By chance, reading novels that have nothing to do with me is sometimes an exercise that relaxes and entertains me. This applies to Víctor del Árbol’s A Million Drops (Planeta, 2014), which won the Nadal Award (2016) for La víspera de casi todo (2016) and the Valencia Negra Novel Award (2017) for Over the Rain. ). I had enjoyed both at the time, so I decided to read this author’s previous thriller this summer, as it’s always a good way to enjoy the disconnection from the realities of everyday life and the relaxation that comes from reading. it enjoys and entertains you. Almost safe bet.
A Million Drops is a traditional style novel with a 3rd person omniscient narrator, very easy to read, simple prose, short and regular sentence and juxtaposition of elements and success. With a bright and shocking introduction (violence against children overwhelms us) and a start and an ending with a perfect connection to all the content, everything is regulated by the law, with 30 episodes. It ends with an afterword in the first singular, where the title of the novel (and also this column) is understood, where the reader’s emotions reach their maximum.
The novel is connected with what is called the noir novel or, as it is now said, the noir novel. In it, the borders and original features of the margins of this subspecies are becoming more and more pronounced. Víctor del Árbol builds a detective story out of the police, complete with a second-order detective, but with elements from other subgenres. They all collect.
The novel presents us with a Spanish lawyer who is married and unhappy in both his marriage and private life, subject to the social class norms of his father-in-law. He falls in love and hides it on his own initiative, but deep down it’s just a resignation » p.33) after his sister’s alleged suicide, he delves into his past until he learns the true story of his father, who is a Spaniard. Engineer with ideals that would be completely rejected in thirty years in the USSR. Therefore, the work presents a narrative structure with two different moments in time: the story of 1933 in the USSR, the story of the father; and your son’s in Spain in 2002. The intertwining of both, that is, the future of events, is articulated with a simple structure and continuous flashbacks, as they correspond to full and alternate episodes. How comfortable and simple its thematic progression is for the receiver who can follow the story with maximum tension, it is similar to the usual structure used in film and television to tell this type of story, because « the first drop begins. to be the ocean” (p.668).
The novel is very well-constructed, has a variety of characters, some of which are somewhat archetypal, which contributes perfectly to the narrative success of the story. Among them, the father Elias Gil stands out with a whole life shaken by fate (the serial component is very detailed) and a clear background of a part of the history of the USSR; especially regarding the brutal and horrific events on the island of Názimo, which were the product of a particular political regime and which, though fictionalized, had an important documentary basis. Thus, with all this historical component, it is directly related to another subgenre, such as the historical novel, which is highly appreciated by readers today.
Why should you read this novel? Because if you like thrillers based on great life stories, you will enjoy this movie, in which the noir novel is complemented by a life story that leaves no one indifferent. And if you haven’t read any of his novels yet, it’s a perfect example to explore Víctor del Árbol’s skills as a narrator of this type of story.
Source: Informacion
