Evelio Rosero—Creating Fiction to Comprehend Reality
By Ximena Diego -- Críticas, 7/15/2007
 Photo by Milcíades Arévalo |
| Books by Evelio Rosero |
An extremely polished novel, Los Ejércitos uses no extra words to pull readers into a sweet story that turns sour at the turn of every page. When awarding the Premio Tusquets, the jury praised the book’s “unique elegance and mastery” at portraying “the arbitrary and irrational violence that destroys a town.” Críticas caught up with the author to talk about his writing and to find out what inspired his award-winning tale.
What moved you to write about such a painful topic?
The pain itself, which is shared by all Colombians who now face a conflict that is more than 50 years old. The pain has become so common that an unfortunate indifference has grabbed hold of most of us today. Everything is reduced to death tolls without ever reporting on the causes, the offenders. Impunity is our daily bread. To tackle this aspect of the Colombian reality from a human perspective, to tackle the life of the citizen, the unarmed people stuck in the middle of crossfire, was a tremendous challenge, because I am a novelist and couldn’t take sides. I couldn’t let it fall into becoming a propaganda piece, so through writing I was able to use the literary art as a witness.
Los Ejércitos starts in a town that is laid back and carefree, almost ideal. All the protagonists are simple people—from the narrator, a retired teacher, to the neighbor, a woman who enjoys walking naked around her garden. But as the armies destroy everything, the episodes of violence become more and more heartrending. What happens to the writer as he narrates these episodes?
The worst thing that can happen to a writer is being intimidated by the harsh situations he narrates. In my case, I had dreams in which I was living in this town, with all the panic that surrounded my characters, at the mercy of the fighting armies. I had to pretend to be dead so they wouldn’t kill me. But this situation of horror and persecutions was preventing me from finding the end. The novel finally ended but the reality is cruder, the nightmare a thousand times harder. And its ending depends on the good intentions of some demented, stubborn, and egotistic people who are, unfortunately, the ones in power and couldn’t care less about this country and its future.
Many of your characters are symbolic, or at least they can be perceived that way. Do you write keeping this in mind?
No, I don’t voluntarily create symbolic characters. It is true, though, that a well-defined literary character can fully represent a real person and, in some ways, symbolize his or her destiny.
You received many awards in your career. Which was the most significant?
The first one. In 1979, I was an unpublished writer, 21 years old, and obtained a national short-story award from among 600 competitors. In the jury was Manuel Mejía Vallejo, a writer I admire. With that award I was able to publish and to receive a monetary sum, something I didn’t even dream of. I felt very happy then. Later, with time, no other contest really moved me. [I see them as] publishing opportunities, a way to earn money. Beyond this, to win a contest does not affect me. If I lose, I just tell myself that the jury was wrong, and I continue writing.
Are you particularly proud of any of your books?
When I finish each book I feel that I’ve taken another step forward in my body of work; it can be the right step, or a misstep—I always have that doubt. I don’t feel particularly proud of any of my books. I feel confident about the last one because it’s fresh in my memory; it’s really a work that I haven’t kissed good-bye until the next one shows up.
You have signed your books in different ways: Evelio José Rosero, Evelio Rosero Diago, and Evelio Rosero. Why so many names?
Well, every time I finished a piece of work I used to say to myself: Evelio José Rosero wrote this one, and I would sign it that way. Sometimes I would sign it Evelio Rosero Diago or Evelio Rosero and the name or signature was established depending on the tone used, or a particular way of approaching the story. But I won’t go into the specifics because they don’t interest me anymore. I said once that there are three authors living inside a real one. And that was true then. But lately, those three authors are becoming one. So from Los Ejércitos on I will be signing Evelio Rosero. It was all like a game I played with myself, but it’s over now.
Who are your literary influences?
The influences are clear in a writer who is young and just starting to approach the narrative. I have been writing almost daily for the last 30 years, and I think I finally have my own style and have my own ghosts. In general, though, I always go back, and always with admiration, to the Russians of the 19th century. All those colossal writers forged something in me since my adolescence.
What inspires you to write and what is the writing process like for you?
It depends on the novel. A conversation I hear by chance on a street corner can trigger a novel; a sentence that comes to mind without explanation, written on a piece of paper; a continuing story I tell myself day after day, night after night.
I don’t have a creating process in my work, fortunately. That would be extremely boring. Lately, I write at dawn. The only thing I can say about this is that every day it gets more difficult to write. The enthusiasm is not the same from when I was 20 or 30. I think it over several times before diving away from everything and into the solitude of a novel.
What have you read lately?
A biography of Beethoven.
What are you working on?
For the first time in these last months, on answering how, why, and for what I wrote a novel.
|
||||||
View All Blogs
