Your Face Tomorrow

The final book of Javier María’s trilogy has at long last been published. Veneno y sombra y adios is the third and lengthy book of Tu Rostro Mañana. At over 700 pages, this final volume completes the series that is close to nine years in the making.

While the book is certainly being publicized as María’s great work, see the promotion at Alfaguara, reviewers and bloggers aren’t as sure. At elconfidencial.com , one blogger is somewhat dissatisfied with the book’s “sensation of excess and of insufficient construction”. He writes,

Si bien Tu rostro mañana se publicita como la obra maestra de Javier Marías y él mismo ha llegado a considerarla definitiva— en el sentido que quizá ya no escriba más ficción, esperemos que se retracte—, no es el mejor Marías . . . Tu rostro mañana supone una radicalización del ‘estilo Marías’, que fascinará a los muchos adictos, pero que probablemente desconcertará al neófito y que deja una sensación de exceso, de insuficiente construcción sobre unas estructuras demasiado endebles. Marías ya no tiene que demostrar nada, por supuesto, y es probable que lo que puede parecer defectuoso sea intencionado o, al menos, asumido; pero Tu rostro mañana no deja de resultar hermética, para iniciados.

For those who don’t speak Spanish, a rough translation:

Your Face Tomorrow, is publicized as Javier Marias’s masterpiece and Marias himself has considered it his final—in the sense that maybe he will not write anymore fiction, we hope he retracts this—it is not the best Marías. Your Face Tomorrow supposes a radicalization of the “Marías style” that will fascinate the many addicts, but will probably disconcert the neophyte and leave a sensation of excess and of insufficient construction of a few weak structures. Marías doesn’t have to prove anything, of course, and it is probable that what appears as defective is intentional or, at least, assumed; but Your Face Tomorrow doesn’t end with a hermetic result, for the new readers.