{"id":6902,"date":"2022-03-07T07:22:48","date_gmt":"2022-03-07T13:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/?p=6902"},"modified":"2022-10-19T10:16:55","modified_gmt":"2022-10-19T15:16:55","slug":"the-historical-novel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daveomeara.com\/home\/6902\/","title":{"rendered":"The Historical Novel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Man Who Loved Dogs<\/a>, by Leonardo Padura
Translated from the Spanish by Anna Kushner
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York 2014<\/strong><\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Leonardo Padura, in his novel The Man Who Loved Dogs<\/em>, fulfills what might be described as the duty of the historical novelist (or at least, the duty of those who who work in the sub-genre of historically accurate fiction<\/em>): that is, to maintain respect for the established facts while filling in the narrative holes. This kind of novelist takes on the task of constructing a narrative that offers plausible answers to the human questions that hover around historical events and shows us the intimate scenes, the conversations, and the decisive moments: all the details that the documentary record unfortunately lacks. The historian says to the reader, “Sir or Madam: We don’t know exactly what happened behind those closed doors, so neither you nor I should even ask.” The novelist says “Dear Reader, I know that you have human questions about all this, so I’ve used my imagination and my art to give you a story with all the intimate details that you desire, 90% true and 10% likely.” <\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Ramon
Ramon Mercader (“Jacques Mornard”) after his arrest<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In the story of the murder of Trotsky, among the human questions are these: How could Ram\u00f3n Mercader have done such a thing? What kind of man would you have to be to assume a false identity, seduce a woman for whom you feel nothing, use this woman to win the confidence of the family and bodyguards of a famous man? What would it be like to visit this man with a mountaneering ice axe hidden in your overcoat, just for practice, just to check out the security, and then \u2014 the second time you are alone with this old guy \u2014 pull out the ice axe and murder him? Who could have the patience and the discipline for that? And above all, the cold blood?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Padura doesn’t give us explicit answers, but his novelistic imagination provides us with the following keys to the personality and character of Mercader:<\/p>\n\n\n\n