Con el Muerto a Cuestas

Part literary criticism and part political commentary, this biography centers around well-known Catalonian author Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and his life’s work, the most famous of which featured the character Detective Pepe Carvalho. Particular emphasis is placed on the author’s relationship with the city of Barcelona, a city to which he himself felt quite tied and from which many of his characters fled. Considered to be the...
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Part literary criticism and part political commentary, this biography centers around well-known Catalonian author Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and his life’s work, the most famous of which featured the character Detective Pepe Carvalho. Particular emphasis is placed on the author’s relationship with the city of Barcelona, a city to which he himself felt quite tied and from which many of his characters fled. Considered to be the most gifted portrayer of the city’s transition from the poverty and seediness of the 1960s to the artistic and cultural splendor of the 1990s, Vázquez Montalbán and his own particular outlook are examined through studies of his novels set in Barcelona.

Combinando la crítica literaria con una evaluación política, esta biografía se centra en el reconocido autor catalán Manuel Vázquez Montalbán y su obra vitalicia, la más famosa de la cual fue protagonizada por el detective Pepe Carvalho. En particular, se enfatiza la relación del autor con la ciudad de Barcelona, una ciudad con la cual él se identificaba y de la cual muchos de sus protagonistas huyeron. Considerado como el intérprete más destacado de la transición de la ciudad de la pobreza y cutreidad de los años 60 al esplendor artístico y cultural de los 90, Vázquez Montalbán y su perspectiva singular son examinados mediante un análisis de sus novelas ambientadas en Barcelona.