Falcó, by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. "I limp according to the foot they step on me."

Falcó, the last novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

Falco, the last novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte.

That is the phrase that can summarize the moral character of the new character created by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. That one, or the one his boss, the Admiral, tells him one night when he sees him in uniform: "It's okay for you to appear respectable from time to time, for a change." Otherwise, he is the most attractive, elegant, efficient and deadly spy. In the Spain of 1936, recently taken up in arms, no one like him to band on the Cainite ship disguised as idealisms in which the country became.

On sale since last October 19, I got it four days ago, the ones that have taken me to read it. And it would have been in less time if my particular spirit was more focused on the enjoyment of reading. In any case, It is a short novel pero has neither excited nor thrilled me. And it has material for both. Although I reiterate that much of this humble opinion is due to my current reading spirit. Or that I have already read too similar. Those of us who admire Reverte usually enjoy his way of telling life, but this time I have been wanting more.

About Lorenzo Falcó

I have read almost all of Reverte's novels, although I must admit that for a few years now I prefer his causticity, guts and manners as a columnist rather than as a writer. So I follow him more in the press with his Patent of corso and at the party that are usually his interventions on Twitter. But I try to read every new novel and this one Falco It caught my attention more than the previous ones.

For Falcó, words like homeland, love or future made no sense.

Neither country, nor flag, nor love, nor honor nor shame. Falcó is only interested in living life in the best possible way and with the best at his fingertips: luxuries of all kinds and women who do try to make them flag. Former arms smuggler, intelligence service agent, and whatever else is involved, as long as it involves adventure and personal gain. All with little or no scruples.

Thus, in the fall of 1936, Falcó worked for the SNIO -National Information and Operations Service- and They entrust him with a delicate mission: to get out of the Alicante jail a very important prisoner for the nationals. To do this, he will have a team of Falangists (young and idealists) whom he must lead. But nothing and no one will be what they seem. Perhaps because in life, and more so in life in war, we can all stop being who we are.

In times like these, being a wolf was the only guarantee. And not always. That's why a discreet brown fur was useful. it helped to survive. To move unnoticed through the night and the fog.

Unmistakable style

Perez-Reverte tells a story about black and spies known a thousand times in its own way and style, which is also well known to those of us who read it: short sentences interspersed with longer ones with descriptive appositions; very good dialogues, especially those of Falcó and his boss, the Admiral, for me the best character or the one that I liked the most; and a plot with rhythm and twists that you can anticipate (or not). Throughout the narrative the usual stamp of the author: his lucidity and knowledge of the human condition.

Defining Falcó as a hero or an antihero is silly. Also compare him with the quintessential character of Pérez-Reverte, Captain Alatriste. The Cartagena writer now prefers to take the heaviest load out of his vital backpack, which of course there are very few who share at their level.

My Pérez-Reverte library

My Pérez-Reverte library

My buts

That, a regular reader of the blackest black genre, I have not felt I have anything new in my hands. There are many scoundrels like Falcó, and presenting them in a conflict as hackneyed as the Spanish Civil War, does not help the novelty factor either. We all know that scoundrels of all sides and colors were not lacking. Remembering it, in my opinion, is unnecessary and tiring.

As for evil, the lack of morality and scruples ... Yes, well, we would all like to get rid of them on some occasion and literature provides us with that possibility. But precisely because he showed those letters so clear from the beginning, it is not surprising that Falcó is a son of a bitch. Therefore, it is not surprising what he does or does not do, neither he nor the rest of the characters. In my opinion, they do not bring more than (certain) interest in how they will interact, the betrayals or not that will be done and if they will get rid of them.

It only remains for you to take advantage, once again, of the author's style, his excellent and impeccable prose and his enormous historical and vital culture, so genuine. But I have needed more: more excitement, more enthusiasm, more impact.

No wonder Reverte has been wanting to give continuity to the character. It lends itself to continue emptying that backpack of evil seen and experienced so intensely. But, according to my impression, or he varies the approach and manages to make it more attractive than he intends, or Falcó will stay at that, a more rogue. And it's a shame. However, the series has only just begun. It may - and should - have to give it more shape.

A dangerous friend - Arturo Pérez-Reverte.


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  1.   Thomas S. said

    Well, I have read it to Falcó in a single afternoon, with enthusiasm, and it seems to me, unlike the reviewer, a very original way of approaching the spy novel against the background of our civil war. Maybe it happens that what she says is true, that she is not in the mood to appreciate it. I don't think a novel like this had ever been written, nor had a civil war ever been written in such a grim and effective way. And I just became a falcoadict, the character has completely hooked me. I need a dose of the next one, and what bothers me is what is yet to be published.