Volume 3, No. 34 August 29 and September 5, 2003
Ríos offers beast of a story in ‘Monstruary’ A Review By Monique Bos Though technically a novel, “Monstruary” by Spanish author Julián Ríos (poetically translated by Edith Grossman) doesn’t follow a linear narrative, or even a narrative. Instead, Ríos explores the mélange of people who inspire the fictional artist Victor Mons to create his Monstruary series of paintings. Mons, whose name relates him to the monstrosity of his subjects, transforms his models into demonic, demented, mythical beings — or perhaps he simply discerns the beasts within them. Yet he also finds inspiration in the non-human, such as the mannequin who becomes the object of his confused lust, challenging traditional perceptions of “monstrous” and “normal.” The people who surround Mons and serve as his inspiration for his monsters include prostitutes, collectors, painters, sculptors and scholars. By dissecting their own passions and aspirations, Ríos delves into layers of identity and history to expose their individual monstrosities, as seen by Mons. He examines illusion and reality, identity and pretense, fidelity and flamboyant despair. These figures range from the pathetic — such as James Joyce expert Frank M. Reck, who has recently lost his wife, also named Joyce — to the absurd and tragicomic. The book’s narrator, Mons’ self-appointed biographer Emil Alia, tries to maintain a detached tone. However, his inability to remain objective in observing himself calls into question his agenda regarding the other people he analyzes and the information he presents to readers. Mons himself is revealed sketchily, with early chapters devoted to a rather jumbled portrait of the artist. The other characters, in their relation to him and in their role as models for his paintings, render him no more clearly; he emerges finally unknowable and incomprehensible, and his art comes to embody destruction as much as creation. Though exploring the world of a painter, this book is as much about language as it is about art and meaning. Ríos revels in playing with words and sounds and meanings. Even in translation, the cascade of alliteration, repetition and trickery flows like a chaotic and beautiful waterfall through the portraits of Mons’ inspiration. At times, Ríos surrenders narrative coherence to his ecstasy in language, and characters and stories stumble over the passionately unrestrained verbosity. Nonetheless, for readers willing to engage the text, this is a complex, thought-provoking and inspiring read. Bos is an editor in communications.
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