Fernando J grants me an interview. Muñez, who just posted Castamar's cook (Planet). Múñez began writing his first novel when he was fourteen years old., and his first film scripts at eighteen. After graduating in philosophy, He began his career as a director in advertising while directing his first short films, completing his academic training in Cinematography in the United States. In 2012 directed the feature film The Norns, shown at the Alicante festival and the Seminci of Valladolid. Castamar's cook, why I ask you, It is his first novel. GINÉS J. VERA
Since he has extensive experience in children's and young people's books, when approaching the narrative construction of this novel - a great novel, if I may-, What has been brought from those youthful stories to this, aimed at an adult audience?
Thanks for the great novel. The children's and youth books that I have made all these years, It has nothing to do with the novel. They are books of pop up or even stories, but nothing close to a youth or children's novel. However, Yes, I have borrowed the type of equiscient narrator from the youth novels that I read in my adolescence., mainly from the fantastic narrative, where it is widely used. He is a type of narrator that allows me to be very attached to the characters., and they are the ones who express opinions or who believe or stop believing things. Besides, He is a narrator who connects very well with readers because, without becoming a first-person narrator, the reader has the feeling of being inside the thoughts, sensations, passions, of each character and allows you to empathize with them very quickly.
The young Clara, the (indisputable) female protagonist of this novel, suffers agoraphobia due to a traumatic family event, How was this detail proposed to incorporate it into your character?? Briefly tell readers how it will affect Clara in the different conflicts that will take place in the mansion where she works.?
Agoraphobia is a disease that produces a deep terror of open spaces and this was what allowed me to make Clara Belmonte's kitchen much more than a workplace.. For her it is the world where she lives, It is the safe place to take refuge and also the space that allows you to realize your passion. This fact made Clara's small world, could focus on a microuniverse that was the kitchen, the colors of spices, its aromas, its hidden flavors, the secrets of cooking, etc. On the other hand, of her illness I was attracted by the fact that she herself does not know what is happening to her, She only knows what happens to her when she goes out into open spaces and is invaded by weakness., dizziness and sees how the immensity surpasses her.
Logically at the beginning of the s. 18th century medicine was not developed as it is now; I still had a significant load of erroneous assumptions such as “bathing is not good” “fruit is inadvisable”, let alone mental illness, that until the s. XIX they did not begin to be investigated and even less to be treated adequately. If not many years ago homosexuality was seen as a disease, or even mental illnesses were misdiagnosed, like ADD (attention deficit disorder), Let's imagine what it meant to have a type of disorder like agoraphobia in those days.
Precisely for this, she must keep this illness a secret. If it became known, she would most likely be fired immediately., Well, no one would want to have a service girl with a nervous illness of that type.. We have to understand that a girl her age, Without a husband and without a job, she had few prospects for survival.. That is why she must manage to try not to go out to the outside patio or flower beds and to hide her illness as much as possible.. This secret will play a fundamental role in the development of events.
Clara's culinary gift will be capital in the future of her life and the plot of this emotional novel.. There is much more than a story of love and adventure in The Cook of Castamar. From the beginning, between Don Diego, Duke of Castamar, and the sensory language of food is transformed into a kind of secret language that will feed something deeper..
Indeed, Clara's recipes will become a secret language between her and the duke, a language that will be loaded with details and exquisite tastings that will allude to the senses. This communication, besides, will have the unconscious connivance of a large part of the service. The food ushers, the sommelier, even the butler will be, without knowing it, those who will carry the secret messages of gratitude and dedication between both. This will be the beginning of a very intense and special kind of relationship., which has as a backdrop the classist and judgmental society of the s. XVIII. This relationship, Clara being the duke's cook, places her in a dangerous position for her honor and her survival. Until then I can read.
There is no doubt about the unique relationship between literature and cinema.. In this case, to appeal to readers to delve into The Cook of Castamar due to affinity to perhaps similar arguments. perhaps evoking, bridging the logical distances, a The dangerous friendships de Stephen Frears, or the British series Up and down.
Without a doubt, there is a very important part of my way of narrating that I owe to movies and series.. The dangerous friendships, both Frears' adaptation and Chordeclos' book, as well as the type series Up and down o Dowton Abbey; the novels and small screen adaptations of Pride and prejudice, to give another example, They are references that one takes into account when writing. Even if you distance yourself from them, They are always in that imaginary of the things that you liked and that in some way you capture in your works..
