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A review by hieronymusbotched
Your Face Tomorrow, Volume 1: Fever and Spear by Javier Marías
4.0
Originally formulated as a single, larger book (the mastheading: Your Face Tomorrow), but actually released over long gaps of time in three volumes, Fever and Spear, the first in a trilogy, is a curious book to rate.
On its own, it deserves 3* - there simply isn‘t enough plot to justify this first title as a standalone volume; what is essentially an exceptionally written, exceptionally vague preamble to a much larger story. In my eyes, Marias doesn‘t value the reader‘s time enough for Fever and Spear to feel satisfying on its own. Or not entirely. I don‘t regret a page, but I‘m aware that all the book has accomplished comes down to slipping velvet underneath my collar, so I‘ll not so much the leash.
However, as a promise (and a premise) for the remaining members of the trilogy, the book deserves all 5*. The psychological acuity, the insights, the flow of Marias‘ language, the narrative construction which painlessly flits between timelines, sometimes in the same sentence, is all a tremendous foundation for something far greater than the 370-some pages collected here.
Put plainly, Fever and Spear is an act of seduction. An invitation to risk everything on the weight of a whisper.
On its own, it deserves 3* - there simply isn‘t enough plot to justify this first title as a standalone volume; what is essentially an exceptionally written, exceptionally vague preamble to a much larger story. In my eyes, Marias doesn‘t value the reader‘s time enough for Fever and Spear to feel satisfying on its own. Or not entirely. I don‘t regret a page, but I‘m aware that all the book has accomplished comes down to slipping velvet underneath my collar, so I‘ll not so much the leash.
However, as a promise (and a premise) for the remaining members of the trilogy, the book deserves all 5*. The psychological acuity, the insights, the flow of Marias‘ language, the narrative construction which painlessly flits between timelines, sometimes in the same sentence, is all a tremendous foundation for something far greater than the 370-some pages collected here.
Put plainly, Fever and Spear is an act of seduction. An invitation to risk everything on the weight of a whisper.