Murphy’s Law is clear: anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and that’s exactly what’s happening at Farm La Soledad. His name is both a warning and a condemnation for the residents: a dysfunctional family whose members live so self-absorbed and obsessed with their own ambitions that they are oblivious to anything around them. Her short-sightedness is also unable to see the small and invisible Antonia, the protagonist of this tragic network that she keeps trying to overcome with the sole aim of growing up as a normal girl, without success.
The spiral of pain and misery that the characters of La Soledad in three acts (Alfaguara, 2023) find themselves in progresses at the same speed with which they are carried away by their greatest passions, the center of the universe of the Mexican writer Gisela let Leal (Cadereyta Jiménez, Monterrey, 36 years old). As the author of El Club de los Abandonados (2012), which made her the youngest narrator ever to publish with the publisher, Leal is back with her fourth novel, a story that belies neither its characters nor a world like the Technology is doomed, a break grants dystopia and ecocide.
A publicist by trade, Leal does not even consider the possibility of making literature a lifestyle. “I like to think of it as an escape,” he claims. “It’s an extremely lonely job, I hardly ever leave my house. “My connection to the world is work,” he finishes after a few seconds to consider the answer, and those pauses become the overall tone of the interview, which takes place via video call. The narrator, who serves as a screen, thinks and judges equally at breakneck speed, in sentences linked by commas that only find their final point at the end of the page. It’s harsh, ironic, and scathing. He constantly breaks the fourth wall, and it’s not clear if he appreciates or despises a reader who’s doing his best to keep up.
Questions. How do you imagine your ideal reader?
Answer. One with a great deal of openness to criticism and fully aware that as human beings we are full of vices, problems and difficulties. One who does not have this introduction would not be willing to listen to many words from this narrator, whose raison d’être is a large part of criticism. And he’s a reader who also intends to fix what’s wrong with him.
Q The narrator’s wisdom comes largely from his reincarnations. Isn’t one lifetime enough to understand what’s at stake?
R I don’t believe the truth. Unless you’ve been focusing on it since you were born, and not even then. There is too much to discover and learn, and that’s exactly what can be achieved from the mistakes and negative experiences we’ve made along the way. I’d like to believe that, but I don’t think so.
Q Do you have more or less doubts than when you started writing?
R I think the same. No, maybe more. Because when you start out you’re very confident about something and as you work on it you have to put yourself in the shoes of the people who are experiencing it and you get into conflicts that you hadn’t thought of or seen before. What I do know is that despite all the occasions I’ve asked myself the same questions over and over again, far from being reduced, they remain the same or more, but they don’t get answered.
Q What question do you keep coming back to?
R What are we doing here, what is it, what is it about, why. Especially what we do here. There are so many factors that can lead us into a situation, into a life, that one does not fully analyze all the possible ways that led one there.
Q At one point, he speaks of a hypothetically happy Antonia who hasn’t gone through all that trauma, but the narrator feels that her lack of inner conflict wouldn’t provide enough drama to draw the reader into the story. Is tragedy more literary than happiness?
R Definitive. [Ríe] First of all, when seeing a character, the most interesting thing is to see the dramatic arc he can have. And to achieve it, one must go from darkness to light, from evil to good, on different levels. Ultimately, stories not only make us feel understood, they also inspire us. It is heartening to see this character overcome the difficulties we face ourselves. There is much wealth in this tragedy.
The Mexican writer Gisela Leal. With kind approval
Q Do passions in real life also lead us to ruin?
R Passions are essential to life, they move the world. But I also think they often put us in situations where we lose consciousness and when that happens there may be a greater risk of losing ourselves. Sometimes you realize that everything you could have sacrificed to get it wasn’t worth it.
Q What passion are you most afraid to indulge in?
R Desire. It is the most basic… and the most powerful and present.
Q All of the characters are withdrawn and alone, unable to form any real bonds with others. How to break through this loneliness?
R You need to connect, but that’s the most obvious thing. how to get it Seeing the other and understanding a little more how a relationship is built. Each individual is so focused on their interests that they can’t look around. And they miss many things that could help them resolve their conflicts. For example Dionysus [el padre] and this exaggerated ambition to achieve certain things. All he really wants to do is be a great man and the best version of himself, and he’s so focused on his goal that he doesn’t see his son and wife. Everyone is like these islands just there, trying to fill the void in the most misguided way.
Q The family in particular is by no means a place of refuge, but the main cause of this loneliness. Is family a stifling environment?
R I believe that family is the basis. The environment in which we grow up largely determines the person we are or will be. A family without understanding and communication can be extremely overwhelming and damaging.
Q In the dystopian future that looms as the protagonist grows older, there’s a moment before a book written by artificial intelligence where she thinks literature is the last human redoubt on earth. Do you think you would be the last to resist when you reach this stage?
R I hope not. When I was working on this novel, the pandemic wasn’t over and the whole idea of artificial intelligence was there, but in a way that wasn’t quite as obvious, and in my mind, that dystopian future wasn’t over that close. After a short while all the things I was thinking about happened, which makes you think the end is near. But this has always been very clearly felt throughout humanity. The world as we know it will end, if not forever, but I would like to believe that life as such will prevail. Despite the challenges, we will continue.
Q As a citizen, she is more optimistic than as a writer.
R Yes, the truth, yes. It is true that good and evil are always present, but I believe that human beings are inherently good. Along the way, he encounters things that unfortunately deform him, but basically we’d all like to be moving toward a light. I would like to believe that this is the ultimate goal.
Q Concerned about the intrusion of artificial intelligence into artistic creation?
R No no. I think there is a lot of room for new things. Whenever these big leaps are presented: the cinema, television, the internet… there is all this uncertainty and vulnerability, and yet if you look at it from a positive side, with a clear purpose, many have it Advantages.
Q In the novel, he addresses some of the political issues of our time, such as caudillismo or the relationship to the environment. However, locating these conflicts in a specific space and time was avoided. Because?
R For two reasons. My main goal in this work was to break down as much as possible the human condition, which is the same everywhere and at all times. And on the other hand, because I believe that the scenario presented can exist in many places, especially in most Latin American countries. In earlier works I was practically addicted to references, spaces and times. And in this case, the challenge I set myself was to not use it and turn it into a story that can live anywhere. Because I’ve also seen history repeat itself over and over again.
Q Is power always corrupt?
R phew! I think when you put yourself in power it becomes a lot harder not to let it corrupt you. I don’t think it inevitably happens. But wow how hard is it to keep up without breaking down in front of him and we don’t see that in politics anymore. I mean, wow, how religion creates characters that you say, wow, what power it has to distort.
Q What hope do you cling to, believing in the triumph of that kindness in the face of challenges and passions?
R to consciousness. We have a lens that can be totally clouded or distorted by what we believe. But the moment we become more aware… It is extremely difficult because at the end of the day we are married to our spirit, but it is this awareness that can protect us.
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