Hello Gentle Reader
One of the greatest aspects of the short story form is how it is a requirement that the short story – though a prose form by definition; must straddle the line between both prose and poetry. A short story does not necessarily need to be a novel in a miniaturized form. Nor does a short story need to act like a chapter in a symphony for a larger piece of work. Short stories can be very poetic and expressionistic. Despite their deceptive lengths, they can envision and display the questions that are held on the lips of sentient and conscious beings. A great writer sees the unasked questions on an individual’s lips; and understands that they have been asked; but never answered. A mediocre author arrogantly attempts to answer these questions. Where an author of some master like qualities understands that there is no such thing as complicated questions; just complicated answers. Yet will be the first to admit that some questions are beyond answers – at least for the time being. This same author will be the first to lament the eventual dwindling of excitement in the everyday; once these questions are answered – if ever. Once the most profound questions have been answered and the puzzle of life, can be loosely termed: ‘defined,’ it means no more questions will weight so heavily; and life turns to existence .Without the need to ponder these questions that have lasted so many centuries – and were engraved on human lips and minds, when the first syllable was articulated into a letter; existence falls into the mundane, which borders on apathy. Life will be rendered to its own explained realities. Reality will lose its surreal tastes and its own brand of anarchic magic. Reality becomes governed by its own natural laws; where our reality becomes governed by our laws. Yet for the time being, these questions remain unanswered. The archaic magic remains intact in the real world; and life spins on its own surreal axis. This is the world that Medardo Fraile writes about. A world that is entirely set in the everyday and the ordinary, and yet has a dash of surreal magic to it.
Medardo Fraile was one of Spain’s most eminent writers; and one of Spain’s greatest practitioners of the short story form. His first foray into writing in a professional sense was in experimental theatre. He belonged to an experimental theatre group that also included the Spanish playwrights Alfonso Sastre and Alfonso Paso. In this time period Fraile wrote a play “The Brother.” Both Sastre and Paso, had gone onto become very important dramatists; but Medardo Fraile’s interest in his chosen literary mode, had shifted away from the theatre, and into the short story format. After a few short story collections were published in Spain, Fraile became recognized as a rising writer; in a form that at the time had little value in Spain at the time. Yet with the work that Fraile had done, and the recognition that he achieved as a writer primarily of short stories, the reputation of the short story form in Spain and the Spanish language, had increased and gather more value and respect. Medardo Fraile lived in Madrid during the siege of the city during the Spanish civil war, and once Franco had come into power, and left the country and lived in Scotland for the remainder of his life. He worked as a university professor at Strathclyde; and had a fondness for Scotland. Fraile had retired from his teaching however in nineteen-eighty six, and devoted himself full time to writing. He remained in contact with Spain, by writing articles for small provincial newspapers; and was a frequent visitor to the Big Book Fair in Madrid, and often was invited to host events and seminars on short story writing.
Fraile’s short stories did not follow the fashionable social realism of the fifties and sixties. His approach to the short story form was gentle but subdued; to the point of being illusory minimalistic in its approach. His short stories are incredibly short, but cover a lot of ground in the few pages in which his work is contained. He did not use intricate plotting in order to showcase the lives of the characters. Fraile’s stories are more like Polaroid’s. They capture the moments of the characters lives in their instants. Yet Fraile’s stories were not instantly written. They were re-worked continuously like bread. He continued to polish and pull out words that did not belong in the text that he was writing, which often gives his works a deceptive simplicity.. Medardo Fraile was a writer that showcased through suggestive images; rather than outwardly explaining; and each of his characters were tenderly observed and written with gentle melancholy that was lightened by a wry sense of humour. His characters and subject matter were often vulnerable individuals, and humble folk. They were written in a practical manner; and spoke in colloquial speech, that would be found in their homes, spoken in the cafes they visited, and on the streets they walked. Yet each story gently conveys the surrealistic realities of the everyday life and occurrences. How a typist office queen falls from her grace; or how two old spinsters, collect and assemble more lights to the chandelier as an attempt to ward off old age; or how a lemon drop candy brings a man back to the world of his childhood. This is the world that Fraile writes about. A world that is entirely the same, in every which way as a reality elsewhere to some degree; but yet looks differently in the light that Fraile showcases it with.
This review is of course obscenely short, if only because when I read “Things Looks Differently in the Light,” I read it through intervals and moments of quiet time, when the act of reading as a pass time could commence. Such as riding the bus, or while having a cigarette, or waiting in a café, for a friend to have coffee. I read the collection at first, as if I were to read a novel; but then decided to pick and choose by title – much like picking a chocolate from a box of pot of gold, by the discriminating information provided, by the manufacturer. What should be said about this book is, that it is meant for such moments when the luxury of reading in the day can be afforded, by such moments like a bus ride, or a train ride, or at lunch break. It is these moments where one can quickly search through the titles, pick one and read the snapshot story that has been presented by the Spanish writer. His works detail the everyday individual and their humble circumstances, and write of their own quiet extraordinary lives; how they attempt to ward off ennui, or defy natural laws, or even defy ageing and death only to glow long after. These stories offer wry humour with the hum drum melancholy of the everyday, and make light of the absurdities and surreal nature of the everyday life of individuals in a society.
This is Medardo Fraile’s first collection short stories to be published in English, and many thanks should be given to Pushkin Press for this. Pushkin Press, also happened to make sure the book was miniaturized in size to fit into ones coat pocket and could be readily grasped for those routine bus journeys, in the grey light of winter.
Thank-you For Reading Gentle Reader
Take Care
And As Always
Stay Well Read
*And Remember: Downloading Books Illegally is Thievery and Wrong.*
M. Mary
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