The
rise in popularity of the crime genre is demonstrated not only
by the increase in the number of that type of novels being published
but also by the proliferation of conferences, days, etc., all over
Spain. Resulting from one of them is this Manuscrito
criminal: Reflexiones sobre Novela y Cine Negro (Crime manuscript: reflections
on the crime novel and film noir), which brings together
the conclusions from the First Crime Novel and Film Noir Conference
held in May 2005 and organized by Salamanca University.
The book gives us the chance - both
those who were lucky enough to hear them live and those of us who
were not there - to enjoy the talks given and reflections shared
by the writers, students and aficionados of the genre who attended:
among them Lorenzo Silva, Román
Gubert, Mariano Sánchez Soler, José Antonio Pérez
Bowie, Juan Antonio Pérez Millán, Alicia Giménez
Bartlett and Paco Camarasa.
And so we can take a look at ‘The Film Noir and
genre theory' thanks to José Antonio Pérez Bowie's article;
appreciate the close connection between ‘Literature and Film
Noir ' through Román Gubert's eyes; read ‘Notes towards
a historical view of the Spanish crime novel' from Javier Sánchez
Zapatero's pen; move into neighbouring territory and explore ‘The
Francophone crime genre' with Alex Martín Escribá and
Mónica Rodríguez García; travel as far as Japan
with Beatriz Leal Riesco for ‘A glance at the eastern cinema of Yakuzas';
and discover the genre in Italy courtesy of the respective articles
by Laureano Núñez García and Yolanda Romano
Martín ‘Crime is yellow in Italian literature' and ‘From black
to yellow: the best of the Italian crime novel of recent years in
Spain'. Latin America is included in the roll-call thanks to Francisca
Noguerol Jiménez, and Manuel González de la Aleja looks
after material in English. Pedro Sangro Colón gives us an
idea of black film, looking at Perdición , and Juan
Antonio Pérez Millán offers us ‘Three examples of black
film: El sueño eterno, Sed
de mal and El
alquimista impaciente '. There are seventeen extremely interesting
articles, in which literature and films are central.
The book is completed by two samples
of current story-telling: Alicia Giménez Bartlett and Mariano Sánchez Soler take on
the job of concluding the volume with two of their works: ‘La voz
de la sangre' (Voice of blood) and ‘Para que no amanezca' (To stop
day dawning).
We should express our gratitude to
the two fans of the genre (Alex Martín Escribá and
Javier Sánchez
Zapatero) for their initiative, because thanks to their hard work
and determination we shall have the chance to enjoy not only the
Third Crime Novel and Film Noir Conference, a ‘must'
for lovers of the genre, but also publication of the second edition
of Manuscrito criminal,
which includes the proceedings of this year's conference, with an
analysis of the figure of the detective, the genre's archetypal character.
This is an interesting book that helps
us get closer to a genre ignored by academic institutions and explains
who's who in the world of the crime novel. We look forward immensely
to the appearance of the second Manuscrito criminal.
