POMBO, Álvaro 1939-

PERSONAL:

Born 1939, in Santander, Cantabria, Spain. Education: University of Madrid, B.A.; Birk-beck College, B.A.

CAREER:

Writer.

MEMBER:

Royal Academy of Spanish Language.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Premio Herralde de Novela, 1983, for El héroe de las Mansardas de Mansard; Premio de la Crítica, 1990, for El Metro de Platino Iridiado; Premio Nacional de Narrativa and Ciudad de Barcelona Prize, 1997, both for Donde las Mujeres; Fastenrath Prize, Royal Academy of Language, 2001, for La Cuadratura del Círculo; Lara Foundation Prize, 2002, for El Cielo Raso; Premio Salambó, 2005, and Ciudad de Barcelona Prize, 2006, both for Contra Natura.

WRITINGS:

Protocolos (poetry; title means "Protocols"), Biblioteca Nueva (Madrid, Spain), 1973.

Relatos Sobre la Falta de Sustancia (short stories; title means "Short Stories on the Lack of Substance"), La Gaya Ciencia (Barcelona, Spain), 1977.

Variaciones (poetry; title means "Variations"), Lumen (Barcelona, Spain), 1978.

El Parecido (novel), La Gaya Ciencia (Barcelona, Spain), 1979, 2nd revised edition, Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1985, translated by Margaret Jull Costa as The Resemblance, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1989.

Hacia una Constitución Poética del Año en Curso (poetry; title means "Towards a Poetic Constitution of the Year"), La Gaya Ciencia (Barcelona, Spain), 1980.

El héroe de las Mansardas de Mansard (novel), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1983, translated by Margaret Jull Costa as The Hero of the Big House, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 1988.

El Hijo Adoptivo (novel; title means "The Adopted Son"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1985.

Los Delitos Insignificantes (novel; title means "The Insignificant Crimes"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1986.

Tres Relatos (short stories; title means "Three Stories"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), c. 1988.

El Metro de Platino Iridiado (novel; title means "The Iridescent Platinum Meter"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1990.

Protocolos para la Rehabilitación del Firmamento (poetry; title means "Protocols for the Rehabilitation of the Firmament"), Lumen (Barcelona, Spain), 1992.

Aparición del Eterno Femenino Contada por S.M. el Rey (novel; title means "The Apparition of the Eternal Feminine Narrated by His Majesty the King"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1993.

Telepena de Celia Cecilia Villalobo (novel), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1995.

Donde las Mujeres (novel; title means "Where the Women Are"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1996.

Vida de San Francisco de Asís (biography; title means "The Life of Saint Francis of Assisi"), Planeta (Barcelona, Spain), 1996.

Cuentos Reciclados (short stories; title means "Recycled Stories"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1997.

La Cuadratura del Círculo (novel; title means "The Circle's Quadrature"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 1999.

El Cielo Raso (novel; title means "The Clear Sky"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 2001.

Aldrededores, Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 2002.

Protocolos, 1973-2003 (poetry; title means "Protocols, 1973-2003"), Lumen (Barcelona, Spain), 2004.

Una Ventana al Norte (novel; title means "A Window to the North"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 2004.

Contra Natura (novel; title means "Against Nature"), Editorial Anagrama (Barcelona, Spain), 2005.

Work represented in anthologies, including Son Cuentos: Antología del Relato Breve Español, 1975-1993.

ADAPTATIONS:

El Hijo Adoptivo was adapted by screenwriter-director Juan Pinzáz as the film El Juego de los Mensajes Invisibles ("The Game of the Invisible Messages"), released by Columbia Pictures in Spain in 1992.

SIDELIGHTS:

Spanish novelist and poet Álvaro Pombo has written on a variety of topics, including troubled families, war and revolution, politics, and same-sex love. Indeed, homosexual relationships, or at least homosexual feelings, figure in many novels by Pombo, who in 2006 was named the sixth most influential gay man in Spain by the newspaper El Mundo. Many of his stories are set in modern-day provincial Spain, and several critics have described his writings as marked by satire, irony, and social commentary.

Pombo's first novel to be translated into English was El héroe de las Mansardas de Mansard (The Hero of the Big House.) Its protagonist is a bisexual man employed as a servant by an eccentric, corrupt wealthy family, and it tells a story of the tangled master-servant relationships. Some reviewers of the translation found it complicated but compelling. "It is an interesting claustrophobic book, which somehow holds the attention" despite its complexity, remarked Stuart Evans in the London Times. Another Times contributor, Peter Kemp, called it "a savage, satiric fable."

El Parecido (The Resemblance), which was the first novel Pombo wrote, though it was published in English after El héroe de las Mansardas de Mansard, likewise deals with a rich family, its servants, and the various complex dealings among them. Everyone in the household is deeply affected when the family's handsome young scion Jaime dies in a motorcycle crash, and their reactions reveal sexual secrets and deceptions. These revelations constitute "the liveliest parts of the novel," in Kemp's opinion. Jasper Rees, also writing for the Times, deemed the novel "an eerie, impressionistic work," although "perhaps too dense."

Donde las Mujeres explores another wealthy but quirky family, this time focusing on the women. Pombo traces the primary character from girlhood into adulthood as she observes other members of her family and resists the illusions about love that many of them hold. An Economist critic praised Pombo's ability to portray fully developed female characters, adding that each is "unique" and that the "realism of place and psychology gives the novel the density of a memoir."

La Cuadratura del Círculo, a rare historical novel from Pombo, deals with a twelfth-century knight, Acardo, who becomes embittered by his participation in the Crusades. His story "is lavishly, at times poetically, described," an Economist contributor related. The reviewer felt that Pombo is sometimes guilty of "windiness," but noted that, overall, he "keeps the rambling tale moving."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Economist, February 14, 1998, "New Fiction from Spain: Prizes All Round," review of Donde las Mujeres, p. 16; November 13, 1999, "New Novels from Spain: And for My Next," review of La Cuadratura del Círculo, p. 14.

Times (London, England), December 1, 1988, Stuart Evans, "The Continental Drift," review of The Hero of the Big House; July 23, 1989, Peter Kemp, "Not in Front of the Servants," review of The Hero of the Big House; July 27, 1989, Jasper Rees, "Lost on the Road to Utopia," review of The Resemblance. *