Paperweight: a set of texts by Gregorio Martínez and a book to learn to write (in 75 steps)

“Tongue and delirium”

Author: Gregorio Martinez.

Pages: 180.

Publisher: Count Lemos Publishers.

This selection of short texts – brought together in a beautiful non-commercial edition, designed to be distributed in schools – is an excellent gateway to the rich literary universe embodied by Gregorio Martínez (1942-2017), a diverse and fascinating writer, of a work which will surely be more and more studied from here on out.

The texts are grouped into four sections: for example, his journalistic articles, in which he shows off his restless interest in dissimilar topics: from capitalism and communism, to the history of pisco; or from a reflection on abortion to the stories of independence.

Another chapter is dedicated to a fragment of his unpublished novel, “Antonio Pigafetta”, a few pages that unfortunately leave the disappointment of the truncated project with great potential.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the volume is in the sections dedicated to his stories and chronicles. In the first, stories such as “Guitarra de palisander” and “Trompa de cochino” stand out, where he exposes his singular picaresque and the fantastic work with the language that he perfected with a good ear in his native Coyungo. In the second, his “Travesía de extrabares” is a must-see, a chronicle of the alcohol journey that he made in 1968 together with Martín Adán and other friends. A waste of grace, street and literature.

“The Book You Shouldn’t Read”

Author: Alejandra Fernandez.

Pages: 168.

Publisher: Melquíades.

Few books emptier (literally) than this one. Why? Because its blank pages are rather an invitation for the reader to become a writer. Let him or her fill it in with their own words. That’s why it’s called “The book you shouldn’t read”, because it’s actually “the book you should write”. A kind of self-help for literary aspirants (of which there are many today).

The author, Alejandra Fernández, a business administrator who left her profession to dedicate herself to creative writing, is the one who proposes the idea of ​​this playful work, which captures the spirit of literary workshops in which the participants gradually lose their fear of the blockade through a constant, systematized, sometimes intensive writing process. Ultimately, the goal is to overcome hesitation and write like someone who rehearses a racket stroke or a dance step over and over again.

To do this, Fernández unfolds 75 premises such as “The story I always tell and makes everyone laugh”, “A letter from my 80-year-old self to me” or “The time I felt the most sadness”. With these starting points, the goal is to finish the writing of this book in 75 days (writing one page per day) and thereby release the hand and especially the desire to put ideas on paper or screen. You have to cheer up.