Vila-Matas is the name of an imaginative Spanish writer who has produced a string of fascinating little novels appealing to lovers of literature. This one, my first taste of this singular Spaniard, is about the Bartlebyes of literature. A Bartleby is the name Vila-Matas gives writers who suddenly stop writing, like the Melville character of his short story Bartleby the Scrivener, and his famous line “I prefer nor to”. It is filled with references to lesser-known European writers from the 19th and 20th century and the Bartlebyness of their respective writing careers. Unwritten books is a concept I’ve pondered on my own, but I never knew it had been explored this way before.
It is actually an essay disguised as a novel, because it is almost entirely discussions of different writers and their non-writing. Vila-Matas so enthusiastically mythologizes his subjects that you almost end up admiring the non-writers more than the ones who actually put pen to paper. Some of the characters mentioned in the book are suspected to be inventions of Vila-Matas fertile imagination, but I guess it’s fair game given the theme of the book. I am taken in by this whole ruse of “writers of the No” and I’d recommend others to try these ideas on as well.
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Kinship of all Species 