I learned of the existence of Luis Garcia Montero while studying Hispanic Philology at the university. Although the classrooms speak little or almost nothing about current literature, in a certain subject Garcia Montero was mentioned, or better said, as one of the continuators of the so-called "poetry of experience" initiated by Gil de Biedma. I really liked (and still likes) reading Gil de Biedma's poetry, and that's why when I had to go for a book in the library (let's use the libraries more!) I always ended up taking one of this author's books. And after him, I started to take Garcia Montero's books. Then I learned about his relationship with Joaquin Sabina, about his influence on many of his songs, about his pintos in politics, etc. And I got to know him a little better. But I had never read any book about him that wasn't poetry. So here I am for the first time with one that in principle, is not about poetry but in the end, is a little bit. Now I'll explain myself. I'm talking about Broken Words, published by Alfaguara.
I am so reluctant to read the sashes that they put on the books and even to read the synopsis, because I don't want to be gutted, that sometimes the fact of not doing it plays a "bad" past me, as on this occasion. When I saw Garcia Montero's new book, with that cover illustration that indicated so much fiction to me, I thought I was choosing my first novel from it. Nothing could be further from the truth. Broken Words is the sum of the Spanish poet's reflections on the problem of communication because, as the title says, of breakage, corruption, of words. But I have added some quotation marks to the word "bad" because fortunately, the error has made me find a highly recommendable book.
Broken words are divided into four parts and an epilogue. On the one hand, a brief essay in which García Montero talks to us about his experience with words and how he sees them evolving towards their gradual destruction, under "How to delay the explosion of the bomb". It is followed by what for me is the most interesting part of the book: "Words in the garbage can". In it, the author chooses eleven words and speaks to us of experiences and opinions regarding them individually, ending each of his comments with a poem related to the word in question. Words such as truth, progress, time or identity are what the author seeks to shell in order to, with his experience, try to polish until he reaches his essence. After these reflections, new ones follow in a part where the heterogeneity of the themes already appears from the title itself: I explain some of my things. There he tells us about his life as a person devoted to literature, how this can be a form of resistance or even how a problem of fireflies can be the spark of a reflection on politics. Politics and literature are the themes that prevail above all in this series of reflections that make up this varied mesh of texts that is Broken Words. The last part, Dialogues with Juan de Mairena, is a tribute to Antonio Machado, to that well known alter ego of the poet and to all the knowledge that thanks to his literature have contributed to him during all these years of reading and learning.
With a large number of references, mixing political and literary characters, Garcia Montero is discovered here even more than in his poetry, which is to say, in a book where everything is him. Pesadumbre with respect to the future, poetry as salvation, literature as an escape route, reflection before a past life; everything from a current perspective "without confidence in inspiration". Broken Words is a testament, with much anticipation and above all with much truth (although I don't think Garcia Montero likes it much that we use this word) of the ethics and morals of one of the standard-bearers of the "poetry of experience" that we commented before or, what the hell, of one of the great standard-bearers of current poetry.
I already know a little more about the man who was behind the poems I read between classes at the faculty. And you? Do you dare to get to know him?