There’s nothing quite like the price of tobacco in Australia to spark conversation with an international guest to the Melbourne Writers’ Festival. Nicolás Casariego (Madrid, 1970) author of the recently translated Antón Mallick Wants To Be Happy (Hispabooks, 2014) was blown away not only by the duty-free restrictions on cigarettes but also by the tawdry, brandless packaging imposed on Australian retailers. It’s the way of the future, he laments, pulling an indistinguishable cigarette from the packet and lighting it with a well-travelled Bic lighter drawn from the breast-pocket of a stylish sportscoat.
That perhaps sums up the peculiar mix of pragmatism and romanticism that shone through in our conversation at a café on Spring Street. The author expressed pleasure at having worked in collaboration with translator Thomas Bunstead on Antón Mallick, but also acknowledged that a foray into the English-language market is something every Spanish writer working today looks forward to. Casariego says that when writing the novel, which appeared originally in Spanish in 2010, he employed a style and rhythm that he thought could be easily conveyed in translation.
PULL QUOTE: “There has never been,” he says, “such an obligation as there is today to be happy.”
Born into a renowned family of creators, Nicolás Casariego is the son of a famous architect and has two siblings and a sister-in-law who are all published authors. He anticipated my next question by admitting that this didn’t always make for stimulating dinner-table conversation: like any family, sometimes they talked about football or politics, but nonetheless the author had great admiration in particular for his deceased elder brother Pedro, whose poetry inspired parts of the novel.
Although his first to appear in translation, Antón Mallick Wants To Be Happy is Casariego’s second novel, after his debut work Cazadores de luz (Light Hunters in English),a science-fiction novel, was published to great acclaim in 2005, when it was a finalist in the Nadal Prize. There are many different narrative strands at play in Antón Mallick, but what drives the story forward is middle-aged insurance worker Antón Mallick and his quest to beat depression.
What might sound like a sombre read is in fact quite the opposite – the book is interspersed with excerpts from classic treatises on happiness (Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Kierkegaard) and chirpy self-help titles, all underscored by the black humour of Antón as he records his quest in a diary. Whether or not you think Tony Soprano was on the money when he said that today’s world needs more Gary Cooper-types, Casariego sees two sides to the modern quest for happiness. “There has never been,” he says, “such an obligation as there is today to be happy. This obviously causes a lot of depression. But depression is not a new phenomenon, it might have different names and guises but it’s clearly there and can be read about in even the earliest books.”
In the novel, Antón is encouraged by his psychologist brother and academic sister to “read” his way out of depression – hence the excerpts mentioned above. When I ask Casariego if he thinks reading can be a tonic for depression or even an escape from reality his answer is thoughtful: “I tend to agree broadly with (Italo) Calvino and his approach to reading the classics – it’s best to go in with an open mind and draw your own conclusions. When we sit down to read we’re not actually looking for answers, but more questions. We look to make our minds work. Personally, no matter how depressing a novel might be, reading books makes me feel alive.”
PULL QUOTE: “When we sit down to read we’re not actually looking for answers, but more questions.”
The idea of an active reader is something Casariego aimed to deploy in the novel as well – it contains many different forms and registers, including that of a diary, fragments from emails, Skype conversations and excerpts from a fictional memoir. He says today’s reader is comfortable with such a mix of platforms – the reader of novels is also a mobile phone user, an internet browser – and that as an author he has full confidence in the reader’s ability to absorb complex structures. The most important thing is to maintain a rhythm that will keep advancing the story.
In addition to his work as a novelist, Casariego has published in just about every other genre imaginable. He was a travel correspondent for major Spanish newspapers, has written children’s books and also co-wrote the script of the film Intruders, starring Clive Owen. The romantic in him separates his passion for the novel and the necessity of trade publishing. “My other projects were about learning and surviving – unfortunately today it’s no longer possible to live from writing the way it was possible even twenty years ago, so collaborative projects and translations are important. With a script, you work in a team and you work hard but you don’t bring it home. I spent five years walking around with my novel inside my head at all times.” When I ask if he thinks new technologies might kill off the novel, he gives a wry smile: “Well, they’ve announced the death of the novel quite a few times already, haven’t they?”
Samuel Rutter is a writer based in Melbourne. His fiction, criticism and translations have appeared in journals including Kill Your Darlings, Island and Overland. He is an editor of Higher Arc and teaches Spanish at the University of Melbourne.
Nicolás Casariego was born in Madrid in 1970. He has written long and short fiction works, essays, children’s books, travel articles and is co-scriptwriter of several feature films. Cazadores de luz, his second novel, was finalist for the Nadal Award 2005. In 2008 he was awarded the Writers Omi residence fellowship for international writers at Ledig House, New York.