Photography by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. EFE Agency
For a good reader there is nothing like chaining books that they reach the soul and remove the guts. That I have done lately eating the colossal Macbeth by Jo Nesbø in six days and devouring this phenomenal Tough dogs don't dance de Arturo Perez-Reverte in two. Two days of tears both from the laughter and humor and from the most absolute sinking of the heart.
Two days turning into a dog, in my case, a bitch. Two days of pure emotion that all of us who have or have ever lived with one will understand beyond these words and the book. All of us who know how they can be, take you out and make those animals. I will summarize the review in this sentence. Don Arturo, stop Falcos, Evas and other stories and keep up with this Negro and all his friends and foes. For me they are already unforgettable.
I have already written several articles on dogs. Source of inspiration, literary characters, projects sociales with them involved… So when I saw this new novel by one of my favorite writers I did not doubt for a moment that I would like it. And so it has been.
A Arturo Perez-Reverte I have been following him for many years. Fascinated me with Alatriste, I was thrilled with The shadow of the eagle, I finished conquering with The spherical letter and he made me laugh with his Jodía Pavia or on Cape Trafalgar. It has also bored me with The siege and he has not finished convincing me with his series of Falco, but I am habitual of their Sunday articles and I've gotten into more than one mop for their cause. To great honor I have to say. And when it comes to matters of mutts we fully agree.
I have almost his entire library, although I have a couple of titles to read. Also his compilation books of his articles. The last was Dogs and sons of bitches. Therefore, when I saw this story, I did not hesitate and, as I say, I was excited.
30 days with the Black
Dedicated to the dogs he has owned, Pérez-Reverte says he wrote this book in a month. And I believe it because it has happened to me too. Sometimes stories come to us suddenly or they have been around for a while and we know we have to write them. And they go out alone, without almost thinking. Because they touch us in a special way and we only need to take them out. In addition, we know that they will be good for us. This is the case. A short and round story.
Friendship, justice, cruelty, love and loyalty
The Cervantine phrase of The Colloquium of the dogs Before starting it says it all. Then Pérez-Reverte becomes the Black, a mongrel dog, a cross between a Spanish mastiff and a Brazilian row, who speaks to us in first person with his doggy language (close your nose, give me a paw ...). And we know his story while we are in the Margot's Trough, an Argentine bitch.
Former underground fighting dog, Negro has already eight years and what we appreciate and feel the best is that is tired and a very hard life has also been able to upset him. But upholds its principles and loyalties. I have already read that it is a four-legged Alatriste. Perhaps. I have simply recognized that character that inevitably attracts me has two, four or eight legs.
The question is that two friends have disappeared, Teo and Boris el Guapo, and the regular customers of the Trough, including a philosopher hound named Agilulf, they comment on the uncertain fate they may have faced. Teo, in addition, was Negro's best friend and although they are estranged by a series of circumstances, including a love triangle, Black looks on the duty of looking for them. He has a great idea of what could have become of them and shudders just thinking about it.
Police dogs, neo-Nazis, posh, traffickers ...
La character gallery The ones that Negro encounters are very diverse, like their stories. Margot With her Argentinian accent, the elegant Irish setter Dido, vertex of the sentimental triangle, the foolish and phenomenal Mortimer (a funny dachshund), who guides our hero to the terrible Cañada Negra, or Helmut and his henchmen (brainless Doberman neo-Nazis). And they are also Snifa and Fido, police dogs.
Stand out Tequila, a Mexican xoloitzcuintle head of the most dangerous dog «cartel» who has them very well placed, with a counselor, Rufus, which is a Spanish greyhound whose history and images I have as sad and shocking memories of my own childhood.
And then there are the poor wretches kidnapped or abandoned that end up in the hands of those two-legged wild animals that lock them up in cages and use them as fighting dogs or their sparring. The stories of the abandoned chocolate labrador named Thomas and the little one Cuco, a terrified winemaker, shake the soul.
To make matters worse, we were 11 years old a small winemaker, very brave and smart as he was called Chiqui. And you still have ours Cuco, a Pekingese cross, who is already 16 years old. The two were Manchego street mutts who survived the abandonment and mistreatment, but who sought them out until they found us. So, imagine, Mr. Reverte, what reading that chapter of Duel in the Barranca.
«More mili than the dog of Gladiator«
Because yes, there are tears, but They are also laughable, unavoidable laughter that takes all the glances in the train in which you are reading. Because it's impossible to stop laughing with that drama of Boris the Handsome in chapter 8. From anthology. Or in that final part where that phrase above appears to describe the last of Negro's adversaries, a beauty (French shepherd). I have to transcribe that boxer slang dialogue between them.
"Date pog muegto, Spanish peggo," growled the gabacho, softly but clearly.
"First you're going to suck my plum," I replied. Fucking franchute.
He blinked in confusion.
-The cigar?
-The dick, moron.
But there are so many like that, or so politically incorrect or reverse, that those of us who are not half measures or take it with cigarette paper have to enjoy yes or yes.
I am spartacus
We have all wanted to be Spartacus ever. And so it ends up Teo, the other protagonist, the inverted mirror in Black or turned (supposedly) by humans into that feared killer, that monster created by the master who usually is. But that in the end he revolts, takes revenge, frees himself and manages to live and enjoy, even if not until the end, of that freedom and the most primal instinct. As more than one of us would like to do sometime in life. Or impart justice like that of animals.
So ...
For humans, for dogs, for everyone. You have to read it. Without complexes, without half measures, with blood, with tears, with sadness, with pain, but also with hope, humor, tenderness, respect and love. But only those of us who have dogs and have had them all our lives will really appreciate this wonderful novel.