I spite thee

 “esa gorda soy yo”

Wait. checks books sleeve

Dammit. A man wrote this.

I should have just stopped the book there but this was for a book group.

I am a perpetual insomniac, so I thought it would be funny to read Que Nadie Duerma.

We all know I love magical realism, and this book has a nice twist on that, revealing how surrealist elements might blend with the protagonist's mental health. You get the feeling while reading “ is this really happening?” but that might be because I’m reading in Spanish and comprehending only 70% of the plot.

I will concede the book is well written with all the presupposed literary illusions and freudian vibes to make Juan José Millás reputable. However, I don’t really care about that if you are going to coin terms like “ false skinny” in reference to your woman protagonist.

It would be an interesting argument if you were interrogating body dysmorphia and how this character slowly descends into “madness” because she does not see the world clearly, because dysmorphia is all about having a distorted view of reality, but then you would have to talk about the cultural superstructure that induces this dysmorphia - the panopticon of body horror, how really she acts in accordance with her programing.

You could argue that the book does deliver on the body horror, because I think she ends up murdering someone? Fact check me on that.

I can’t really critique the book accurately because I only read 40 pages and can’t find a wikipedia summary. so I guess I’ll just return it to the library. I’m learning that if an idea is important, it will usually find its way back to me.

Lucía, that's her name.