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The writing of Felipe Benitez Reyes, a significant contributor to
the Spanish Postmodern esthetic, speaks to issues of voice,
persona, and the possibilities of fiction. Probable Lives won the
1996 National Book Award in Spain, the 1996 National Critics' Award
in Spain, and the City of Melilla International Prize. A book of
heteronyms, the character-poets in Probable Lives read as forgotten
or unknown twentieth-century authors, all "rediscovered" and
compiled by an anthologist who is also the creation of Reyes.
Probable Lives tweaks the notion of identity in ways that are both
engaging and downright funny.
Chaves Nogales met Juan Belmonte shortly before publishing this
book, and, even though he was not a bullfighting aficionado, the
two men hit it off immediately. His warmth, fighting spirit, and
conciliatory mood, rare in Spanish society at the time, were some
of the qualities that attracted the author and inspired him to
write the famous bullfighter's biography. In the narration, the
voices of the biographer and the subject blend together, so that it
is difficult to discern when one begins to speak and the other
stops, and this style makes Belmonte's memories unravel with
astonishing ease: his infancy in Seville, the difficult years
dedicated to learning, the picturesque aspects of the bullfighting
and literary circles, fame, his rivalry with Joselito. This is the
acute and faithful testimonial of an era, a masterpiece resulting
from the encounter between two extraordinary people: Juan Belmonte,
founder of modern bullfighting, and Chaves Nogales, one of the most
important Spanish journalists of the first half of the twentieth
century. "Chaves Nogales habia conocido a Juan Belmonte poco tiempo
antes de la publicacion del libro y, aunque no era aficionado a los
toros, los dos hombres congeniaron enseguida. La calidad humana del
personaje, su espiritu de superacion y su talante conciliador, raro
en la crispada sociedad espanola de la epoca, fueron algunas de las
cualidades que atrajeron al autor y que le animaron a escribir una
biografia del famoso torero. En la narracion las voces de biografo
y biografiado se mezclan, sin que se sepa donde empieza a hablar
uno y donde acaba el otro, y fruto de este genial planteamiento los
recuerdos de Belmonte se suceden con asombrosa naturalidad: su
infancia sevillana, los anos de durisimo aprendizaje, el
pintoresquismo de los circulos taurinos y literarios, la fama, su
rivalidad con Joselito. Este es el testimonio agudo y fiel de una
epoca, una obra maestra fruto del encuentro entre dos personas
extraordinarias: Juan Belmonte, fundador del toreo moderno, y
Chaves Nogales, uno de los periodistas espanoles mas importantes de
la primera mitad del siglo XX."
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