Los Peones Son El Alma del Juego / The Pawns Are the Soul of the Game

«Las horas pasaban como fuera de larealidad, en un espacio habitado por elrecuerdo y la locura, donde lo pret ritoestaba vivo y los difuntos eran esp ritusconcupiscentes. Un joven de dieciocho a os llega a la ciudad de M xico con la secreta intenci n de convertirse en poeta. Es el final de la d cada de los cincuenta. Al poco tiempo, comienza a involucrarse en la intensa vida cultural de la capital. As , se adentra en un mundo de talleres y tertulias, de complicidades sinceras y envidias a n m s hondas, caf s y torneos de ajedrez, de intrigas amorosas, vanidades y -a pesar o por encima de todo- de pasi n verdadera por la creaci n literaria. El joven habr de convertirse, efectivamente, en poeta y en uno de los protagonistas de la literatura mexicana del siglo xx. Tambi n, circularmente, en el autor de esta novela. Por ella pasan personajes que conoci de cerca, como gente cotidiana en un ambiente cotidiano, no como monumentos: Juan Jos Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo D vila, Gabriel Garc a M rquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Bu uel, Nahui Olin, entre muchos otros. Los peones son el alma del juego, obra que comenz como un diario secreto, es el vivo retrato del M xico de una poca. Es tambi n una l dica novela en la que el ajedrez opera como una met fora de la vida. ENGLISH DESCRIPTION "The hours passed as if separate from reality, in a space inhabited by memory and madness, where the past was very much alive and the deceased were sensual spirits." An eighteen-year-old young man arrives in Mexico City with the secret intention of becoming a poet. It is the end of the fifties. Before long, he begins to partake and be part of the intense cultural life the capital has to offer. Thus, he enters a world of workshops and gatherings, of genuine camaraderie but with even deeper jealousies, cafes and chess tournaments, love intrigues, vanities and --despite or above all--true passion for literary creation.

That young man would indeed become a poet and one of the protagonists of twentieth-century Mexican literature; and coming full circle, the author of this novel. Characters that he knew closely cross these pages as everyday people in an everyday environment, not as the literary greats they were: Juan Jos Arreola, Juan Rulfo, Octavio Paz, Elena Garro, Amparo D vila, Gabriel Garc a M rquez, Adolfo Bioy Casares, Philip Lamantia, Francisco Toledo, Luis Bu uel, and Nahui Olin, among many others. The Pawns Are the Soul of the Game, a work that began as his private diary, is the living portrait of Mexico of a past era. It is also a playful novel inwhich chess functions as a metaphor for life.