book rec

One thing I love about apartments in Spain is their history. It must be Europe's age that has all corners of it filled with so many human-planted antiquities. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not common to find a place in the US that comes not only furnished but also with plentiful forgotten pieces of someone else's life...

Before we moved into the apartment I live in now, it belonged to the sister of my roommate and therefore, unfortunately in some aspects, came with even more trinkets: in exchange for all of our supposed storage space, we scored a TON of free, cool stuff.

Part of this free cool stuff were bookcases and bookcases of books ranging in all types and languages: spanish, english, italian, french; novels, cookbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias. SO GLORIOUS.

I decided that I would read all books that I'm mentally capable of reading, that is to say, books in my two little languages...

I go about choosing them like pulling names out of a hat. They are well-organized, so if I feel like reading in english (which I usually do), I go to the hallway. If I feel like spanish, I go to the living room.

So the other day, in search of a new book, I thought it was time to venture to the living room after a long affair with the contents in the hallway. I pulled out a black and white checkered soft-back, Las Edades de Lulú by Almudena Grandes, saw a tantalizing child donning black gloves and goth make-up, and decided, heaven forbid, to judge the book by its cover: I'll take it!

(the best part of this game is that there is no need to read the back, to inform myself of what I'm getting into before pulling it off the shelf for good: there is no money nor a check-out system involved, and at this point I sincerely trust the former inhabitants of my apartment: nearly everything I have laid my hands on has been fantastic)

But, after reading the very first page--I had no idea what I was getting into and was lost in confusion--I decided to read the back....

"una larga historia de amor que, como cualquier historia de amor que no se resigna a dejar de serlo, va haciéndose siempre mas compleja y envolvente..."

More or less: "a long story of love, that, like any never-ending love story, constantly makes itself more complex and encircling..."

This is one of the most enveloping books I have ever read, and not because it is an erotic novel. This is worth mentioning. It is an erotic novel, and though my first of the sort, what struck me as incredible is that such a crude piece of literature can inspire such empathy in its reader. Love, sorrow, sex, obsession...if you are not bothered by extreme lewdness, I highly recommend the wrenching journey of The Ages of Lulu by Almudena Grandes, what luck I had that this book and I found each other.