Synopsis

The Life Sublime (160 pages) is Bieito Iglesias’s third novel in the Galician language and was first published in 2001.

A dragon by the name of Arthur, who has been sheltering in the caves of Pico Sacro, a summit near Santiago de Compostela, before making his way beyond the Jordan valley to the Valhalla of the serpents, decides to pay a visit to the Galician capital, where the shrine of the apostle James is situated. He flies over the city. In the second chapter, a nocturnal beast who goes by the name of Barabbas calls into a radio programme in order to send a message to Caritá, who is languishing in jail for having killed four junkies, threatening to come after him and mocking him for having let himself get caught by the police. In the third chapter, Rótolo used to be Santiago’s culture minister and to enjoy a high-figure salary, but now he is stuck at home with an anorexic daughter and a wife who cheats on him. He receives a phone call from the wife of the man his wife is sleeping with, but isn’t interested. He rings a sex line and then goes out to celebrate the Feast of St James.

In the fourth chapter, Amador Salgado is an Ourensan who has moved to Santiago, where he works as a cinema ticket-taker, but he loves to spend his time reading about Galician heroes that other people ignore in favour of stars from Madrid, heroes such as the bandit Pepa Loba, the actress Carolina Otero and the pirate Benito de Soto. His mother wishes that he would visit her more often, and then she would get to play the role of mother. In the fifth chapter, Ribeirao is a pickpocket outside Santiago Cathedral. He used to be in the tobacco business and to have the pick of the whores in Dona Carme’s bordello, who would be queuing up to be with him, but when his business went downhill and he lost his leg in a motorbike accident, things changed. He’s been reduced to begging from tourists. The local police decide to teach him a lesson and, since he’s a cripple, they transport him to the top of Mount Pedroso on the outskirts of Compostela, leaving him to make his own way back. He comes across a young woman in a ditch and decides to pee over her, only to find she leaps to her feet and takes his crutch away from him.

In the sixth chapter, Rótolo is chatting up a Belgian girl in a bar when his wife, Raida, appears on the arm of a cinema usher who looks just like him. There is then a text in italic, “The Apotheosis of Benito de Soto”, which narrates the infamous episode in the career of this Galician pirate when his ship, the Burla Negra, happened upon the British Indiaman Morning Star, which was carrying merchandise from Ceylon. This took place in 1828. The British ship was boarded, many of the crew were killed, and the women were raped. De Soto would later be captured and hanged in Gibraltar. Raida has gone back to the home of the cinema usher, Amador Salgado. She doesn’t think he has the resources to save her from the situation she is in, but her choices are limited. They dance for a time, and Amador wonders whether to make a move. Then Raida performs a striptease. The policeman who arrested Ribeirao and transported him to Mount Pedroso, Facundo, keeps a shotgun in the boot of his car and thinks about hunting wild boar, but he is too tired and falls asleep, until he is woken by the sound of a radio emitting the same programme Barabbas had called into, except that now the caller is someone pretending to be the priest of Encrobas.

The priest of Carme, Don Felisindo, has difficulty getting to sleep and so reads excerpts of a sermon in Latin. He is woken during the night by a commotion outside the rectory. It turns out to be the presenter of the radio programme, Helena Rodríguez, who asks if he has a telephone so she can call for a taxi. She is due on air very shortly. Rótolo’s daughter, Pamela, dreams of hooking up with famous actors and musicians like Keanu Reeves, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jim Morrison. She doesn’t have in mind someone like Basilio, who dresses like Che Guevara, but nor does she have much choice in the bar where she is hanging out and so she approaches him. They chat in the doorway of a building about a certain Mormon and his three wives. Pamela uses all kinds of chat abbreviations in their conversation to convey her meaning. Basilio suggests she might like to put on some weight, or else she’s going to get blown away.

There is then another text in italic, “The Apotheosis of Pepa Loba”, a mythical figure in Galicia who is reputed to have been a bandit in the nineteenth century, robbing local bosses and priests. She and her fellow outlaws, Primavera (her lover) and Nacho (a former manservant), have just robbed an alderman and taken refuge in a local inn, where they give the innkeeper a share of the spoils: some old clothes, a blanket and three sides of bacon. He would have preferred to receive some money. Pepa goes outside, and her two accomplices are murdered. She takes revenge on the murderers and then helps the innkeeper cook an omelette. Pamela offers Basilio her armpits to kiss, but Basilio prefers to approach a girl who has been let down by her girlfriend. He goes outside and hurls some bricks at a library, then at the offices of a newspaper. He comes across Devito Frade, and together the two men go into Alameda Park, which is empty at this hour, to make love on a park bench.

Ribeirao goes to the brothel in Pombal, where he is accustomed to sleep with Esperanza. He remembers the old days, when he had a Vespa with sidecar and two legs. Now he is a cripple who begs for a living. Esperanza takes him upstairs and washes the toes of his foot with a bottle of rum. While letting customers into the cinema, Amador Salgado imagines sleeping with a second married woman, Raida, after he has tried to do the same with an art teacher who was unhappily married to a bank clerk. He is so excited at the prospect that he goes down to the basement under the cinema and visits the sex shop. There then follows a third text in italic, “The Apotheosis of Carolina Otero”, Carolina Otero (also known as La Belle Otero) being a famous Galician actress, dancer and courtesan, in which the courtesan entertains a prostitute, trying to teach her the secrets of her profession. After a visit to a nightclub, Rótolo takes the Belgian girl, Denisse, to Cortegada Island, off the coast of Galicia, where he imagines divorcing his wife and marrying her. The sun rises, and he lets himself be photographed in front of the sea.

The radio presenter, Helena Rodríguez, is hanging out in a bar before going on air. She is with a friend who works as a supermarket cashier. It turns out Barabbas, the one who had phoned in the day before, is also in the bar. He chats up Helena and takes her for a ride in his car (which is also his hotel), but when he reveals his true identity to her, she tells him to stop the car and leaves in a fury. Raida performs fellatio on Amador Salgado in his home. They then fall asleep together, until Raida is woken by the smell of burning. There is a fire nearby. Amador dreams that it is the Morning Star in flames. Barabbas goes to a bar where he has business and talks to a woman who survived the attack by Caritá (who is now in prison). He has hidden her in a convent, so they can’t get to her, but she wants him to rescue her from there. The barman hires a woman to come around so they can have an orgy. The woman performs a striptease on the billiard table, and then the barman lifts a cripple who is there so he can have sex with her. Barabbas decides to leave. On his way back to the shack where he sleeps in a cardboard box, Ribeirao picks some blackberries, crushes them on a stone and makes some juice. He is dreaming about travelling on a tram when he is woken by the smell of smoke. The fire he has lit has set fire to the house where he is, and he falls unconscious.

There is then a fourth and final text in italic, “The Apotheosis of Manoel Nabiñeiro”, about a resistance fighter who took to the hills after the Spanish Civil War to fight against Franco. He visits a village with the intention of shooting the mayor. All the texts in italic are written by Amador Salgado, who believes that the people he writes about – the pirate, the bandit, the actress and the maquis – are worthy of praise. On the feast day of St James, which is also the National Day of Galicia, Basilio heads to Santiago Cathedral, where he pretends to be a worshipper. As he approaches the altar for communion, he releases a swarm of bees and then takes refuge in a confessional. Barabbas has just woken up in his car. He is planning to travel to Portugal that day, but before setting out, he learns in the newspaper that the attack he has ordered on Caritá in prison has been carried out. There are other reports of violence and killing, and Barabbas exclaims, “It’s a war, a fucking war!”

This is a lively and detailed take on contemporary life, set in Santiago, in the writer’s usual rich and florid style, which contains a host of cultural references. The Life Sublime is one of Bieito Iglesias’s best-known works and threads together the lives of various individuals – a drug dealer, an ex-minister, a cinema usher, a pickpocket, a radio presenter, a local policeman, a would-be revolutionary – against the backdrop of Galicia’s capital.