Wonderful World: A Novel

by: Javier Calvo

Published by: Harper

Reviewed by Janelle Martin

“There’re always kneecaps that are screaming out, begging for us to shoot them, of course.” – Wonderful World

Thirty years ago, Lorenzo Girault was imprisoned for questionable activities in his antiques business. An undiagnosed pathology, referred to by his family as his “window problem,” led Lorenzo to live in rooms without windows and to membership in the “Down with the Sun Society.”

After Lorenzo’s death, his son Lucas struggles to become the man he is sure his father wished him to be. Compelled by a need to understand the legacy left by his father, and determine exactly who was responsible for his father’s downfall, Lucas searches for clues in his father’s secret apartment.

Lucas’s quest places him at odds with his mother–and in the midst of two gangs in Barcelona’s seedy underworld. His best friend is 12-year-old Valentina, who has fashioned herself Europe’s top expert on Stephen King and indulges in violent fantasies of retribution against her school chums. As Lucas sorts through the detritus of his father’s life, Valentina struggles with growing up, while around them swirls a surreal cast: a giant, comic-book-obsessed gang enforcer; a strip club owner with a fondness for women’s coats; a dreadlock-sporting Russian underling with Rastafarian tendencies; and an uptight art dealer for whom thoroughness is next to godliness.

This is Calvo’s first novel translated into English–and if a film, would be David Lynch and Quentin Tarantino’s love child–Lynch for the indescribable plot and Tarantino for the surreal, shocking violence. A feverish verbal joyride, Wonderful World pulls no punches. The quote that begins this review is a typical line of dialogue: rapid-fire and edgy.

At times family drama, mob story, mystery and Hero’s Journey, Wonderful World is a dizzying, multilayered construction that even includes excerpts from a fictitious Stephen King novel. Calvo’s cast is massive and the numerous plot lines almost requires story mapping to keep straight. Yet the quirky characters and chaotic plots are adeptly controlled by this talented author.

Not for everyone, Calvo’s “open conception of narration” owes much to the Free Cinema movement, developed in the late 1950s and characterized by a deliberate lack of box office appeal.

Armchair Interviews says: First of this very talented author’s novels to be translated into English.