Marisol, the oldest Benet | Culture | EUROtoday

“You have to talk to the oldest in the family,” his nephew Ramón—the novelist’s firstborn—instructed me, after I determined to begin my work on the engineer and author Juan Benet, again in December 2003. Marisol, born in Madrid on March 20, 1924, obtained me in her rental condo on Madrid’s Fernández de la Hoz road, 31, a vibrant penthouse with a splendid terrace the place her associates spent so many occasions. associates Carmen Martín Gaite and Bárbara Probst Solomon, former common of those pages. She was a neighborhood neighbor of Julio Llamazares, with whom she coincided strolling his canine. Molly or shopping for the newspapers on the neighboring kiosk—a tenacious reader of EL PAÍS—. Widow of the lawyer Luis Cavanna Arlegui and mom of Luis, Tomás and Teresa (Juan Carlos died in 2018), Marisol was a girl who adored her youthful brothers Paco and Juan; elegant, very tall and an excellent reader.

At a time after we shared a bookseller, we generally discovered ourselves on the information desk. Javier Marías used to ship him his novels recent off the press, with dedications included. Marisol made all of the supplies and her recollections about her brother Juan out there to me and gave me a number of household pictures. She instructed me concerning the childhood of the inventor of the imaginary territory of the Region, filled with ghosts, the place his fictions happen and of which he himself devised his map. And rather more, in fact.

In his lounge I not solely recorded our conversations for a number of hours; There had been 4 periods, and there have been many, many cellphone calls all through the seven years that the work lasted. Never a nasty gesture, by no means a nasty reply, despite the fact that generally I used to be compelled to fire up painful points from the previous. She all the time handled me patiently and was pleased to collaborate. She was essentially the most serious about preserving Juan’s reminiscence.

After a while, Marisol moved to reside along with her daughter Teresa within the northwest space of ​​the capital. There, respiration within the mountain air, he walked together with his granddaughter Lin and his canine. I used to be pleased. Every birthday I known as her and she or he all the time used to inform me: “I’m very old. It’s been many years now.” When he turned ninety, his kids and nephews threw him a shock celebration on the Student Residence; They invited me as a biographer in order that I might meet your complete Benet household. The occasion was attended by, amongst others, Juan Cruz, Manuel Rodríguez Rivero, Julio Llamazares, Pilar del Río, Rosa Regás…

On his centenary he repeated the occasion in the identical place, with some absences. His daughter Teresa steered that I learn a fraction of her uncle Juan’s biography, which has not but entered the presses. In July 2024 Marisol known as me to inform me that she had learn The plural is a canwhich took some time to learn as a result of as he obtained drained, he learn slowly. We commented on some passages and laughed about some characters. I by no means dared ask him his opinion concerning the guide. But by Juan Cruz, who offered it in Madrid, I discovered that he was moved by it.

Marisol buried her brothers Paco and Juan, now her kids are burying a centenarian girl in order that she might relaxation eternally. So be it.