Status
Available
Call number
Genres
Collection
Publication
Torino, Einaudi
Description
"Tomorrow in the Battle Think on Me" is a riveting novel of infidelity and a man trapped by a terrible secret. Marta has only just met Victor when she invites him to dinner at her Madrid apartment while her husband is away on business. When her two-year-old son finally falls asleep, Marta and Victor retreat to the bedroom. Undressing, she feels suddenly ill; and in his arms, inexplicably, she dies. What should Victor do? Remove the compromising tape from the answering machine? Leave food for the child for breakfast? These are just his first steps, but he soon takes matters further; unable to bear the shadows and the unknowing, Victor plunges into dark waters. And Javier Marias, Europe's master of secrets, of what lies reveal and truth may conceal, is on sure ground in this profound, quirky, and marvelous novel.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member DieFledermaus
I liked this book, but I think a lot of that was due to the fact that I like these kinds of books. Marias writes with long, paragraph length sentences (while having few paragraphs) in an almost stream-of-consciousness style. I usually like that, and I did enjoy his writing, but I wasn’t impressed
Victor, the narrator, is having dinner with Marta while her husband is away. After she puts her young son to bed, they move to the bedroom and start kissing and taking off their clothes. Suddenly, she pulls back in pain and soon after dies. Victor finds himself in an extremely awkward situation. If he calls for help, their near-adultery will be discovered (and it can’t help Marta, who is dead). If he leaves, he’ll be leaving Marta’s son alone – he has no idea when her husband will be back or who will take care of the boy. He ponders this in Marias’s long, long sentences, and his thoughts take him back earlier in the evening and to his childhood and all over. Although Victor examines the consequences and his discomfort of his situation, his thoughts also wander off on many tangents. The rest of the story is narrated in a similar fashion, as Victor tries to worm his way – a bit inexplicably – into Marta’s family’s life. He also recollects a similarly indecisive and painful evening, with his ex-wife, which also left scars.
Even though Victor is the narrator, sometimes his decisions and behaviors are extremely questionable. His thoughts are interesting, but there’s some distance between the reader and the first person narrator. Also, the story feels limited. I think the book could have been more effective with a very claustrophobic feel to recreate the feeling of Victor’s obsessiveness. The writing supports that – there’s a repetitiveness that is very effective. However, plotwise, that is somewhat defeated by the addition of various other scenes, one about Victor’s past relationship, which was interesting but not related to the main plot, and another where Victor visits the racing track with a friend, which almost felt pointless. Instead, it feels like a lot of pondering over various adulteries and relationships among a small group of people. In addition, the female characters are generally limited in roles as romantic/sexual partners or prospects – Victor is always commenting on their looks – and the book wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test. While I liked the writing, I didn’t love it enough to overlook some of the things that bothered me, although I’d probably read more by the author.
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– maybe I’ve seen too many authors writing in a similar manner. In some other books, the writing has been so wonderful that I overlooked plot issues, but I had a number of nitpicks about the plot here. Still, it was a tense and involving story – will be reading more by the author. Victor, the narrator, is having dinner with Marta while her husband is away. After she puts her young son to bed, they move to the bedroom and start kissing and taking off their clothes. Suddenly, she pulls back in pain and soon after dies. Victor finds himself in an extremely awkward situation. If he calls for help, their near-adultery will be discovered (and it can’t help Marta, who is dead). If he leaves, he’ll be leaving Marta’s son alone – he has no idea when her husband will be back or who will take care of the boy. He ponders this in Marias’s long, long sentences, and his thoughts take him back earlier in the evening and to his childhood and all over. Although Victor examines the consequences and his discomfort of his situation, his thoughts also wander off on many tangents. The rest of the story is narrated in a similar fashion, as Victor tries to worm his way – a bit inexplicably – into Marta’s family’s life. He also recollects a similarly indecisive and painful evening, with his ex-wife, which also left scars.
Even though Victor is the narrator, sometimes his decisions and behaviors are extremely questionable. His thoughts are interesting, but there’s some distance between the reader and the first person narrator. Also, the story feels limited. I think the book could have been more effective with a very claustrophobic feel to recreate the feeling of Victor’s obsessiveness. The writing supports that – there’s a repetitiveness that is very effective. However, plotwise, that is somewhat defeated by the addition of various other scenes, one about Victor’s past relationship, which was interesting but not related to the main plot, and another where Victor visits the racing track with a friend, which almost felt pointless. Instead, it feels like a lot of pondering over various adulteries and relationships among a small group of people. In addition, the female characters are generally limited in roles as romantic/sexual partners or prospects – Victor is always commenting on their looks – and the book wouldn’t pass the Bechdel test. While I liked the writing, I didn’t love it enough to overlook some of the things that bothered me, although I’d probably read more by the author.
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LibraryThing member DavidGoldsteen
"Tomorrow in the Battle Think of Me" is an intriguing novel. Written in Marias' distinctive style -- a blend of internal monologue, philosophical and literary references both pushed by and advancing the action -- it explores the shifting relationships between honesty and honor, compassion and
Marias is wordy, and for folks used to a more plot or dialogue driven style, this might be offputting. But this is a rewarding book, thoroughly enjoyable. The plot is driven by a simple device -- a man needs to decide what to do after his partner in a one night stand dies, with her child sleeping in the next room. From there, surprises and insights follow.
Deceit follows deceit, as the narrator reveals that he often works under a false name, and he sneaks to his lover's funeral -- if lover is the correct word -- under false pretenses, in order that he might learn the truth. His intentions are more or less honorable, but his actions are questionable. In the end, people are shown to be some good, some bad, but all carrying their secrets and hidden truths.
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deceit. Marias is wordy, and for folks used to a more plot or dialogue driven style, this might be offputting. But this is a rewarding book, thoroughly enjoyable. The plot is driven by a simple device -- a man needs to decide what to do after his partner in a one night stand dies, with her child sleeping in the next room. From there, surprises and insights follow.
Deceit follows deceit, as the narrator reveals that he often works under a false name, and he sneaks to his lover's funeral -- if lover is the correct word -- under false pretenses, in order that he might learn the truth. His intentions are more or less honorable, but his actions are questionable. In the end, people are shown to be some good, some bad, but all carrying their secrets and hidden truths.
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LibraryThing member John
As with the other Marias book that I've read (A Heart So White), I find it difficult to explain this one, but can say that I enjoyed it a great deal. These are different novels; they are psychological and philosophical cogitations on the impermanence of life, definitions and strata of reality, the
The story is simple and intriguing: a man visits a married woman, whom he has recently met, in her apartment (the husband is away on a business trip), and after the two-year old boy is finally put to bed, they move to the bedroom to begin their anticipated love-making, but the woman (a healthy 30-year old) suddenly doesn't feel well...and dies. The man, Victor, is dumbfounded; he leaves the apartment, after leaving food for the boy, taking a phone-tape of messages. He is beset by concerns and fears as to what he has done, and not done in the sense of alerting anyone to the death; he tries to call the husband at his hotel in London, but does not get through because of a confusion on names, and when he does the next day, he does not have the courage to carry through with the call when the husband answers. He arranges to meet the father of the dead woman through a mutual friend, and through that arrangement, he meets the dead woman's sister and husband. Eventually he tells the sister that he was the man with Marta (it was obvious that there had been someone else there and only the father does not know), who tells the husband (Dean) and the two of them meet for a discussion and surprising climax to the story. All this takes 300 pages of sometimes complex prose (and few paragraph breaks!) but I found it stimulating and a quick read. The story itself is almost incidental; a vehicle through which Marias explores many concepts and thoughts.
What are those concepts and thoughts? Little is as it seems, and there are always large chunks of reality and of people, even those closest to you, that you know nothing about: not just because these things are hidden (although there are things like that), or have not come to your attention (there are things like that too), but because you cannot know them. "Reality" is too complex, and in fact because perception is always altered in the retelling, or rethinking, there can be no objective reality. This reality is rather like the uncertainty principle in physics: the more one tries to focus in on one aspect of memory or an incident, or a relationship, the more you lose the focus on other aspects of that same reality so that it is impossible to get and hold the whole picture. What does this mean for relationships? It means confusion and it means that one should be aware of the limits of knowledge and aware of the dangers of generalizing from only one slice of reality.
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complexity of relationships, death, the meaning of memory and eternity, and the power of language and storytelling. The story is simple and intriguing: a man visits a married woman, whom he has recently met, in her apartment (the husband is away on a business trip), and after the two-year old boy is finally put to bed, they move to the bedroom to begin their anticipated love-making, but the woman (a healthy 30-year old) suddenly doesn't feel well...and dies. The man, Victor, is dumbfounded; he leaves the apartment, after leaving food for the boy, taking a phone-tape of messages. He is beset by concerns and fears as to what he has done, and not done in the sense of alerting anyone to the death; he tries to call the husband at his hotel in London, but does not get through because of a confusion on names, and when he does the next day, he does not have the courage to carry through with the call when the husband answers. He arranges to meet the father of the dead woman through a mutual friend, and through that arrangement, he meets the dead woman's sister and husband. Eventually he tells the sister that he was the man with Marta (it was obvious that there had been someone else there and only the father does not know), who tells the husband (Dean) and the two of them meet for a discussion and surprising climax to the story. All this takes 300 pages of sometimes complex prose (and few paragraph breaks!) but I found it stimulating and a quick read. The story itself is almost incidental; a vehicle through which Marias explores many concepts and thoughts.
What are those concepts and thoughts? Little is as it seems, and there are always large chunks of reality and of people, even those closest to you, that you know nothing about: not just because these things are hidden (although there are things like that), or have not come to your attention (there are things like that too), but because you cannot know them. "Reality" is too complex, and in fact because perception is always altered in the retelling, or rethinking, there can be no objective reality. This reality is rather like the uncertainty principle in physics: the more one tries to focus in on one aspect of memory or an incident, or a relationship, the more you lose the focus on other aspects of that same reality so that it is impossible to get and hold the whole picture. What does this mean for relationships? It means confusion and it means that one should be aware of the limits of knowledge and aware of the dangers of generalizing from only one slice of reality.
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LibraryThing member yuvalro
One of the greatest books ever. On par with Catch 22.
It's the best depiction of mental processes I've ever read. I was stunned. We're not worthy, really. Don't miss it.
It's the best depiction of mental processes I've ever read. I was stunned. We're not worthy, really. Don't miss it.
LibraryThing member michaelbartley
I like Javier Martas a lot, he explores the dark soul, the mystery of life, of language. A man goes to bed with a married woman, she dies and he wonders what he should do and what his responsibility his.
LibraryThing member jorgearanda
Marías is a marvelously subtle writer, and his prose flows and fills every chamber of the mind. This haunting book about haunts and about secrets, confessions and death is a dark, delicate treat.
LibraryThing member donato
I don't know, maybe it was Marías fatigue, or maybe I took too long to read it, but this one didn't work for me. Not like the others anyway. Marías himself admits that his working method doesn't always work, that it can have "disastrous" results. While I wouldn't call this a disaster, I'm not
Here the book ends with a story told not by the narrator but by another character. But instead of the narrator finishing the story for us (as in All Souls), we realize that his own story (told in the preceding pages) was contaminated by this story, which he is finally telling us, having delayed it with other stories, with too many thoughts, too much thinking actually. And in the end, maybe that's why the book fails (for me); the inner thoughts, the inner paranoias, that useless whirring that our brains do sometimes, overrode the storytelling, the flow, the magic...
P.S. OK, I think I have an answer to the paradox I mentioned in my review of A Heart So White: haunting. Marías is haunting. His narrators are haunted (as they themselves claim), but so are we. A spell is cast upon us, we are mesmerized and enchanted, despite the meanderings, the spiraling and looping, the "what the hell are you doing??" moments, the flaws... or it's precisely because of those things...Is this perhaps why in my least favorite of the 3 books I just read I have placed the most bookmarks?
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sure how well it worked. We have all the usual Marías tropes and images (time, memory, spying, the back of the neck, the face, names, death, storytelling), but somehow they don't gel, not like in A Heart So White. Or maybe it's that the "random" stories that happen between the main story aren't as interesting as they were in A Heart So White (interesting to me anyway).Here the book ends with a story told not by the narrator but by another character. But instead of the narrator finishing the story for us (as in All Souls), we realize that his own story (told in the preceding pages) was contaminated by this story, which he is finally telling us, having delayed it with other stories, with too many thoughts, too much thinking actually. And in the end, maybe that's why the book fails (for me); the inner thoughts, the inner paranoias, that useless whirring that our brains do sometimes, overrode the storytelling, the flow, the magic...
P.S. OK, I think I have an answer to the paradox I mentioned in my review of A Heart So White: haunting. Marías is haunting. His narrators are haunted (as they themselves claim), but so are we. A spell is cast upon us, we are mesmerized and enchanted, despite the meanderings, the spiraling and looping, the "what the hell are you doing??" moments, the flaws... or it's precisely because of those things...Is this perhaps why in my least favorite of the 3 books I just read I have placed the most bookmarks?
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LibraryThing member thorold
Uncomfortable in its subject-matter — Marías seems to have a rather nasty fascination with killing off his women characters — but beautifully subtle in its writing. I found it hard to like this one (something many other readers seem to find) but it was definitely a rewarding read. The
The English translation must have presented quite some challenges, but it comes off very well.
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digressions did seem to be the most interesting parts of the book, though. I especially enjoyed the palace scene, where Marías gets to have a lot of fun with Shakespeare, without once mentioning his name. The English translation must have presented quite some challenges, but it comes off very well.
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LibraryThing member stillatim
Reading this was a very odd experience, since it's a bit of a dry run for the extraordinary Your Face Tomorrow... which I read first. 'YFT' is a half line from Shakespeare's Henry IV (late 1590s), while TitBToM is a line from Richard III (early 1590s), so it's possible that Marias will eventually
More importantly, the themes of YFT (i.e., our continual attempts to 'know' people despite the fact that they will always slip away from us) are mostly present in this book, too, but the focus is much more on the incredible density of human social connections, and the fact that we can't opt out of that incredible density without destroying ourselves and, quite often, the lives of others. Any of our actions inevitably ties us up in an almost infinite number of consequences, as Victor finds out when he nearly but doesn't quite manage to have a one night stand with Marta (she dies in his arms). He's soon caught up in the petty dramas of the dead woman's family and, we're given to believe, will probably at least date her sister.
I'm still uncertain about the middle sections of the book, which tell of Victor's previous marriage. It's not obvious to me what they're doing there, although it might just be a digression (one of the conceits of the book is that Victor learned Anglo-Saxon, and that there's an Anglo-Saxon word for the relationship between two men who've slept with the same woman; this leads Victor to remember the most prominent of his sexual partners). That might be the only connection--the death of another man's wife bringing to mind his own ex-wife, a relationship that was no more stable than Marta's.
In any case, Marias' style and his recent preoccupations are all on display here. If you're considering looking at YFT, this is a good test. There's more 'action' in YFT, but this is much shorter and easier to grasp. Both titles are philosophically astute, gorgeously written and endlessly fascinating in a post-Proustian kind of way.
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write books with titles lifted from the later Roman plays. That would be fun. More importantly, the themes of YFT (i.e., our continual attempts to 'know' people despite the fact that they will always slip away from us) are mostly present in this book, too, but the focus is much more on the incredible density of human social connections, and the fact that we can't opt out of that incredible density without destroying ourselves and, quite often, the lives of others. Any of our actions inevitably ties us up in an almost infinite number of consequences, as Victor finds out when he nearly but doesn't quite manage to have a one night stand with Marta (she dies in his arms). He's soon caught up in the petty dramas of the dead woman's family and, we're given to believe, will probably at least date her sister.
I'm still uncertain about the middle sections of the book, which tell of Victor's previous marriage. It's not obvious to me what they're doing there, although it might just be a digression (one of the conceits of the book is that Victor learned Anglo-Saxon, and that there's an Anglo-Saxon word for the relationship between two men who've slept with the same woman; this leads Victor to remember the most prominent of his sexual partners). That might be the only connection--the death of another man's wife bringing to mind his own ex-wife, a relationship that was no more stable than Marta's.
In any case, Marias' style and his recent preoccupations are all on display here. If you're considering looking at YFT, this is a good test. There's more 'action' in YFT, but this is much shorter and easier to grasp. Both titles are philosophically astute, gorgeously written and endlessly fascinating in a post-Proustian kind of way.
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LibraryThing member bodachliath
A compelling study - more of a thought experiment than a plotted novel, of a man whose first night with a married woman ends with her dying (of unexplained and probably natural causes). Marias is always a stylish writer, and this is impressively realised and quite gripping in places. He is also
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unafraid to give his "hero" unpleasant character traits. It does seem a little bit misogynistic in places - the male characters are much more fully realised than the women. Show Less
LibraryThing member thioviolight
This is a book best read with no hurry, to savor every word. I haven't had much time to read so it felt a bit too long for me, with its run-on prose and recurring ideas. However, it is an intriguing story written in such fine language.
LibraryThing member Eyejaybee
I always wonder when reading books written in a foreign language how much of the overall impact is down to the original writer, and how much to the translator. A case in point would be Patrick Suskind’s novel Perfume which I remember for the extraordinary flamboyance of its descriptive passages.
The premise for the story is relatively straightforward. A man has dinner with a married woman while her husband is away on a business trip to London. This is their first night together, and romance is delayed until she has managed to put her young son to bed. During the night, she is taken ill and dies, leaving the man with a difficult decision: does he stay to inform the authorities and ensure that the boy is looked after, or does he just leave as quietly as possible, having removed any evidence that he had ever been there. He chooses the latter option, and the book recounts the various consequences that ensue.
Marais captures the man’s panic, and the wrenching of his conscience, masterfully. The book seethes with emotion, though never succumbs to tawdry cliché. Every character is entirely believable, and the story builds with great power.
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Having only read it in English, I have no idea whether that was a straight representation of the original German, or a marvellous tour de force from the translator. Javier Marias’s novel is a simple story, beautifully told, and I find myself similarly unsure who to thank most: writer or translator. Of course, you are probably all shouting, ‘Does it really matter?’, and I suppose you are right. The premise for the story is relatively straightforward. A man has dinner with a married woman while her husband is away on a business trip to London. This is their first night together, and romance is delayed until she has managed to put her young son to bed. During the night, she is taken ill and dies, leaving the man with a difficult decision: does he stay to inform the authorities and ensure that the boy is looked after, or does he just leave as quietly as possible, having removed any evidence that he had ever been there. He chooses the latter option, and the book recounts the various consequences that ensue.
Marais captures the man’s panic, and the wrenching of his conscience, masterfully. The book seethes with emotion, though never succumbs to tawdry cliché. Every character is entirely believable, and the story builds with great power.
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LibraryThing member jonfaith
Is there a proper definition of a Novel? Anything static and comprehensive? I'm speaking pressed paper here. Tomorrow in the Battle Think On Me is at the core a philosophical question, one which allowed serial permutations. It features well developed characters. The protagonist reflects and
Like most of Marias' work, this novel is dense, self-parsing. It retraces its steps and allows repetition, even at the expense of its own self-regard.
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remembers as he converses with others. Morality and epistemology dance in lurid circles. The distance between his personal thoughts and his social utterances remain (ever) vast and human. Perhaps that is my chief compliment of this effort. It is impeccably human. Even if the events depicted are extreme and somewhat exceptional, the reactions remain grounded, not adorned with artifice. The protagonist is framing matters, as if in a narrative of his design, yet the protagonist realizes his limits: surely as do the novel's readers.Like most of Marias' work, this novel is dense, self-parsing. It retraces its steps and allows repetition, even at the expense of its own self-regard.
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Awards
Prix Femina (1996)
Language
Original language
Spanish
Original publication date
1994 (original Spanish)
1994
1996 (English translation)
ISBN
880614510X / 9788806145101
Other editions
Mañana en la batalla piensa en mí by Javier Marías (Paper Book)