Customer Reviews

Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell (Vol. 3)

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This is Volume Three of a 1273-page novel. It would be unwise to read Volume Three without having first read Volumes One and Two (which I have separately reviewed on Amazon). The real question, then, becomes whether reading all 1273 pages is a good use of one's finite reading time. That, of course, entails consideration of YOUR FACE TOMORROW ("YFT") in its entirety. Before turning to that issue, a few paragraphs on Volume Three.

In Volume Three, the first-person narrator, Jaime (or Jacobo or Jacques or Iago) Deza continues his story of working in London for an unnamed section of British intelligence (MI6 or SIS). The group is engaged in "interpreting" people - observing or spying on them, often from behind one-way mirrors or by watching videotapes, and then analyzing their character and personality and predicting how they would (or will) act in certain situations in the future. (What will be thy face tomorrow?) It fits nicely with Deza's voyeuristic tendencies as he passively floats through life, and although unusual it seems to be a fairly innocuous way of making a comfortable living. In the middle of Volume Three, Deza returns to his native Madrid for a two-week visit to his estranged wife Luisa, his two children, and his elderly father. Once there, Deza, to protect his wife and children (as he sees matters), is roused from his passive mode of existence and spurred to take action of a violent form. He then returns to London to find out that one of his seemingly innocuous interpretations (of a pop/rock star!) has had violent, lethal consequences. The synchronicity of these events raises all sorts of questions about whether it is possible to chart a moral course of conduct through life. (Or, is it better, in the words of the very first sentence of Volume One of the novel, to "never tell anyone anything or give information or pass on stories"?) These questions become even more thorny when Deza learns about clandestine activities ("black propaganda") during WWII in a final farewell conversation with his mentor Sir Peter Wheeler (who is modeled very closely after the real-life Sir Peter Russell, to whom YFT is dedicated). In the last 25 pages, the life of Jaime Deza - though now diminished by the deaths of two figures for whom there can be no replacement - settles into an uneasy stasis of sorts.

Volume Three is better than Volume Two, if not quite as satisfying or intellectually thrilling as Volume One. The predominant themes include secrets, treachery and betrayal, counterfeiting and forgeries (and thus, by implication, authenticity and the truth), war (and its invariable handmaiden, deceit), time and memory and personal identity, and love and separation. The book is rich with cultural references, both high- and low-brow, including Jayne Mansfield and "her triumphant, intimidating, transatlantic décolletage", Ian Fleming and the James Bond films, Robert Louis Stevenson, hip-hop and rap ("that witless, worthless drivel"), several paintings in the Prado, the film "The Godfather", and literary quotations from Shakespeare, Cervantes, St. Augustine, Ecclesiastes, and Eliot. Touchingly, and appropriately, the novel ends with a line from "The Streets of Laredo".

Throughout YFT, but probably more so in Volume Three than in the two earlier volumes, Marías reprises characters, events, and verbatim extracts from his earlier fiction. (The fellow who becomes Deza's nemesis was a relatively minor character in "A Heart So White".) Recognizing these references can be fun for a reader of the earlier works. In addition, many of the themes are the same, or are variations on or developments of themes from the earlier works. And the convoluted, obsessively meditative writing style is the same.

For me, the lesson of YFT is that speaking, or loving, or even living in this world entails risks of moral compromise. But an odd, and naggingly dissatisfying, thing about the novel is that for Marías "this world" is essentially a solipsistic world.

My conclusion: In YFT, Javier Marías bit off somewhat more than he could chew. It is a very ambitious work that does not altogether succeed. I want to emphasize that there are many brilliant passages and several memorable scenes. But there also is too much dead wood. The narrative often is rococo in nature, and at times it is disingenuous and redundant. There is too much authorial showing-off (or self-indulgence). I believe that the novel could have been pruned by at least a third without significant loss - and therefore should have been pruned. (Much of that lopping off would come from Volume Two.) Furthermore, the novel, as a whole, does not hang together; there are too many loose ends (for example, whatever happened with Incompara?).

YFT is very worthwhile fiction, but it is not great literature. It does not measure up to two previous novels by Marías - "Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me" and "A Heart So White" - nor does it measure up to his "The Dark Back of Time". Those three works, to my mind, are great literature, and I recommend them highly to one and all. YFT, on the other hand, gets a qualified recommendation to those who already are Javier Marías enthusiasts. No doubt YFT would be richer upon re-reading, but I am pretty sure that I will never get around to doing so.

I agree that you must start at the first book. The third is, as one would expect, where the pieces fit together. I don't think it's overdoing it to describe the trilogy as one of the great works of modern literature. I have rarely read a novel as full of wisdom, insight, and provocative ideas, as Your Face Tomorrow. It is not always an easy read, it is dense, it takes digressions, and a key scene may stretch over 80 trance-like pages. At its heart though is a quiet rage at the violence done by man, particularly during the Spanish Civil War when Marias' father was targeted. The justifications for that violence and its consequences (whether the intention was deliberate or accidental), are at the heart of these books. And Your Face Tomorrow is also a thriller - albeit not in the conventional sense - acquiring a slow-burn intensity that drives you to its final pages.

An alternative title for a review of this phenomenal final part of the trilogy could be, "One should never tell Anything to Anyone", a dictum of Sir Peter Wheeler, former Oxford don, spy during WW II and the Spanish civil war. He was close to members of an ultra-secret group of people charged with "black propaganda", aimed to create chaos in Germany, during WW II. He gives this advice to the trilogy's hero Jaime (etc.) Deza, who works for a 21st century version of this ex-WW II group without a name, working in a building without a name, which has co-opted its staff of no more than seven on his say so, regardless of nationality, no oath required. Privatisation of intelligence gathering is only one of many themes in this volume.

Words can kill, knowingly or unknowingly. This volume provides plenty of evidence: slips of the tongue, vile accusations, a simple idea to discredit an SS-officer, and the horrible (un)intended consequences. To win a war requires total determination, anything and everything is allowed despite there always being innocent victims. In smaller campaigns like scaring away a competitor for the love of the mother of one's children, the application of fear and violence also requires absolute determination. Who in this line of business is determined enough and can also cope with the outcome? And what will survivors of such actions do?

This third volume and the entire trilogy indeed, is a very deep piece of work, very (auto-)biographical, full of urgent and timeless themes, worked into a beautiful fabric of memories of wars, conversations, observation of videos of hideous scenes, and illustrated by ideas gained from posters designed to warn people that walls have ears, paintings, and quotations from poetry from centuries ago.

Western society can no longer suffer, stay silent, and shrug off its heroics during and after another very big conflict, as the UK did during and after WW II. I will reread Marias' trilogy next year, to understand perhaps 70%, and then again, and again. Ultimately, this trilogy is about the Western world today, having become soft, silly, totally ignorant of its roots and fundamental ideas and values, which were fought for, again and again.

No one is safe viewed from such a perspective. Least of all Deza, who at the end of this tale, will have to remain on guard, sleep with one eye open.

Javier Marias' conclusion to his three-volume novel is a tour de force. Expertly translated by his long-time collaborator, Margaret Costa, this lengthy tome demonstrates the full power of an author who truly deserves the Nobel Prize. I do highly recommend that readers begin with volume one and proceed through the entire book. This is not a series or a sequel. While you can enjoy this novel as a stand-alone, purely for the strength of the writing, the plot won't make much sense if you don't begin at the beginning. Those who value an intelligently written work that makes full use of language will love this book.

I have to differ with several of the reviews that have been posted on this page for Your Face Tomorrow: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell; I not only think you don't have to read the trilogy in order, I actually think it's much better to start with the third and final volume. Let me explain. I love Javier Marias' work; I bought and read all of his books up to the trilogy, but when I tried to read the first installment, I just couldn't get into it. The prose seemed limp on the page; like tired middle-period Beckett -- heck, like a character from middle-period Beckett. I skipped the second book, having switched my focus to Jean-Philippe Toussaint and Roberto Bolano -- Running Away is a terrific book, and By Night in Chile is marvelous!

Anyway, I snagged a galley of YFT: Poison, Shadow, and Farewell and right off the bat I have to admit that I liked the cover -- a good beginning. And once I dipped into the prose I was hooked. (Spoiler alert) The actual events that befall the main character, Deza, -- witnessing a beating in a disco lavatory, punching out a rival for his wife's affections, setting-up an aging rock star for British Secret Service -- all happen in the third book. And after reading about them, you get a thirst to find out why they occurred, and this propels you back to the second book, then the first one.

The vehicle for all of this is the voice of Deza, which is, of course, Marias' -- he analyzes everything in such minute detail that you begin to see the world the way he does; his mind never stops spinning; it's like a tiny perpetual motion machine in a sealed box. Once you get trapped behind Deza's eyes and actually feel the way he thinks, you won't be able to put this book down.

A fitting climax to a great series. Some redundancy, which is understandable for someone who hasn't read the first 2 in the series.