That Jorge Volpi is a narrator aware of his closest reality is not something new. In his previous book Against Trump He already gave a good account of what Trump's xenophobic ideology implies for his country, Mexico. It is not a question of ranting for its own sake, Volpi gives his latest works an aura of intellectuality. Proposals always deeply documented with which to base your narrative argument. Either in a more realistic plan, as in Trump's previous book, or to relate from reality, as is the case with this "A criminal novel", with which he has won the 2018 Alfaguara prize or, of course, to navigate between complete fictions as in his great novel "The Shadow Weaver", to point out one example of each type.
The events, those from which Volpi extracts this story for its ironic title, occurred on December 8, 2005. Their characters Israel Vallarta and Florence Cassez were involved in a surreal arrest, turned into a scapegoat from God knows what organization criminal in collusion with the power and whose arrest the press soon also made its own cause.
Israel and Florence suffered torture, parallel trials and public derision. They found themselves immersed in an ominous plan by mafias capable of shaking governments and justice with astonishing intensity.
Television, also mediated by the ignominious plan, was in charge of convincing all Mexicans that Israel and Florence had kidnapped for their economic purposes, belonging as they were to an organized crime group.
From the outset, the experiences of Israel and Florence, completely oblivious to all these formal accusations, must have been distressing. If, in addition to the fact that you are not guilty of anything, you discover that a wicked plan of unpredictable results looms over you ...
The fight against crime, when it rises decisively to its highest levels, it collides with a beast capable of everything to defend its dominions. Nothing else can be expected of those who are in charge of pulling the strings of crime as the foundation for their profit and their wealthy lifestyle.
And corruption, like so many other times, is discovered as a rugged chain of favors that ends up linking power and public institutions with the worst of social ills.
A crude story for what it means to wake up to reality. A warning for navigators about the fragility of democracy and institutions.
You can now buy «A criminal novel», the new book by Jorge Volpi, winner of the 2018 Alfaguara novel prize, here: