either as independent stories or as a fragmented novel in which the human factor is very well displayed. With his first work of fiction, Almiñana shows us that he is a great storyteller.
We can say that this book is like a series of Hopper paintings that appear as words. If Almiñana were a painter, he would depict the human soul as no one else has. His prose is direct yet poetic and carries a visceral rhythm, delving into the human condition. These are not simple stories, there is more to them. Eduardo offers depth in his literature, there is an inner world in every sentence, every paragraph, there is something coming from within and he sees the light in the writings. Pilar Pedraza’s foreword indicates: “The twenty-seven works of Eduardo Almiñana that make up Uzumut are not quantum fables, or even stories: they are philosophical texts, sometimes short, sharp and elegant stories with a science fiction aspect, numbered one. By the time it reaches the third, gothic From the moment she falls into the author’s arms like a bride, she combines what she reads with increasing pleasure and whispers: ‘Take me wherever you want, even if we only have ninety-seven seconds.’”
Almiñana’s literature, as we have already mentioned, also draws on Cortázar, but also on Lem and Ballard, in which the individual faces an uncertain fate and there is no security in actions, letting oneself go. Üzumut was a surprise. There are as many readings in this book as there are works they left to Eduardo. We have talked about painting before, and it would not be unreasonable to say that we are faced with an Edward Hopper of literature. As Ernest Hemingway taught us in his iceberg theory, what is not told is more important than what is told, the bottom layer, everything we do not express, everything we do not clearly show, tells us the story. What we miss is what really matters; This is where the author’s expertise is discovered.
We can say that we are faced with one of the novels of the year. Almiñana waited for the necessary time to give us his first work. Although always hidden or hidden in his work as a critic, he displayed his skills as a storyteller in a very remarkable way. But Eduardo Almiñana is first and foremost an observer and thinker. The catalyst for what surrounds you to give you a voice. We are faced with the first work of an author who will be talked about a lot. A racing narrator, the seed of a productive career. We are already waiting for your next novel.