The Guadalajara International Book Fair

As the Barcelona Book Fair ended this past Sunday, the bigger, better—and according to Jorge Volpi at El Pais—“paradise” that is the Guadalajara International Book Fair (FIL) was just getting started on the other side of the globe.

A resident of Mexico City, Volpi writes a very funny article, focusing largely on how the rivalry between his native city and Guadalajara plays out during the fair. He humorously refers to himself as chilango, slang for a resident of Mexico City, and implies that his fellow chilangos will lynch him for writing this article. Making a compromise between his loyalties to Mexico City and the impressive literary culture of Guadalajara, he ends his article citing the power of FIL to illuminate books as the “unbeatable pretext for the reconciliation of these two cities”.

Volpi also compares the FIL to Frankfurt and it is certainly interesting to hear about Frankfurt from the perspective of a writer not publisher…

We writers have our inferno: The Frankfurt Book Fair. Few experiences are as anguishing as attending—in error—this gigantic labyrinth. Books in all languages, themes, colors, and sizes. To top it all off, miles of “professionals”, the ones really invited to the party: the editors, agents, publicists, and scouts. In Frankfurt, the readers are prohibited (they’re only allowed to look at the books from afar) and writers are the weirdos: sometimes the next Nobel winner attends, a recipient of the Bookseller’s Prize, the literary companion of this country—or culture—, the writers who are invited every year, and usually some absent-minded novelist or poet. For what? To suffer in front of what Gabriel Zaid calls too many books. Here literature is of less importance: what is important are the deals, the meetings every twenty minutes, and drinks at night. The best thing that authors and readers can do in Frankfurt is flee…

In comparison to the callous and cold German fair, Volpi paints Guadalajara like a beach party where editors, authors, and readers alike gather at the end of the fair to dance salsa together.

The FIL in Guadalajara is almost a paradise: an enormous but manageable space, well-ventilated, packed with readers and writers, even though it also has a growing number of professionals… This city in a few days convert itself into the center of the Spanish language (and a few others). And what’s more: a forum for intellectual discussion, an incentive for the critic, a showcase of thought, a refuge for the arts. I don’t say this so that the Guadalajarians will excuse me for being a chilango, but the FIL is an example for Mexico City and for all of the country.

And probably an example for Frankfurt as well. Here’s hoping for traditional German folkdance next year…