Neus Canyelles: "If they had told us that we would spend the day criticizing everything, we would have found it very corny."

PalmWhere bewilderment meets lucidity: this is where the literature of Neus Canyelles (Palma, 1966) unfolds, who has just published a new book, a collection of stories Waiting rooms (Empúries). In one of them, she admits that she's not a big fan of promoting her books, but since this is her tenth, she says she's gotten used to it. "It's curious, though," she shares, "that the ten books I've written, all together on the shelf, don't even take up a foot of space. I don't know how to write long books."

A BewildermentThe third story in the book, which he's embarrassed to discuss, is one of those stories that makes him feel self-conscious. "But now a writer's life has become a series of commitments that can't be ignored, and you can find yourself answering any imaginable question and reading the strangest comments about what's printed in your collection of stories." How are you handling the promotion of this new book?

— [Laughs] Well, so far so good because we've only just started [Laughs]. Let's see, I'm managing as best I can. My mother had a phrase that I found very funny, she used to say "If it's not necessary, then no."I wish all this weren't necessary. But I've gotten used to it. Perhaps other people love it; some tell me they'd like to write just to do this part, and I tell them they could do it for me. Luckily, my editor, who's a very good person and knows me, already knows."

Once again, a series of concepts run throughout the book, as they do in his previous works, even though they are independent stories: loneliness, anguish, bewilderment. And these are concepts that also resonate with our time, not just his writing and experience.

— I'd never thought of it that way. For me, it's a way of seeing the world as if you understand nothing; it's from that perspective that I write and live. From the wonder that comes from not being able to understand what's happening around you, and from the fact that I understand it less and less each time. Perhaps it's an age thing, but it could be the other way around, that the older you get, the greater your capacity to understand. In my case, it's not. And not only do I understand nothing, but I'm becoming less and less interested in things.

Which ones are you not interested in at all?

— Social media, for example. I don't have it and I never will. For starters, because I'm lazy: I'm a very lazy person, and I know that's a cardinal sin [Laughs]. And besides, I'm not at all interested in knowing everyone's opinion on anything. Maybe social media is good for some people, but I have the feeling that it belongs to a parallel world that has nothing to do with me. I think back to when I was little and went to Sacred Heart School. If someone had told us that people would spend all day posting memes everywhere, we would have thought it was so corny! I don't understand this infantilization of the world today.

Compensate for the lack of interest you have in certain things with an enormous curiosity to explore certain everyday details that give rise to your stories and narratives, whether it's about a sick relative miles away or the dynamics of a public swimming pool.

— The things I write must be the very few that interest me, that matter to me, the ones I consider worth telling. I always focus on small things, like, for example, the last article I wrote, which was titled EscapeIt all started when I went to buy some tickets, my sister came with me, and I noticed all the signs advertising getaways: here, there… And I started thinking about this idea of ​​escaping, and I wrote about it in the article, which stemmed from that. When my sister read it, she told me she hadn't seen any of those signs! [Laughs]

In the case of this latest book, what binds everything together is that feeling of waiting that all the characters live with. There are some explicit waiting rooms, but it's as if their lives all unfold in a metaphorical one.

— I think that's how we live, between waiting and despair. And when we wait, we always hope for good things: you don't go to the doctor expecting to be told you have cancer, you hope they tell you it's nothing. And I liked that, that idea that there are different moments and waiting rooms throughout life.

And what do you expect from today's world, from the current situation?

— I suppose it's part of one's personality, and I'm rather pessimistic; I tend to see the glass half empty. That doesn't mean I don't have a sense of humor, or that I don't laugh a lot—I do. But I think we haven't had such a terrible situation since World War II. Perhaps it's bold of me to say that, but if you look closely, it affects everything.

For example?

— Look, this might sound like a doozy, but it used to rain a lot, and you weren't terrified. I remember coming home soaked many times, and now every time it rains, we're on high alert. There are alerts everywhere! I don't know if everything is getting worse or if they just want us to believe it is, but I think everything has become much more complicated. And the same goes for children; now we're overprotecting them. I don't know if we'll end up keeping them in glass cases. Maybe it's a consequence of this horrible world we live in, but I tell my daughter she's a survivor. According to current manuals, I did everything wrong. When I was pregnant, I ate tons of ham and drank Coca-Cola—I don't think I've ever drunk that much since!