Eli Evans celebrates Spain, translates Millás

From Eli Evans, in n + 1

In honor of Spain’s World Cup victory, n+1 contributor Eli S. Evans introduces and translates a Juan José Millás column from El País:

On Sunday Spain’s soccer team won the World Cup for the first time, initiating a nationwide party that will probably last through the week. While such a victory, and the resulting celebration, may indeed lift spirits from Barcelona to Madrid, it will not change the fact that, thanks to some two decades of rampant real estate speculation and unregulated lending, Spain finds itself in the midst of arguably its worst economic crisis since the end of the Franco dictatorship. With that rather cruel irony in mind, I offer a translation of an El País column by Juan José Millás, published exactly one week before the World Cup opening ceremony. Among Spain’s most celebrated contemporary novelists, Millás is no less celebrated for his work as a literary journalist. He is known for his deceptively simple, mercilessly incisive commentaries on politics and daily life.

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