Lessons and disappointments, by Laura Freixas

Who, in Catalonia, does not know Josep Pla? He was not just a Catalan writer, he was the Catalan writer by Antonomasia. “A fixing liquid of the images of life in this country”, in the words of Gabriel Ferrater.

Pla drew the broader, complex, fine, of Catalonia (and Spain and the world seen from Catalunya) of the twentieth century. He deserved a biography of 1,500 pages, such as the one that Xavier Pla (the coincidence of the surname is fortuitous) has written under the title a furtive heart. He has revealed to me, or expanded, two aspects of his life and work of which he was not very aware. But first, let me tell you how good the book is. An example will suffice. The first chapter of any biography is usually quite boring: context, genealogy … here, I prepared (sighing) to swallow one hundred pages on the first pla and the first casadevall of the time of guifré the pecs and the first documents, in Latin, on the most plain of Llofriu, then called lofridum… instead, the first sentence is: “Josep plans to wear clothes of others”. And analyze that feature that, in effect, is very present in the gray notebook: the impression it always has, wearing your own clothes or not, of being disguised, as a symptom of a “dissatisfaction that is found in the foundation of your life and its dedication to literature.” Josep Pla during a tribute that was paid in 1962. Carlos Përez de Rozas / Archive only after an entire chapter dedicated to that theme, Xavier Pla speaks of more pla, lofridum and guifré the pecs, although he always bringing him to the present of the writer’s life, explaining what he meant, personally, for him. Before reading a furtive heart, I knew, like everyone else (or everyone born before, say, 1970; of the following generations I am not so safe) that Pla had been one of the greatest Catalan writers, although politically stained by their support for nationals during the war. But I did not realize to what extent he contributed to save that same language and literature that Franco had wanted to crush. (He, when in 1936 he opted for the Francoist side, did he never suspect that could happen? I have not found elements in the biography to answer that question). Xavier Pla emphasizes, surprised, Josep Pla’s silence regarding what was his companion long years not only wrote a work of immense quality (read, read the gray notebook, letters from afar, bus trip …), in a wonderful Catalan of naturalness, expressiveness and wealth, but did it in such an overwhelming amount (47 volumes of complete works) that he was only a literature. But, in addition, it was the motor and clairvoyant force of the great recovery project of the Catalan language and culture under the noses of Franco. He convinced the editor Josep M. Cruzet so that in his editorial, select, recover the Catalan classics and also translate the Catalan from universal literature. And completed the play drawing 60 portraits (the homenots series) of many other protagonists of the Catalan culture, from Pompeu Fabra to Salvador Dalí, passing through Prat de la Riba, Gaudí or Pau Casals. If he had sinned supporting Franco (for that reason, no doubt, they did not give him the premi d’onor of Les Retres Catalans), I think he was more than redeemed. Laura Freixas also reads the lights in the figure of Pla are, in short, even brighter than I believed. As for his shadows, a furtive heart confirms what more or less I already knew: the portrait that makes both his own life and society of his time to where he usually limits culture: erasing women. Xavier Pla emphasizes, surprised, his silence with respect to what was his partner for long years, Adi Enberg (a very cultured woman, who was a great influence for him). And neither does any woman appear in that genealogy of Catalan culture that are the homenots: neither Caterina Albert, nor Aurora Bertrana, nor Mercè Rodoreda, nor Francesca Bonnemaison … had to be Marta Pessarrodona who dedicated a book, Donasses, in 2006. In any case, we must celebrate that about a writer, Pla (Josep), very important, we now have another writer. (Xavier), a very important book. A complete, documented, original, full of intelligence and sensitivity biography … and very enjoyable.

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