César Sánchez Sánchez (Madrid, 1970) is a mathematician turned salesman. He studied at the Faculty of Mathematical Sciences but never practiced. He immediately began working as a salesman; He didn’t like selling smoke, but he was good at it. And in those, it continues. This is how Barrett Publishing presents the author of Shadow Cataloga book of stories that travel from the wild to the surreal without leaving a Spain that everyone knows very well. From the life of a teenage construction worker to a retiree who leaves the house to buy churros and unleashes the apocalypse.
All this happens through the life of a police officer addicted to dirty porn, of a man who wants to sew up his partner so as never to separate or even the story of the man whose vocation was to be an actor and who only made him sick and sad. Tenderness, mockery, excess are cited in the pages with which the Madrid native fills his second collection of stories, which follows Cities you’ve never been to (2018) and the novel Damn stick hit by fleas (2021). Sánchez meetson elDiario.es on the terrace of the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, it is half past twelve and he orders a beer. It’s Friday. And on Friday lunchtime, anything goes.
Let’s start with a key concept: what is a ghost catalog?
That’s exactly what’s at the end of the book. A commercial catalog, but instead of trying to market, for example, cars are shadows. It’s not a metaphor for anything. That’s how it is. The idea came to me a long time ago, I was 20 years old. At that time, almost everyone had a punk band and made fanzines. It was the title of number zero of a fanzine that I had produced with colleagues at the time. Now I have found this idea again; Many books are called manuals of I don’t know what. Well, me too. I can finally say that I have created a real ghost catalog.
As we read it, it seems like we are presented with a catalog of loss and pain running through different storylines. Are sadness and fear the common thread that drives your characters?
For several years, I have been dealing with my father’s illness. I think the first story [el que más espacio ocupa de toda la obra] It’s an attempt to face the moment before it arrives. I think what I write is related to what we receive from our elders. Sometimes these are seemingly unimportant things, but in reality and deep down, they are what connects us.
Additionally, all stories are woven across social class. There is a very strong class component, what was it like writing from that perspective?
It’s not always the same, but for several years I have had a class or neighborhood consciousness that is developing more and more, even if it’s stupidity or a kind of false consciousness, no matter how you want it. ‘to call. But I get it from where I was born or from the fact that I am the son of who I am. It’s something that gives me weight, that gives me mental and personal structure. It’s something I’ve held on to over time and, even though I haven’t thought about it or meditated on it, I’m very proud to come from a rotten neighborhood. Even if that’s not the case, understand me. You could say that I am from Vicálvaro, from the sidewalk of Alcalá Street on the right, near La Elipa. I’m a bit in no man’s land, in these streets near Alcalá. Let’s say it could be called Ascao.
I think what I write is related to what we receive from our elders. Sometimes these are seemingly unimportant things, but in reality and deep down, they are what connects us.
We talk about the neighborhoods of Madrid and, in one of his stories, he also talks about her. Draw the city as the main element. One of the characters, while looking through it, designates a rich neighborhood, a poor neighborhood, work and home. Let’s talk about the Madrid of the book and how you feel about the city in which you grew up and reside.
It has changed a lot. My memories of my youth mix a little with those of the city today. Now I don’t know the city. I come to the center of Madrid, to Chueca, etc., and I am a tourist.
I remember Chueca in the 80s. It was a dark place where horses were sold, where there was a lot of drug trafficking. It was a horrible place, and over time it evolved. I don’t know many parts of the city anymore. I mean, my neighborhood does it. It’s still so pretty. Much less change than in the center. What I notice is immigration for the better. It was a place for old people, old people who had emigrated from the cities. Then the Latin Americans arrived and the neighborhood began to be populated with people from Ecuador, Peru… They filled the neighborhood with colors and sounds. We saw children playing in the streets again and it brings a lot of joy. Now it’s a mixed bag and it still looks a bit abandoned, run down. If a sidewalk breaks, it will take years to repair. This kind of thing that the peripheries have.
What I notice in my neighborhood is immigration for the better. It was a place for old people, old people who had emigrated from the cities. Then the Latin Americans arrived and filled the neighborhood with colors and sounds. We still saw children playing in the streets and it gives a lot of joy
Change the third. The entire book is filled with pop culture references. From the Pijus Magnificus of Brian’s life even Gustav Mahler.
Sometimes I write stories that simply start from an idea, from an event. Everything that arises below serves to nourish this idea, it’s like an exercise. There is a story that ultimately I tell as if it were an alphabet. And, in the case of pop culture, I’m pure pop culture. My life was made up of urban tribes, reading, comics… I spent my life reading comics and going to concerts. In the end, it all comes out and I can mention the Ramones or Camela.
Or criticize Serrat.
I hate dogmas and priests. Everyone loves them and that’s a lie. You talk to people left and right and everyone thinks it’s wonderful. And no. It has to be said that it’s not that good either. The way he sings sucks, that tremolo… hasn’t anyone noticed that?
The theme of writing as an exercise that I mentioned above is somewhat reminiscent of that of Georges Perec.
Yes of course. Perec, [Richard] Brautigan… All this kind of literature, at some point, I became addicted. But also a lot of detective novels. Actually, in the rape story, I write the characters in a way that you don’t like any of them. They are all despicable sons of bitches, they are disgusting.
It’s a story you can almost feel.
It’s also, a bit, a homage to porn. Porn is something that, no matter how expensive it is current pornhas always aroused great interest. I was very interested. One of the first things I read were the pornographic magazines that parents kept in the closet where they kept their shoe shine products. The magazines smelled of asphalt [risas]. In these magazines, there were pornographic photo novels, a genre that has disappeared.
I was excited because I was a kid and I saw it and it fascinated me. I think my generation, in general, was very fascinated by porn. We had movies like Behind the green door either Deep Throat… There were directors who went there to make films. David Cronenberg He used porn actresses in his early films.
Porn is in the Bible and in the Song of Solomon. This has always been part of our culture. Now there are a series of moral burdens that bother me a lot. There is also some porn made by women which is very good
Also Gaspar Noé with love in more recent times.
Yes, he still uses porn in a story, for the story’s sake. Let it not be a crazy thing; porn is in the Bible and in the Song of Solomon. This has always been part of our culture. Now there are a series of moral burdens that bother me a lot. There is also some porn made by women which is very good.
My story, in short, is an homage to porn in a detective novel context. The sadomasochism thing and the La Sonrisa Vertical collection really interested me. There are some very tough novels and they were great. I wanted to reproduce that a little: to make a story that was porn. Not erotic; porn.
The whole book is driven by sarcasm, it’s very ironic. Did you intend to write it ironically or did it come out on its own?
When I speak in my daily life, I’m not that ironic, although irony is a good starting point for establishing distance. It’s like a shield and I like it. In the end, if you live with a lot of impositions, a lot of demands around you, irony is always a good tool to get through it.
