Size Matters

Reading Antonio Soler's El camino de los ingleses and John Irving's A widow for one year has promted me to start this blog. Also, it's inspired its name: Size matters.

El camino de los ingleses tells the story of a bunch of teenagers whose summer ends tragically. The book is full of great ideas, psychological insights and characters that come to life... but only in the first 100 pages. The next 150 are simply repetitive. The author doesn't cut it short, the story drags on and the final coup is flawed. The same applies to 500-page long A widow for one year, that exhausts itself in 60 pages. It's true, though, that if you are bold enough to keep reading until the end of the first part, the first 50 or 60 pages of the second are also quite good. But then again, it starts repeating itself and annoying the reader. If you are well off, though, by all means buy the hardback edition: it's a wonderful door-stop.

However it's not a politically correct thing to say, I do think size matters, for good and for bad. Leaving sex aside (if probably not for too long), long novels tend to be more boring than short ones, and the same happens to films, plays, lectures and operas. And, actually, this blog will be about things that go on for too long, especially books, films, spectacles, relationships, politicians... I will also talk about some big things that should remain big: steaks, excellent books, interesting films, good shows, perfect relationships and (should they exist) good politicians.