«I was born on October 18, 1902. On a windy afternoon, according to what my mother told me. "You were born, idiot, on a windy afternoon," she would say to me, and I ruffled my hair the way foolish children's hair is ruffled. Actually, I have never been stupid, I only did it until I was twenty. Without any concrete plan. This is how Los años extraordinarios begins, the book by Rodrigo Cortés that stood out in the summer of 2022, and is still talked about today.
But what is this book about? ¿Why is it so important? Who has written it? This, and some other things, is what we are going to talk about next.
Who is Rodrigo Cortes?
The extraordinary years would not be a book if Rodrigo Cortés had not thought of it. He is one of the best known Spanish writers in the world. And it is that, as a child, he wanted to be a painter, writer and musician. And in his adulthood he has united all those passions through the cinema.
We know you've worked with important actors. We can quote Robert de Niro, Ryan Reynorlds, Sigourney Weaver or Uma Thurman.
On a literary level, Los años extraordinarios is not his first book, but he began publishing in 2013 and among the titles he has authored are: At 3 it's 2 (on anti-aphorisms, delusions and hand bombs); It does matter how a man sinks (novel); Sleeping is for ducks (breverías); Verbolario (satirical dictionary).
In this way, The Extraordinary Years became his second novel.
Apart from working in film and literature, he writes regularly for ABC, and participates in two podcasts, Here are dragons and Almighty.
What is The Extraordinary Years about?
Here is the synopsis of the book. This can help you understand what is going on, but the objective is to capture the reader's attention to encourage them to know what is happening in the story.
«Los años extraordinarios collects the memories of Jaime Fanjul, born in Salamanca in 1902 into a bourgeois family passionate about snakes, and offers us a Valle del Clan journey through the 1940th century through his memories and travels. There is no fundamental key to the century that this prodigious novel does not evoke: from the arrival of the sea in Salamanca to the brief rise of cars driven by thought; from the terrible cruelty of the Portuguese prisons to the war of those from Alicante against Spain (and the Dutch against the rest of the world); from the feats of the Misenum, an underwater tunnel transit ship, to the unusual abilities of theosophists, capable of levitating a few centimeters above the chair; from the arrival —upside down— of man on the Moon to the change of location of the city of Paris in XNUMX.
In The Extraordinary Years there is room for children with ancient powers, slaves who terrorize their masters, ghosts in tailoring clothes, eighty-year-old girls, Jews who change the weather, fistfights with brave nuns, workshops spoiling things... Jaime Fanjul travels the world telling how much happens to him and how little he learns. Serious, observant, without complaint, he recalls his path with unpredictable humor and poetic breath ».
The book, as its author says, is a "hilarious, surreal and hilarious" story. It focuses on the main character, Jaime Fanjul Andueza, who is from Salamanca and who gives you glimpses of unlikely situations (even today), such as cars that are driven by thought, or that Salamanca has a sea. There are also scenarios that are totally impossible, but that are reproduced in the book and make the protagonist, and with him the reader, face it.
In summary, we could say that it is a curious story where reality and fantasy are mixed to create the "warfare" of the main character. The book, as its author says, is a "hilarious, surreal and hilarious" story. It focuses on the main character, Jaime Fanjul Andueza, who is from Salamanca and who gives you glimpses of unlikely situations (even today), such as cars that are driven by thought, or that Salamanca has a sea. It has reminded us of the movie Big Fish, where the life of a father is narrated with ironic, realistic, surreal moments...
The extraordinary years: the phrases, something in which many agree
There is a comment on the Internet that says something similar to "if you had a pen to underline the best sentences in the book you would run out of ink and the whole book would be colored". The truth is that there are many who recognize that some phrases are quite good, either because they make you laugh, because they make you think, to encourage you, motivate you or simply because they connect with emotions that you have felt.
We have not been able to find a list of those phrases, but we do encourage that, if you have read it and there have been phrases that you liked, put them in comments. This way you can help others with them.
Is the book The Extraordinary Years recommended?
Books are like perfumes, or wines. There are those who like some and those who like others. In the case of Los años extraordinarios, by Rodrigo Cortés, we have read very good opinions on the Internet, but also very bad ones.
Those who value it positively comment that it is very much in the author's style, and that if you don't like it, the book won't. However, it connects because it makes you laugh, cry, be amazed, reflect... However, those who have abandoned the book because they have not connected with it think that there are too many characters and settings. And this forces you to have so much chaos in your head that you don't quite understand where the character wants to go.
Therefore, we cannot say that it will be one of the best books to read, nor that it is not. Each person will like it more or less, but what is clear is that there will be a reaction in all of them.
Now it's up to you to see if The Extraordinary Years is the book you are looking for or not. The publisher left a PDF with the first 9 pages of the book. And besides, on Amazon, in the Kindle format, you have a free sample. So you can read the beginning of the book to see if you like his pen, style... And, above all, if the story hooks you enough to buy it. Have you read it? What do you think about it?