Your Face Tomorrow: Fever And Spear (Hardcover)

~ Javier Marias (Author), Margaret Jull Costa (Author) "One should never tell anyone anything or give information or pass on stories or make people remember beings who have never existed or trodden the..." (more)
Key Phrases: careless talk, Civil War, Peter Wheeler, Toby Rylands (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The mechanisms of reflection and digression, broken down into their tiniest constituent parts, are always the focus of attention in Spanish novelist Marías's sophisticated novels (A Heart So White; Dark Back of Time; etc.). In his leisurely, incisive latest, these preoccupations fuel a plot with a spy-novel gloss. Jaime Deza, separated from his wife in Madrid, is at loose ends in London when his old friend Sir Peter Wheeler, a retired Oxford don, introduces him to the head of a secret government bureau of elite analysts with the ability to see past people's facades and predict their future behavior. A cocktail party test proves Deza to be one of the elect, and he goes to work clandestinely observing all sorts of people, from South American generals to pop stars. Deza also brings his finely tuned mind to bear on Wheeler's mysterious past and on his own family history, both of which are shadowed by the Spanish Civil War. Marías's long-drawn-out dance of withholding and revelation comes to a halt mid-step—the book is the first half of a single larger work, not a stand-alone volume—but readers with an appreciation for the author's deliberate, exquisite prose won't mind waiting for the second volume. (June 24)
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Review

Addictive for its enigmatic protagonist and his powers of observation, interpretation and expression -- The San Antonio Express-News, Yvette Benavides

Dazzling...Javier Marías writes with elegance, with wit and with masterful suspense. -- The London Times Literary Supplement

Further evidence that Javier Marìas is well on the road to Stockholm. -- Times Literary Supplement [London], Martin Beagles, 20 May 2005

Marías is a gorgeous stylist, his prose thrillingly meandering in his native tongue and pleasantly rendered here. -- Kirkus Reviews, 1 April 2005

Marias's most extravagant showcase for 'literary thinking' so far….a compelling introduction to his writing. -- The New Yorker, Wyatt Mason

Probably the greatest living and widely known writer in the world. -- n+1, Eli S. Evans

Sophisticated...leisurely, incisive....Readers with an appreciation for the author's deliberate, exquisite prose won't mind waiting for the second volume. -- Publishers Weekly, 9 May 2005

The major event on the Anglo-Spanish literary scene….Jull Costa's English translation is impeccable. -- Times Literary Supplement, Ian Michael

The overall effect recalls the cerbral play of Borges, the dark humor of Pynchon, and the meditative lyricism of Proust. -- The Review of Contemporary Fiction, Pedro Ponce

The strange frame Marías creates...allows for a wonderful artificiality of characterization. -- New York Sun, Benjamin Lytal, 21 June 2005

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 387 pages
• Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation (May 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0811216128
• ISBN-13: 978-0811216128
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #158,635 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Proustian, with exquisite and frequently humorous developments, January 4, 2006

By	John Leighton (Brooklyn) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Your Face Tomorrow: Fever and Spear v. 1 (Hardcover)

This translated work has the narrator attending a cocktail party thrown by a tweedy, elderly gentleman Oxford don. After some amusing scenes, their friendship is explored and each narrates long histories regarding the Spanish Civil War, life in England, etc. Then the narrator is asked to take on work of studying people, videos, etc, for his observations.

The vague spymaster tone, with many references to Kim Philby and various leftists in Spain, is one theme of this novel. Another is the narrator's long passages where he makes the kind of brilliantly mundane, but brilliantly subtle, observations about people and life. For example, a scene where the narrator stays at the don's house and late at night, finds and cleans up a small bloddstain at the top of the stairs. The scene, on the surface extremely mundane, goes on and on as the author spins in much wisdoom and asides that are quite captivating. Also, several (many) times there are translations between English and Spanish that the narrator comments quite amusingly on, how a certain phrase or other has a uniqueness that is very unexpected and interesting to consider.

This is also in general a very amusing book, surprisngly. The author knows how to be comic when it's called for, and several characters are purely for comic relief. Also, the narrator's tone always has a witty undertone to it, making the dialogue and comments he makes crackle with appeal.

My only problem is that the printing of this book, the pages, are to small. The text is essentially many unbroken paragraphs, and with a large typeface set onto small-than-average page size, it makes for a daunting visual. Better is to use a larger page, with small typeface, whereby the text can be approached as a whole and sunk into, rather than as a too-bold stream.

Clearly, this is literary fiction of the highest quality, doen superbly and it is amazing to read in its depth and sheer richness.

3 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Too slow, April 15, 2006

By	Ignacio (Portland OR USA) - See all my reviews

There's a lot of good material here, but the book really moves at a glacial pace and seems to slow down even more in the latter half. I was primed to love this but I didn't and I'm not sure I'll investigate Marias any further.