The New Yorker - Summer Fiction: 20 Under 40

En la última edición de la legendaria revista The New Yorker, tenemos el dossier titulado Summer Fiction: 20 Under 40, el cual reúne a los veinte autores, menores de cuarenta años, más destacados de la narrativa norteamericana contemporánea. De los elegidos solo he leído a Jonathan Safran Foer y, por supuesto, a nuestro conocido Daniel Alarcón. En el enlace en azul se podrá leer cuáles han sido los criterios de selección de los editores, los relatos de Gary Shteyngart, Salvatore Scibona y Rivka Gatchen, y el cuestionario que responden cada uno de los escritores.

Como es de evidente interés, pegaré el cuestionario a Alarcón, quien anuncia la pronta publicación de la versión gráfica de su muy celebrado cuento “Ciudad de payasos”, el cual circulará en México, Chile y Perú

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Daniel Alarcón was featured in The New Yorker’s 20 Under 40 Fiction Issue. His story will appear later in the summer.

When were you born?

March 5, 1977.

Where?

Lima, Peru.

Where do you live now?

Oakland, California.

What was the first piece of fiction you read that had an impact on you?

As a kid, probably “The Phantom Tollbooth,” or something by Beverly Cleary. Later, in high school, Dostoyevsky’s “Notes from Underground.” It’s fair to say that that book changed my life. I’ve been afraid to reread it since.

How long did it take you to write your first book?

The first story included in “War by Candlelight” was written in 1997; the last in 2003.

Did you ever consider not becoming a writer?

Do you mean did I ever consider becoming something else? Yes. As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasn’t made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different. But, more to the point, not becoming a writer is something I consider every single day, if only for a moment. What if today I didn’t write? What would I do?

What, in your opinion, makes a piece of fiction work?

There are an infinite number of answers to this important question, which is what makes reading so compelling. At the most basic level, I appreciate writers who have something to say.

What was the inspiration for the piece included in the “20 Under 40” series?

My friend Vanadis is an endless fountain of stories, all of them true, and most of them far too outlandish to feel at home in the sort of fiction I usually write. The central incident here—the necktie, the accusation of trafficking—came from her. Nelson, Francisco, and their parents are the main players in a novel I’ve been working on for nearly four years. But I’m afraid that Alejandro and Luz may not make it into the final manuscript.

What are you working on now?

Apart from the novel I just mentioned, I’m in the final stages of a graphic novel, with the artist Sheila Alvarado, adapting a short story of mine called “City of Clowns,” which appeared in The New Yorker in 2003. It will be published this summer in Peru, Mexico, and Chile. I’m also blogging the World Cup for The New Republic, and writing about music at LaPelanga.com.

Who are your favorite writers over forty?

That’s such a tricky question to answer, because one’s tastes evolve, but my favorite authors are the ones whose work sparks within me an urge to write. This is an ever-expanding, ever-changing group, and I might admire different authors at different times, for different reasons. Among them, J. M. Coetzee, Joan Didion, Tadeusz Konwicki, Aleksandar Hemon, Mario Vargas Llosa, Lorrie Moore, Doris Lessing, Patrick Chamoiseau, to name a few. As for a lot of writers (and readers), however, many of my favorite authors are dead, and therefore ageless. Some of them passed not too long ago. Roberto Bolaño is one; he died in 2003, at the age of fifty. Ryszard Kapuściński, three and a half years later—he was seventy-four. Joseph Roth died many decades ago, at only forty-four, and I feel certain that I’ll be rereading his work for the rest of my life. I owe these artists (and many others) a debt that cannot be repaid.