Un estiu by Francesc Parcerisas (Barcelona. 1944), published in 2018, is one of the best contemporary Catalan diary books, structured around a backbone sequence or a red thread: the illness and death of friends Josep Miquel Sobrer (professor at United States and author, also, of autobiographical literature of the highest quality) and Carles Miralles (Hellenist and author of great essays on Catalan literature and the classical tradition, as well as a poet and narrator). Together with La primavera a Pequín (2013) and this La tardor em sobta, it forms a triptych that summarizes and crowns an intellectual trajectory.
If we add Sense mans. Papers i metàfores sobre la traducció , also from 2013, form a tetralogy. Which is also a diptych: Spring in Beijing and Un estiu respond to the classic, sequential model of the writer's diary that takes the pulse of contemporary reality. While Sense mans and La tardor em sobta are based more on an idea of personal archaeology.
It does not mean that there are no notes of the day, written following the suggestion of a news item or a reading. But the book links these observations with others that have accumulated over the years. To explain it, Parcerisas reproduces a photograph of Joan Brossa's studio on Balmes Street and of psychologist Jean Piaget's office. If messy papers represent mental clutter, what does an empty table represent? –Parcerisas wonders, using an image of Manuel Baixauli.
Along with those found papers, which have been rolling around in pockets and have accumulated dust on a table, we have the recurring, obsessive idea of the library. Once I was in his house in Horta I was able to check what he himself tells in the book. Parcerisas is a man of very varied interests (he is a poet, has been a professor of Catalan literature and translation, specializing in Anglo-Saxon literature and, in recent years, very interested in Chinese culture), more than a bibliophile he is a collector, and it is very orderly: it has the books arranged by the date of birth of the authors and in alphabetical order.
The life of books is a fundamental element of La tardor em sobta: the treasures he finds in the Mercat de Sant Antoni and the books he saves from a pile, next to a container, invite him to think about the fate of his library. It is a twilight reflection that connects with observations about the current cultural crisis. It looks from the outside, too cantankerous, and cuts short.
Parcerisas is a great observer of the simple life, although he does not lavish himself on it. He can describe members of the same Chinese family who work in a fruit shop very finely and draw valuable cultural lessons. With the same insight he explains some of his nightly dreams. But the main part is metaliterary and includes comments on poems, notes on readings and a whole reflection on fragmentary writing. The fragment expresses desire, invites the reader to restore the lost totality, transports us to a small and somewhat old museum, with uneven display cases. Like the darner who uses a wooden egg to mend socks, the author draws seams to rebuild life and invent his own time.
Fragmentary writing also serves to silence. In La tardor em sobta we find many references to holes and disappearances. Notably when it comes to family and personal history. As in the case of many other writers, the inner intellectual life is more relevant than the intimate life.
In this way, the references to the family environment – which there are – are suspended in a limbo and it gives the feeling, more than ever, “que potser només m’escric”, without letting the reader in at all. Towards the end, Parcerisas explains that she would like to write a book about Eivissa, as he knew it in the seventies, when she was a hippy. It would be interesting. At the moment we have this book contained, intellectually brilliant and honest.
