Las últimas palabras by Carme Riera

Abstract

Reviewed by: Las últimas palabras by Carme Riera Joan L. Brown Riera, Carme. Las últimas palabras. Alfaguara, 2017. Pp. 153. ISBN 978-8-42043-027-0. This work of historical fiction by Carme Riera, winner of Spain’s Premio Nacional de las Letras and member of the Royal Spanish Academy, is a short and riveting novel. It illustrates major trends in contemporary Spanish fiction: hybrid literature (mixing fiction with nonfiction), metafiction, and historical memory. It also demonstrates why Carme Riera is today’s pre-eminent living Spanish woman writer. Its beautiful sentences, tightly wound plot and wise cultural commentary make this a small jewel of a novel. Originally published in Catalan, this translation by the author makes a wonderful introduction to modern Mallorcan history, through the life of a man who helped make Mallorca (where Riera was born and raised) what it is today. For anyone who lives in Spain’s Balearic Islands, the name is familiar: Archduke Luis Salvador of Austria (1847–1915). A brilliant, fascinating and misunderstood figure, the Archduke discovered Mallorca in 1867 and lived there for much of his life. He was crucial to the island’s development. The Archduke wrote extensively about Mallorca’s resources and charms—writings that are credited with inaugurating tourism. He was an ecologist and a conservationist before those terms were invented, buying up huge tracts for preservation. The Archduke brought important artists, writers, scientists and even vintners to Mallorca (producing the island’s first prizewinning wines), raising the island’s visibility and becoming a hero to its residents. To commemorate the centennial of his death, 2015 was designated the Year of the Archduke in the Balearic Islands, with a major exhibition on his life and works in Palma de Mallorca. The title of this exhibition could also be the subtitle of this book: “Yo, el archiduque: el deseo de ir más lejos.” The novel is a fictional memoir that attempts to go beyond the often sensational facts of the Archduke’s biography, to explore what he was like as a man. Not coincidentally, the curator of that 2015 exhibition was none other than Carme Riera. In one of several metaliterary twists, an unnamed woman who resembles her appears in Part One, eager to acquire a long-hidden memoir that the Archduke dictated on his deathbed. Part Two is comprised of this found manuscript, dated 30 September 1915. The Archduke had forbidden its publication until everyone it mentioned was gone. Las últimas palabras reads like a detective novel. Instead of a murder, the mystery here has to do with unexplained aspects of the Archduke’s life. These facts are pieces of a puzzle that are gradually, tantalizingly assembled. The author knowingly plays with the reader’s knowledge of world history and of the Archduke’s biography, aware that in modern times readers approach [End Page 156] historical fiction with their laptops open. We know, or think we know, that the Archduke never married, that he dressed haphazardly and consorted with commoners, that his fiancée burned to death in front of his eyes when a cigarette ignited her dress, that he was attentive to his uncle the Emperor Franz Joseph, that he was fond of beautiful men as well as women, and that he left his fortune to the children of his assistant. Only some of these statements turn out to be true (no spoilers here) and even these “facts” have hidden elements—one being that the Archduke was actually a spy. Some historical events are recast in the Archduke’s telling, as he tries to correct misperceptions. He also adds personal details to events, such as the fact that he tried to prevent Francisco Fernando and Sofía from going to Sarajevo on the fateful day they were assassinated. Even more compelling than these historical exposés are the novel’s revelations about the Archduke. His recollections, faithfully recorded by his scribe Erwin, begin with the larger sphere of world history, which in his case is intertwined with Hapsburg family history. Gradually, over the course of his narrative—presented as one continuous flow, without divisions—the novel’s concentric circles move inward. An erudite and thoughtful man, the Archduke...