In most of the stories that make up Javier Marias’ collection “When I Was Mortal,” someone meets a violent end. Though the actual deed may take place before or after the story, the narrator–invariably a bemused observer–tells the tale with a detached and speculative air. In the eponymous story, a ghost considers the nature of time and human knowledge as he describes his own sudden and surprising demise. In the meandering mystery “Spear Blood,” a man serendipitously searches for his friend’s killer, as the narrative becomes palpably more unlikely and absurd. And in “The Night Doctor,” Marias tells the story of a murderous M.D.’s dirty work through a hazy veil of uncertainty and confusion.
Marias is an acclaimed Spaniard well-known in Europe, and this translation by Margaret Jull Costa precedes the publication of several more of his novels in the United States. He explains in the book’s foreword that most of the stories were commissioned, and had certain conditions laid out beforehand (one story had to be about soccer, another needed to be set in summertime). As a result, some of the tales seem forced, incomplete, or frivolous–particularly “Flesh Sunday,” which is unambitious and rather silly. But throughout, Marias’ graceful writing shines. It relies on gesture and suggestion, and describes details with precision and thoughts without constraint. It is to his credit that his dark tales of human cruelty and mortality are, in fact, remarkably light.
