First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Juan knows almost nothing of his father Ranz’s interior life. But when Juan marries, he’s compelled to consider the past anew and to ponder what he doesn’t really want to know. As family secrets – their possible convenience, their ultimate price, and even their possible civility – hover, A Heart So White becomes a sort of anti-detective story of human nature. Intrigue; the sins of the father; the fraudulent and the genuine; marriage and strange repetitions of violence; Marías elegantly sends shafts of inquisitor light into shadows and onto the costs of ambivalence as it chronicles the relentless power of the past.

Happy Friday, everyone! We have just completed yet another workweek. Finally, it is the weekend! With this, I hope you ended the workweek on a high note. I hope you were able to tick off all the items on your to-do list, or at least made significant progress on them. It is now time to dress down and let your hair down. It is now time to slow down and dive into the weekend. Ditch those drab corporate clothes and wear something more comfortable. Don’t forget to give yourself a pat on the back for making it through the workweek. It is time to have some fun and take a rest. I hope you get to spend the weekend doing things you’re passionate about, spending it with the people you love, and/or completing your errands. Thankfully, the rain here in the Philippines has slowed down. There are still occasional heavy downpours, but they are not as severe as they were at the start of the week. I hope everyone keeps themselves warm and dry. I hope everyone is doing well, both in body and spirit.

Time is zooming past us. It simply takes its natural course, flowing with no regard for anyone. Just like that, we are already in the last Friday or Saturday of the seventh month of the year. In a couple of days, we will be welcoming the eighth month of the year already. How has your year been? I hope 2025 is treating everyone with kindness. I hope that it is bringing you favors and guiding you closer to your goals and aspirations. With a little over five months remaining, I hope the rest of the year will shower everyone with good tidings, kindness, and overall positive energy. I hope you get to finish all your projects or endeavors or hit your target before the year ends. If your year has been difficult, I hope the coming months will be better. The coming months beckon with hope. But if you’re still figuring things out, take your time. May positive energy, blessings, and good news flow into your life in the months ahead.

With the end of the workweek comes a fresh First Impression Friday update. First Impression Friday has become a constant in my book blogging. It is the perfect way to cap the blogging week. This month, I have been immersing myself in the works of European writers. This comes after I spent the first half of the year reading exclusively works of Asian writers; the only exception is Richard Powers’ Playground, which is the first book I read this year. The journey has been great so far. I have explored new worlds while being reintroduced to familiar territories. Among the several European writers who have long piqued my interest is Spanish writer Javier Marías, whom I first encountered through must-read lists. To be fair, a lot of the writers I know now I first came across in these must-read lists.

In 2022, I read my first novel written by Marías, Berta Isla. It was a good primer to his oeuvre. However, one title has long tickled my imagination – plus it was personally recommended to me by a friend. A Heart So White is listed in several must-read lists. It is one of the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die list. This made it imperative for me to read the book. Almost a decade since I first encountered it, I finally have the chance to read it. Originally published in 1992 as Corazón tan blanco, the novel was translated into English by Margaret Jull Costa (1995). I just learned that the book earned Marías the International Dublin Literary Award in 1997. It has earned quite a few accolades.

The story is narrated by an anonymous narrator. We would eventually learn that he is a translator for various organizations, primarily the United Nations. However, the object of his inquiry was his father Ranz’s marriages. The narrator himself was recently married to Luisa, a fellow interpreter/translator. The novel opens with the narrator recreating the death, rather the suicide, of Ranz’s second wife, Teresa. During a family dinner shortly after their honeymoon, Teresa got up from the table and went to the bathroom. In the bathroom, she took a gun and shot herself. There were no clear indicators as to the reason for her suicide. It was one of the mysteries that baffled the narrator. He was only learning of these details through his wife, who was close to his father.

Now seventy, Ranz remains a charismatic character. He is also a charming art dealer. However, he has been an object of enigma for his son. As Luisa conveys to her husband more details of his father’s life, the narrator is at once intrigued and in a quandary. Does he really want to know his father’s past? Several interesting details naturally pique not only the narrator’s curiosity but also the readers. For one, the existence of Ranz’s first wife was kept from his son. She died in Cuba; interestingly, Luisa and the narrator’s honeymoon was in Havana. This echoes the same circumstances surrounding Teresa’s death. Further, Juana was Teresa’s sister. Everything seems to be connected in one way or another, and the narrator is trying to connect these dots, or at least try to make sense of them.

The opening chapters of the novel paint a portrait of the narrator’s seemingly dysfunctional family. It also reintroduced me to Marías’ long paragraphs. The first chapter was one long paragraph. Berta Isla was the same. Second, the story comes across to me as a stream-of-consciousness. I guess this is the effect of the long paragraphs. I don’t mind, though. Speaking of Berta Isla. It seems that Marías has a compunction for conspiracies and mysteries. A Heart So White palpably explores dysfunctional families and how family secrets can undo familial relationships. The narrator, however, does feel detached. But I guess this is also a part of the intrigue. For now, I am looking forward to how the story progresses. How about you, fellow reader? What book or books have you read over the weekend? I hope you get to enjoy whatever you are reading right now. Happy weekend!