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A review by marko68
A Heart So White by Javier Marías
5.0
“How many things are left unsaid in the course of a lifetime or a story, sometimes without our meaning or choosing to do so?” p212
A Heart so White is my first foray into the work of Spanish writer, Javier Marías, and wow, I am quite blown away by it. It’s challenging to describe this novel in that in some ways it’s an exploration and expose of thematic ideas using the backdrop of a narrative plot to illustrate these thoughts. The plot line is in someways quite secondary although integral if that makes sense.
If I was to try and summarise the main tenet of A Heart so White as they stand out to me it would be about what it is that we choose to say and not to say in the context of intimate relationships. Life is a series of choices that we make in relation to the words that we speak, the deeds that we do, and these words and deeds are in reality equal to all the words and deeds that we don’t say and the impact of both are equal in their impact.
“Each step taken and each word spoken by anyone in any circumstances (hesitant or assured, sincere or false) have unimaginable repercussions that will affect someone who neither knows us nor wants to, someone who hasn’t yet been born or doesn’t know that they’ll have to suffer us and become, literally a matter of life and death.” p80
The story is narrated by Juan, the husband of Luisa, the son of Ranz and Juana, the nephew of Teresa (although he wouldn’t be the nephew of anyone if Teresa hadn’t shot herself). Juan is ever present throughout the whole telling of the story with long essay like forays into the concepts that surround our most intimate relationships, unspoken thoughts, suspicions, questions, doubts and fears. Juan is like a participant yet also a watcher and a listener. He is alongside the narrative yet also integrally central to it all. In particular he explores the notion of knowledge - do we really want to know what someone else tells us and how will that impact? Is it better to maintain a silence or not?
I like the way Marías uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a bit of a motif throughout. Even the title of the book has its origins here… “my hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white.” The relationship of Macbeth and his wife is referred to again and again along the lines of “I have done the deed”… and all those words imply.
A Heart so White is so much more than a novel. It is an essay story.. I loved every minute of it. What an amazing 5 star first read for 2024.
A Heart so White is my first foray into the work of Spanish writer, Javier Marías, and wow, I am quite blown away by it. It’s challenging to describe this novel in that in some ways it’s an exploration and expose of thematic ideas using the backdrop of a narrative plot to illustrate these thoughts. The plot line is in someways quite secondary although integral if that makes sense.
If I was to try and summarise the main tenet of A Heart so White as they stand out to me it would be about what it is that we choose to say and not to say in the context of intimate relationships. Life is a series of choices that we make in relation to the words that we speak, the deeds that we do, and these words and deeds are in reality equal to all the words and deeds that we don’t say and the impact of both are equal in their impact.
“Each step taken and each word spoken by anyone in any circumstances (hesitant or assured, sincere or false) have unimaginable repercussions that will affect someone who neither knows us nor wants to, someone who hasn’t yet been born or doesn’t know that they’ll have to suffer us and become, literally a matter of life and death.” p80
The story is narrated by Juan, the husband of Luisa, the son of Ranz and Juana, the nephew of Teresa (although he wouldn’t be the nephew of anyone if Teresa hadn’t shot herself). Juan is ever present throughout the whole telling of the story with long essay like forays into the concepts that surround our most intimate relationships, unspoken thoughts, suspicions, questions, doubts and fears. Juan is like a participant yet also a watcher and a listener. He is alongside the narrative yet also integrally central to it all. In particular he explores the notion of knowledge - do we really want to know what someone else tells us and how will that impact? Is it better to maintain a silence or not?
I like the way Marías uses Shakespeare’s Macbeth as a bit of a motif throughout. Even the title of the book has its origins here… “my hands are of your colour; but I shame to wear a heart so white.” The relationship of Macbeth and his wife is referred to again and again along the lines of “I have done the deed”… and all those words imply.
A Heart so White is so much more than a novel. It is an essay story.. I loved every minute of it. What an amazing 5 star first read for 2024.