Raquel VillaécijaParis Correspondent

Paris Correspondent

Updated Sunday, January 28, 2024-9:49 pm

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Máximo Huerta

(Utiel, 1971) says

that one of his dreams was always to set up a bookstore, but "French style", where "

the book is not just another object, it is not a supermarket"

. He fulfilled it recently: he opened Doña Leo's bookstore, in Buñol, Valencia. Another of his obsessions revolved around the Parisian 1920s. About 12 years ago he began to document himself and now he publishes his "most special and most worked" book:

Paris woke up late

(Planeta).

The city has a great weight in the book, what does Paris mean to you? The city is a character, it is a very important organ for the lives of the characters. I treat it like a character, who suffers, lives, gets stained, bleeds... It is a city that behaves like a lover, the one you desire and the one you wait for, but one day it doesn't open the door to you, it is hostile. One day she gives you flowers and another day she is elusive, surly. This is how I have experienced it. How has the documentation work been? I have never had so much fun. It has been nice to learn things like which stores were open, which painters were in their heyday, even what the drug was called then... It has been an enjoyable documentation. They are the most fun, in which Paris is the center of the world, but not thanks to the French, but to the immigrants. It is a book with a great weight of women... It is a great tribute to women, because for for the first time they felt independent. Because of the war, they are alone, there is no husband, no father, no brothers, because they are in the war. And in those years, women for the first time feel forcibly independent. The book is also a vindication of the anonymous women, those who posed for painters and those who were treated as whores.

"Women have made a tectonic plate movement, like earthquakes, which has decentered men, society and sexist women"

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Is it a feminist book? I think that women have made a tectonic plate movement, like earthquakes, which has decentered men, society and sexist women. This is the century of women. It portrays the Paris of then, how do you see the city now? Less crazy, less avant-garde, despite its virtues. In 1924 it is an island of freedom and a refuge for immigrants, homosexuals, refugees... That has not been repeated. Although it continues to boast about freedoms, it boasts more than it exercises them. Paris lives on income. Of the income of a historical moment, yes, but of the income. Is this your most special novel? I have culminated an obsession, with respect to the time, the social, what I like about those years... It is the most worked, the most enjoyed and the one I would like to read. Because I include all my fetishes, tastes, dreams, frustrations, addictions...What frustrations? The protagonist is a woman full of guilt, for example. And I am one of those who work very well, but it must be because of my religious heritage... In these years, have you changed your way of writing? I would have liked to have the peace of mind that I have now. This is the tenth novel and this gives you peace of mind and enjoyment, I have gotten rid of that adolescent discomfort of trying to impress, which happens at the beginning. Now I have another pause and another enjoyment. This is given to you by time, many novels, many mistakes, a certain daring and having read more. Do we read less now? We read less and the one who reads is the woman. There are no men's book clubs. The one who manages the culture is the woman. Have you ever seen queues at the cinema for men? She is also the one who enjoys it the most. Here in Paris there is pride in booksellers and in the trade.

"In Spain we do not boast about culture, there is no cultural patriotic pride, having equal or more than others"

Are you envious? I wonder if I've opened a bookstore! With a Parisian appearance, because the book is not just another object, it is not a supermarket. Here's a treatment from the star writer. There is a literary

star system

. It becomes accessible and close, it boasts and compliments. In Spain we do not boast of culture, there is no cultural national pride, having the same or more than others. Do you consider yourself an intellectual? In Spain the word intellectual is belittled. There is no such look. So it is difficult for one to qualify oneself like that. I couldn't say that it is rejection, but only some dead people are considered intellectuals. In Spain we are still with the 'civil war' of placing everyone on sides. That is why it is difficult for us to value art. And it is the only thing that survives us: culture. Here it is driven even by politics. President Macron himself... I have actor friends who have told me that he goes to the theater and then has dinner or a drink with them in the dressing room. I myself have seen him with books in his hand or leaving the theater, and I miss that in Spanish politicians. I would like to see one day a Spanish politician or a president with a book in his hand or leaving the theater, like Macron. I don't remember seeing a Spanish president at the book fair. Do you miss journalism? No, because journalism is in a hurry now, and I'm not in a hurry. Social networks have made anyone with a cell phone believe they are a journalist, thus we ruin the profession. I now tell stories too, but with a different tempo.Maxi