Sergi Pàmies: "The novel is monogamous and the short story is polygamous"

BarcelonaThe writer Sergi Pàmies (Paris, 1960) has published Three analog novels (Cuadernos Crema), a new volume that brings together the works The first stone, The instinct and Sentimental, which also contains an unpublished prologue. In this prologue, the author explains his predilection for short stories, which he has been able to accommodate more naturally in his life, with different titles published over the years. "The novel is monogamous and the story polygamous," he said in a meeting with different media reported by ACN, and added that a novel requires more time and dedication. Pàmies has also recognized that the book has been for him an exercise "in memory" in which he has recognized himself more with "the writer" than with the "person" of that time.

According to Pàmies, grouping the three novels in a single book has been more of an editorial decision. On the one hand, to make it easier for the three titles not to be out of print at some point, but also to vindicate this facet of the writer, much better known for his short stories than for his novels. In fact, Pàmies has made it clear that what connects the three novels is only "the author and the moment", since all three are presented in different ways.

The three titles chosen are The first stone, published in 1990; The instinct, which came out two years later, in 1992; and Sentimental, which arrived in bookstores in 1995. More than three decades after the first, revisiting them has been experienced as a sort of "trip to the past" to discover an author with "a different energy." "Among the things that have surprised me is the fact that he was a more strict writer in terms of style - Pàmies has admitted -; I did not expect to discover that over the years I have gained freedom."

In parallel, Pàmies wanted to highlight the role that the writer Quim Monzó had for the authors of his generation, to whom he paved a way. "He renewed a language model that did not exist and filled it with an audience. He did not claim to be modern, but he was totally modern and today I miss him," he said.

An introduction about good and bad experiences

In the new edition of the three novels, small corrections have been made and a prologue written by the author himself in October 2024 has been incorporated, in which he talks about the good and bad experiences he has had with the novel and how, often, the absence of this genre has led him to make plots that have worked very well for the cones. He has also reflected on the needs that go along with the novel, such as having time. "The novel is more jealous, possessive... on the other hand, the story is more promiscuous, and that at the time made it possible for me to house it better within my personal life," he explained, and gave the example of the birth of his children.

The prologue of Three analog novels It brings together some failed experiences, such as the one the author had with a novel that was to be told We are getting to know each other and which ended up being deleted, but from which some ideas emerged for a collection of stories that he did publish: The art of wearing a trench coat (2018). Pàmies is eager to continue writing and feels that he still has a lot left to say. "If I can write a novel that convinces me, I will write it, and I will also continue writing short stories," he said. In this sense, he said that during the last few years he has been writing texts without knowing whether they were short stories or novels, and that it depends on many things what they end up becoming in the end.