“No one ever swims”, continues the line marked by his previous work, “The Royal Lemon Tree”. In her, keep exploring the technical possibilities of the narration.
As it happened in “The Royal Lemon Tree”, we start from a banal argument: he run from Friday to Sunday of Garay Cat in its home of the coast of Parana, near the town of Corner. On Saturday morning she will receive a visit from her friend Elisa that he will give him a book from his brother Squab and will live with him cat los tres días. Recibirá por otra parte el cat, la encomienda de take care of a horse. On Sunday they will receive the visit from his friend Tomatis with whom they will share a roast and wine. Nearby will move the character of the life guard.
But in this everyday story, Saer introduces a tramto apparent police content: a series of events are taking place in the area horse murders. They appear dead from a shot to the temple and dismembered. The research is in charge of the commissar, Leyva horse; known for his expeditious methods of making suspects “sing”, according to Tomatis.
Like in “The Royal Lemon Tree”, there is a repetitive fragmentation throughout the work. The opening sentences of the book present a Connection clear with him title of the book, repeating itself throughout the chapters of the work:
“There is, at first, nothing. Nothing. The smooth, golden river, without a single wrinkle, and behind it, low, dusty, in full sun, its ravine falling gently, half eaten by the water, the island».
Juan José Saer "Nobody ever swims" Editorial Rayo Verde 2014 (Successive citations without mention will refer to the same author and book
Apparently if we look only at the surface of the novel, we can witness a narrative that counts little and what counts seems to be similar throughout the narrative. But if we read paying attention to the details, we can see how the resource of saer It is deliberate. Which aims to It is give meaning to the characters and to what is narrated with its constant reiteration. Reiteration which also gradually modifies what has been told, introducing significant variations.
Highlights the narrative technical change when passing a indirect narrator, as we can see in the following snippet:
“He is standing, when he wakes up, or when he begins, rather, to wake up, next to the bed. The sheet, the white walls, glow in the dark, and the hum of the fan continues, monotonous. The spiral has been consumed whole. He is coming out, waking up, from a diffuse, thick horror, and when he realizes that he is already almost awake, naked, standing next to the bed, the horror sends out, still, like the fan, gusts."
To first person narrative of character of cat:
“I slowly go through the cool rooms, tiled in red, between the white walls, crossing the gap with the doors painted black, and when I reach the gallery at the end, on which the sun hits, I pull towards the center from the backyard, what's left of the cigarette. Mounted on the yellow bay, Ladeado waits impatiently on the other side of the gate.
As in the previous work, there is some Virginia Woolf influence in the application of stream of consciousness. Alternatively saer goes from one character to another, where the narrator records his reverie.
saer focusing, mainly, in the character of Garay Cat, which does not prevent close to him, transit several characters with marked characteristics: Elisa, the friend of cat, have prominent role in the narration. Elisa and he cat star scenes of one sensuality accentuated But even if the act is consummated between them on more than one occasion, there is like a impossibility of full satisfaction on the sexual plane, as the thoughts of the cat testify:
“There we were moving, complaining, sighing, one inside the other, as always—that's why we met each other whenever we could—and when we finished, gasping, lying on top of each other, crushed, as if torn apart, we hadn't gone very far, no: we were the same as at the beginning, and the peak we had reached was infinitely nearer the beginning than the end."
the book that cat receives from his brother, it is precisely, "Philosophy in the Dressing Table" of Sade. cat read fragments of the book where the story is reproduced inability to get pleasure and the advice to try to get it.
Another character found along the coast is the life guard. It was champion of stay in the water, but we know how the narrator witnesses the episode that provoked his abandonment of the competition. she had a strange perception where the reality seemed to break down at times:
"The truth is that all around the surface of the water was transformed into a series of luminous points, of indefinite and perhaps infinite number, very close to each other but not touching each other as proved by the fact that despite From their continuous flickering, a very thin black line could be seen between one and the other. As far as his sight could reach, that is to say, the entire visible horizon, the surrounding surface, in which it was no longer possible to distinguish the water from the shores, seemed to have pulverized and the infinity of particles that shook before his eyes did not they possessed the least cohesion among themselves.
This strange phenomenon perceived by the character enhances the claim of constant present that applies saer through reiteration of fragments throughout the book.
The Lopsided is the character that take the horse to the cat, through his Uncle Laius. He wants that the cat will protect him on his farm to avoid the violence unleashed against horses Around the area. The bather sees him arrive in a canoe with horse feed. Also Saer alternates the vision of the Lopsided through the cat, as he sees that he is approaching the house. It is a characteristic feature of the author's technique. The traits of the characters are described to us through the look of other characters alternately.
A character who marks a breaking point in the narrative will be Tomatis. It has been said that it isin a way a alter ego of the author. In an interview he gave in 1997, they asked Saer, about:
Interviewer: Do you identify with one or more of your characters?:
"With everyone. Everyone says that the one who resembles me the most is Tomatis. I don't believe much in that. I do not believe in that…".
Juan José Saer, interview in Paris, 1997.
Interviewer: But believe in something...
“I believe that all the characters of an author are a bit of him. I remember that Borges once criticized Huxley's Contapunto. A novel that was very fashionable (I think in the '70s). It was one night, at a banquet, when I met Borges. I had just read Counterpoint, which I really liked, so he told me "No, I don't like that novel because it says that all the characters are him." So it seemed like a valid argument to me. But now, thinking back, I think he was wrong. I think that all of Cervantes's characters are Cervantes and all of Dostoevsky's characters are Dostoevsky. And that difference of different characters, the opposite, that is, Iago and Othello, are part of the same person of Shakespeare. It's kind of how I see things."
Juan José Saer, interview in Paris, 1997.
Tomatis visits his friend Cat. work from reporter in a Newspaper, in Corner. brings you up to date of the latest news, about him horse case and about certain circumstances that have happened to Commissioner Leyva, which I do not reveal.
Gato and Elisa will have a relaxed chat next to his friend Tomatis, what will prepare the roast that later they will eat washed down with a good wine. This element is common in the narratives of saer. The author likes to insert moments of spread of the characters, enjoying a good chat through food preparation and eating and drinking at the table, itself:
“Tomatis had spread the raw meat on the papers that wrapped it, on the clear table, and had begun to salt the entrails, the ribs, the fat. At one point he had held up a kidney split in two, and had begun to declaim, parodic and slow, as if he were improvising, although it was, once again, his favorite satirical stanza after several months: Before anything or better said first / let us sing in honor of Captain Fontana / who turned this world into a slaughterhouse / defending the vegetarian cause ».
The horse, indirectly, is another important element more. There is a relationship of distrust of the bay towards the Cat that will gradually subside in part:
“… the yellow bay, immobile under the trees, alerted by the appearance of the Cat whose shadow is projected against the white wall of the gallery, between the bedroom door and the kitchen door covered by the blue canvas curtain, leaves , for a few seconds, to chew.
The Dream's world is also present in the work. The Cat will have dreams where in the background they are observed keys that point to the military dictatorship what was happening in Argentina in those years. There are other details that allude to the repressive state of the moment, when Elisa hears machine gun shots nearby. and the sound of a military helicopter flying over the area. That tension is palpable in some scenes of the book, such as when Elisa being in Corner feels observed, guarded. cat as well dream of a casino and gambling author's obsession who even went through financial problems on occasion because of his addition, which over time he managed to overcome.
saer in the book he seems to want with his repeated fragmentation, try apprehend reality through words, even knowing that it is practically impossible to fully reflect it, just as it is. The capture of the moment in the narrative, becomes important in saer; reminding me of Salvador Elizondo in his master piece, “Farabeuf” (See here). Another element that we find in the book is the ironic humor what saer unfolds in small brushstrokes throughout it.
It is true that some readings of saer are not not complacent, but they are not cryptic; absolutely. If you enter them it will reward you, because he is an author who has much respect for the reader.
About it, Saer himself told an anecdoteI seem to remember that in an interview. He said that at the end of a conference, a woman approached him, precisely with the book "Nobody ever swims". After the usual greetings and the request to sign the book, the woman told saer that when he started read the book the first time, I leave barely after a few pages, cursing the author. She said to herself, she can't be, I seem to be constantly reading the same thing. She was a teacher but he couldn't handle it, he thought it was a waste of time. After a while, looking at the books in his library, he once again pays attention to the elusive book of saer. He says to himself: I'm going to give it a second chance, I can't believe I won't be able to read it. She starts reading and this time yes, already can't stop reading. tells Saer, look, When I finished reading I felt such fascination which is now for me one of the most appreciated books. I also understood that what you write does not have a complicated language, I think I did not need to use a dictionary. Because, I thank you for giving me those such special moments of reading.
I leave as complement one of the best documentaries what is around the Saer's work, with interventions by the same author and other testimonials. It was produced by channel (á) Argentinian:
"No one ever swims" Juan José Saer
Editorial: Green Thunder, 2014 Edition 🔗
Collection: Ball Rays
