Sentimental chronicle of a life among books, reads the subtitle of the new book by Miguel Munárriz, Determined to be happy (Aguilar-Penguin Random House), biased biography of a professional who has experienced literature from almost all angles: bookseller, cultural manager, journalist, promoter, editor, agent, author and, above all, avid reader.
“In the photograph that closes the book,” Ricardo Labra tells us, “Miguel can be seen perched on his back on a ladder in front of the shelves of his family library. The photograph, taken spontaneously by Palmira Márquez, surprises him by searching for the breadcrumbs that every reader leaves to follow the traces that lead him back to his intimate treasures… Munárriz’s family library seems to extend across all the walls of his house and retract endlessly through the shelves of his memory… And a book, as its author never ceases to point out to us in its luminous pages, is a metaphor for the world, a magical object in its transformative function«. I couldn’t have explained it better!
Munarriz (Gijón, 1951), whose good taste in choosing readings is beyond doubt, had already unleashed his passion for letters in two frankly delicious recent installments: the anthology Poetry for those who read prose (Visor, 2004) and the compilation of articles Writing against time (Luna de Abajo, 2021).
In the pages of the second, by the way, I discovered that, in addition to that almost fraternal friendship that has united us for decades, forged when we both coordinated weekend supplements in the newspaper The world During the epic years of Pradillo 42, we unknowingly shared something much more deeply rooted in the soul of the child we never stopped being: a fascination never mentioned in our adult lives for Enid Blyton’s Mystery series, which filled our respective childhoods with pre-teen detectives with pet dogs and daydreams of empty houses and unseen burglars in the English countryside. Someday we will have to address that issue. But let’s get back to our point…
Faithful to the bonhomie and complexity of its author, Determined to be happy It is a work that is difficult to classify and requires several readings.. The pureta will focus above all on its facet as a fragmentary literary biography, a chronicle of a specific period of our cultural life, filled with juicy anecdotes with renowned writers: the visits to Francisco Umbral’s dacha, the fabada that he cooked for Mario Vargas Llosa, the hymn he sang to Gunter Grass… But for me, who is only a mythomaniac of some damned French poets and certain fallen rock heroes, the greatness of this book lies in how the author portrays himself in the background and, above all, in its ability to irremediably infect us with the desire to read.
The title itself is based on a hedonistic anecdote between writers. Miguel says that, “one day having dinner with Augusto Monterroso and Bárbara Jacobs, they served us cheeses, which Monterroso liked extremely, and he blurted out, in a burst of effusiveness that was unusual for him: We are committed to being happy«. Under this premise of intelligent pleasure and evasion in the face of an increasingly harsh reality, Munárriz recalls with lucidity and amenity his life among books and noveliststeaching us what literature can mean in people’s lives.
Of course, in my house the book has been received with enthusiasm, since it joins other luminous texts that we treasure with a quite similar spirit. Despite my proven status as a renegade culturalite, bohemian rocker and gourmand unrepentant, when you live with an intellectual, everything sticks.
So the great home doubt that grips us this weekend – and that would make Miguel smile – is whether Determined to be happy will be classified on our shelves next to Bartleby and company (2000) by Enrique Vila-Matas, the written lives (1992) by Javier Marías, the compilation of articles compulsive reading (1998) by Félix de Azúa or the Major hunt (2022) by my dear Ben Ami Fihman, due to the common fact of hosting very personal profiles of iconic creators.
In that same vein, I could also go to the rehearsal side Write and be (1991) by Nadine Gordiner, Variations on literature (1993) by Roland Barthes and Creators by EL Doctorrow (2007). Or from the posthumous anthologies The literary imagination (2000) by Henry James and Men of genius (2020) by Stefan Zweig. But this book is not only about this, so it has no place here either.
In its condition as a sentimental diary of an all-terrain of printed letters, we could also place it close to a rarity like Memoirs of a bookseller written by himself (1994) by Héctor Yánover or go directly to the chapter on the autobiographies of great editors, although Miguel has always been more of a sideways editor. There he would be well accompanied: from the Mohican opinions (2001) by Jorge Herralde until Memories (2017) by Carlos Barral, going through the Confessions of an editor who is not a liar (2005) by Esther Tusquets or the story setting (2013) by Mario Muchnik.
Not to mention the memoirs of foreign giants: At Random (1977) by Bennett Cerf (Random House); Editing without editors (1999) by André Schiffrin (Pantheon Books); Edit life (2005) by Michael Korda (Simon & Schuter) or that lesser-known gem that is the Authors, books, adventures (1991) by Kurt Wolff, who was no less than the discoverer of Kafka. What a tremendous librarian’s dilemma!
For his declared friendship and his role as a mentor, Determined to be happy would fit well close to those two volumes of conversations between Juan Cruz and Jaime Salinas (The job of editor2013) and with Beatriz Moura (For the pleasure of reading, 2014). But There are no interviews here, but memories and perhaps longings..
If I listen to my lady – something that is always recommended – the ideal shelf would be the The ABC of reading (1934) by Ezra Pound, which also houses The experience of reading (2000) by C.S. Lewis and how to read and Why (2000) by Harold Bloom. But I see everything as too brainy and my friend would be bored with those row neighbors!
But affinity, I would rather place it next to the exquisite breviary that is Journal of a heureux man (2016) by Philippe Derlerm, at the time author of another of my reference short stories, The First Drink of Beer and Other Small Pleasures of Life (1997). But finally, I think I will end by putting Munárriz in the company of my admired Bernard Pivot, known in the neighboring country as “the man who has infected the French with the desire to read.” A legendary popularizer of literature through entertaining television programs such as Apostrophes and numerous essays, whom I had the fortune to interview in 2011 at his home in Paris and who has two delicious works on the pleasure of reading in his long resume: The métier de lire (2001) and Lire! (2020); the latter, in collaboration with her daughter Cécile and with a clean-lined comic cover that shows a library full of its mandatory staircase. And a library without a staircase is neither a library nor anything. But let’s not get lost…
At 89 years old, Pivot has left the Prix Goncourt jury to avoid stress, but he has not given up wine. The one who was a gastronomic critic of The Figaro He is as hedonistic as Miguel, he talks about literature without snobbery – like my colleague – and just listening to him – also ditto – makes you want to open the first book you have nearby. I think they’re going to get along well.
“I have never been a fan of giving advice,” says Munárriz in the last pages of Determined to be happy. «However, I will say something of which I am absolutely convinced and defend and proclaim every time I have the opportunity: the best remedy against everything is a good book. And that ‘against everything’ includes, without a doubt, diseases of the body and soul. Whoever has spent a few days in bed as a child suffering from some minor illness and has not occupied it in embarking with Dick Turpin, has not fought with the best D’Artagnan style of fencing, nor has he dreamed of being the young English cabin boy Jim Hawkins on board the Hispaniola in search of the island’s treasure, will not know what it is to travel, what it is to be brave, what it is to be loaded with wisdom, not information, but imagination and dreams… Good books are “the best remedy against boredom and vulgarity, they help you to know others, to value life more, to know yourself (prudently) and, without moving, they help us to travel, to live in an eternal journey around the world.” . Bravo for him!
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