Candela, by Juan del Val

Candela by Juan del Val
Available here

With his previous novel «It seems like a lie»With autobiographical overtones (but completely tied to his life), Juan del Val it aroused a stir and also blisters in very different sectors far beyond the strictly literary. But that is another matter entirely, about whose extremes it has already been revealed enough in all kinds of media.

But in the end, what the author demonstrated in that previous novel is his ability to transgress, move, annoy or fascinate. In other words, a combination of fundamental ingredients to convert any work of any subject into something relevant, for whatever reason.

And now comes this new novel with a woman's name: «Candela». And as soon as you see her, you can sense that female protagonism that emerges even from the name chosen for the protagonist made the title, reinforcing the personality of this woman made narrative universe from the outset.

Equality is an issue that is intended to be reached from above but which is also interesting to deal with below. And there literature and stories like this have a vast space to conquer.

I am referring to the image of the protagonist with overtones of a loser, almost an antagonist of himself. An almost always male stereotype in which fatality haunts as a mixture of unfortunate circumstances, bad luck or the destructive decision of the character on duty. The appearance of Candela as the emblem of the loser gets that feeling that failure also belongs to everyone, men and women.

And from that failure, from that feeling of life as a lost bet, epic, transgressive, empathetic stories can always emerge for each and every one of us, regardless of sex, with our lost battles over which we have no choice but to overcome. .

So meeting Candela in the midst of her murky reality, of a job she despises as a waitress and in which she serves her wonderful doggy humor from table to table, ends up being partly reconciling. Candela back from everything in her forties. With that defeatism from which the creativity of melancholy has so often emerged; the magic of nights in underworlds; and the remote hope of a better dawn, female version.

You can now buy the novel Candela, the new book by Juan del Val and Primavera de Novela Prize 2019, here:

Candela by Juan del Val
Available here
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