The latest novel by Julia Navarro shifts away from historical intrigue to dive straight into the fabric of a contemporary family centered on three women: Martha, a grandmother who once had a career as a dancer but cannot find a place for herself in her own home; Felicitas, her daughter, who to Martha has always lived under her father’s wing; and Penny, the granddaughter, who also maintains a closer relationship with Martha’s husband than with her grandmother. With these threads Julia Navarro presents us with A Modern Family, a novel about the things we think we are and are not, and also about those we desire and do not know how to attain.
And indeed,
A Modern Family is a novel full of light and shadow. Its characters never quite manage to endear themselves, and even when we understand them they still maintain a barrier that prevents us from feeling comfortable with them, perhaps because their problems are those of everyone, those that a society brings about when one ends up wanting to believe the life one leads, even if it isn’t true, and that provokes in them a deep sense of dissatisfaction.
Martha is a woman who cannot find her place, because she herself does not feel comfortable in that skin that seems to have a life of its own and which she now hides under long sleeves, in an unabashed homage to Nora Ephron with which the novel opens. A feeling that humanizes her more than the fears she harbors in her dealings with her own family. Her daughter became a single mother, decided to embark on a venture in which Martha herself did not believe, and despite everything, she recognizes the degree of success that survivors achieve. And Penny is the constant struggle with the teenager who also doesn’t know her place, she openly pursues her sexuality and turns everything into a duel from which no one comes out unscathed. Not even when the duel is one of silences.
I haven’t spoken of Thomas, the renowned philosopher who seems to be the perfect man; the one who supports, who doesn’t rub others’ mistakes in their faces nor revels in being right, and also the one who appears to struggle to deepen the bonds of a family that never quite understands each other, no matter how much they accept one another.
Tres generaciones unidas por la sangre que conviven en tres sociedades distintas, producto de una sola que ha cambiado demasiado rápido. Por eso Julia Navarro afila su pluma y encontramos una reflexión constante, una crítica y un momento de incomodidad. La identidad sexual, las redes sociales, el egoísmo, la soledad, la vejez… temas con los que todos convivimos y a los que no siempre nos enfrentamos, ni siquiera cuando es necesario. Un poco como el Gato de Schrödinger, del que habla Penny con su abuelo y cuyo estado cambia con la simple observación. Navarro nos presenta una modernidad líquida en la que todo está sujeto a un cambio continuo, al que las personas deben adaptarse si no quieren vivir en un estado de incertidumbre constante, justo como les sucede a sus personajes. Problemas de fondo abordados de forma directa en una novela cuyo final me ha tenido pensando en la historia un par de días. Y esa, creo, es la intención de su autora: hacer que sus lectores se planteen si realmente son como creen o si simplemente sobreviven a marchas forzadas, incapaces de sentirse lo suficientemente cómodos como para confiar y bajar barreras.
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Autora: Julia Navarro. Título: A Modern Family. Editorial: Plaza & Janés. Venta: Todos tus libros.