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We are starting 2023 out on an international note by reading a work from the pen of Catalan author Edgar Cantero this month. I've known about Barcelona's most prominent contemporary writer for a few years now--he is also embraced by the bizarro movement--and been meaning to get to his work. I'm happy to finally have this opportunity to do so.

He wrote two novels in Catalan, then two novels in English. This, his fifth novel, was written in Catalan and has since been translated. By whom, I don't know. I imagine the overwhelming majority of us will be reading the English translation. Purchasing the book brand new costs $15.25 (hardback) or $16.00 (paperback). You can Kindle it for $6.99 and I found some used copies that include tax and delivery (via post) for less than $5 total.

The book is on the surface a parody of the film noir genre. We have private eyes in an office and a client wanting to hire them. But there is more going on, of course; otherwise, it wouldn't belong to the weird genre. Please feel free to start reading and commenting to this topic right away. Spoilers behind tags, as always. I have a hardcover of Cantero's book on order, which for me is fine because I am almost halfway through Koko by Peter Straub right now anyway, a slow but good read, and I want to finish it before starting this one. I will join in the Cantero fun after a week or so when my copy arrives.

Merry New Year all!

Happy New Year!
I started on the This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us today. Really liking the self-aware [if that's the right way to describe it] writing style. That intro alone is fabulous!
"Elmore Leonard said it’s bad style to open a novel with the weather. Well, fuck him—it was a blazing red-hot August morning." Classic.

Finished it. It is entertaining. No supernatural elements, straight up thriller whodunit , shooting, fighting. Can't say I liked psycho Zooey, or (view spoiler)[ all the sexual stuff around little girls. Also, how was the little blue eyed lesbian fist fighting the brute street fighter Mike? (hide spoiler)] Slightly cringed at the posturing, especially the Ayn Rand cultists in the den of sin.
Th language is great, style, sarcasm, loved it. The plot is interesting and engaging.

Glad you liked it and to discover it is a quick read. Sounds like the characters were very memorable. Looking forward to seeing my copy in my mailbox one of these days soon. No supernatural elements though? Not even the two persons in one body thing?

Well, it got a scientific explanation of sorts, siamese twin like. The characters are memorable all right:)

I finally have the chance to start reading this. It's surprisingly funny.

I'm also really enjoying the metafictional conceits. What's especially interesting about them is that Cantero is not doing so in a heavy-handed way by addressing the reader directly, as is typical. He is having another off-screen fictional character address the fictional author, or having a character from the story address the author at other times. Afterwards the story will usually be rewritten slightly and then pick up from where it left off before the interruption. I don't think I've ever seen this before. No, that's not true, come to think of it. Carrie Laben used similar technique in A Hawk in the Woods, a group read of ours from a few years back. I didn't consider her effort to be entirely successful because it so confused the plot. I wonder if Cantero will pull it off in better style.

Cantero's version comes across as kind of light-hearted jazzing around. It can be hard to signal the parameters for who is addressing who and what the limitations are, all while telling a story with its own interest going, but his technique is intriguing and working so far.

The novel started out strong, but as soon as about 15% in became pretty dull for this reader. My two-star rating review is here if you are interested: /review/show.... Hopefully, more group members enjoyed it as much as Zina did instead of to the extent I did.

Hee hee I am quite a bit more forgiving than you are Dan but the more I look back at it the less I think of that undertaking. Especially on the contrast to that buddy-read book Over the Edge that I am so slowly reading. Now that's quality stories. The plot of this one is not much, and the characters are trite and soso. (nor counting the thing about two people literally in one body, which is not enough). That author sure can turn a phrase, and hopefully will team up with somebody who has ideas for plots and characters. Still, it was interesting to be exposed to it. Surely, somewhere out there is a modern Campbell or Howard, so it's worth it to be checking things out.