Venezuelan literature finds in the voices of the impetuous Karina Sainz or the already veteran Juan Carlos Mendez that new block of narrators in their particular exodus from which to review all kinds of homelands (talking about exile has a political component that I don't feel like entering). Because writing is always a projection of what one is and especially of what one leaves behind. Because you only write about what you live or observe. Imagination takes care of the rest.
The point is that from outside the terroir both write with that homelessness that they long for and miss (it will be because of eñes) and in the exercise of bringing here the abandoned or left both Sainz and Méndez emanate that intensity achieved only from inertia that cannot be followed in the comfort or the effort to sit down and tell something.
Stateless for any reason ..., in other times they were the great writers of the twentieth century. In a while the same will happen with feathers like those of these two writers who deepen or deform their plots as a variable discourse that can range from the dreamlike to the realism most in need of satire, including the noir genre.
Top 3 recommended novels by Juan Carlos Méndez Guédez
The dance of Madame KalalĂș
The first person is what you have. Good storytellers resort to that confession, that whisper of you and me between protagonist and reader to shamelessly assault that reader skin that makes the plots inhabit. Then there is the will to upset everything, the shameless effort to tell a thriller increasing the suspense from the disconcerting.
Emma leads a risky existence as the head of an organization dedicated to the theft of jewelry and works of art. In love with a man she met one night in Madrid and willing to do anything to find him again, her eagerness will be interrupted by an extraordinary circumstance: the police arrest her in Portugal, accusing her of three murders.
Emma will then have to unravel the keys to the crime in which she is involved, while going through the most fascinating moments of her life, a succession of hilarious robberies, identity games and occasional erotic situations.
A black novel with flashes of romantic comedy, adventure stories, love and humor, Madame KalalĂș's dance presents us with an endearing character, a modern woman capable of turning the world upside down to fulfill her wishes.
Briefcases
Sometimes we carry briefcases from here to there, we tackle the missions entrusted to us without hesitation. It is just a matter of filling the compensation routines called salaries. In return it is just a matter of giving our time. The paradox of working out of necessity for those who work only to survive their circumstances. Until we decide that no, that we don't have to do it without knowing in depth all the reasons and, why not, the contents of the briefcases.
Donizetti lives at the limit of his possibilities: two children, a wife, an ex-wife and two houses to support with his reduced income. That is why he accepts an enigmatic mission: to transport briefcases from troubled Caracas to cities such as Rome, Geneva, Paris or Madrid, on the condition that he never ask questions about the meaning of those trips or the contents of the briefcases.
But the endearing reunion with Manuel, his friend from youth, awakens in him the determination to give his existence the turn that allows him to save his family from a reality marked by violence. In the midst of a personal universe populated by common criminals, paramilitaries, arms dealers, spies and hitmen, Donizetti embarks on a risky plan to obtain a large sum of money and execute the great coup that will forever transform his life and that of his children.
The wave stopped
The most blatantly black work of Méndez Guédez. One of those noir novels that introduces us to an upside-down world, where the suburbs occupy offices, where the underworld roams between police stations and ministries ...
Caracas is the most dangerous city in the world, and there the trace of the Spaniard Begoña de la Serna, the wayward daughter of an influential conservative politician, has been lost. To find out her whereabouts, the girl's family hires Magdalena Yaracuy, an original detective who, to solve her cases, combines witchcraft, martial arts and an accurate aim with firearms.
But Begoña's disappearance is complicated. Bloody crimes, paramilitary groups, kidnappers, drug traffickers and corrupt military, surround the world of this girl who may have made the mistake of learning dangerous secrets in a country crushed by scarcity, fear and violence.
Magdalena Yaracuy must use her wit, her intuition and in a fierce race against time to rescue her client before she is captured by the many enemies who wish to exterminate her. A passionate thriller, with an endearing, lovable and funny character that readers will not be able to forget.
