— Jorge Volpi, author of In Search of Klingsor
"In The Mastermind, David Unger’s compelling
antihero reminds us of the effects of privilege and corruption, and how that
deadly combo can spill from the public to the private sphere. Unger’s Guillermo
Rosensweig is on a hallucinatory journey in which everything seems to go right
until it goes terribly, terribly wrong. I couldn’t put this down."
--Achy Obejas, author of Ruins
1 How did the possibility of translating the new book
come about?
In 2016, I published my most recent novel, The
Mastermind (New York: Akashic Books), which is based rather loosely on real
events that caused an existential crisis in Guatemala and almost brought down a
left-of-centre government in 2009. It’s a book that has been translated into
ten languages. At the time, I felt that I wanted to give back to my birthplace
in a unique way. Over the years, I’ve translated 16 books, so it seemed that I
should attempt to re-translate Guatemala's Nobel prize in literature author
Miguel Angel Asturias’s first and most powerful novel. I contacted the
Balcell’s Agency which gave me the green light, but due to some copyright
issues, I had to wait until 2022 to publish my translation of Mr. President
with Penguin Classics.
2. What do you think of the previous
translation by Frances Partridge? What problems were involved after the last
translation was over fifty years ago?
Partridge’s translation is mostly workman-like but
suffers, as I say in the introduction, with many Anglicisms and a failure to
recognize many Guatemaltequismos—particularly Guatemalan words and terms that
she didn’t fully understand. Mr. President is a very American novel, one that
lends itself to translation in the American vein. Words like “coppers,”
“blimey,” and “lorry” are acceptable terms in the English language but are not
inviting to North American readers. Further, she didn’t have a clue about
certain Guatemalan foods, birds and plants that have entered into the American
vernacular through the immigration of nearly 60 million Latin Americans into
the U.S. In some ways, she was hopelessly overmatched though I find that she
also came through with some lovely descriptions, a la Bloomsbury style.
3 What kind of research, historical or
otherwise, was involved?
Keith, I mostly tried to figure out what Asturias was
saying and concentrated fully on the Spanish text. The novel is a depiction of
the Estrada Cabrera regime (1898-1920) and mixes high and low language. There
are surrealist bursts and many indigenous Guatemalan terms. I worked with two
Guatemalan writers/friends who helped me decipher some 250 queries that I had.
Both love the work of Asturias and were, indeed, helpful. At times, we were all
stumped, and I had to make a leap of faith based on what I thought Asturias was
getting at. It is an amazing novel that has a very strong narrative push though
there are moments of exquisite descriptions. The Spanish version of Mr.
President carries a glossary of about 200 words to help readers, but I wanted
to create a version that wouldn’t pull the reader out of the novel to consult
with this glossary. This was the main purpose of my translation.
4 Could you explain the importance of Mr.
President in Latin American literature?
I am not the only one to say it—Mario Vargas Llosa
(Peru’s Nobel Prize novelist) and Gerald Martin (Asturias’s most important
scholar and the biographer of Garcia Marquez and soon Vargas Llosa)--, but Mr.
President is without question the most important Latin American novel of the
20th century. It introduced surrealism and magical realism into writing and, at
the same time, portrayed a dictator who poisons all aspects of society—the
social fabric, the legal system, friendship and love—in order to maintain his
power. The unnamed president of an unnamed country is only interested in his
power, his vanity and his machinations. Does it sound familiar? Let’s mention
Trump, Ortega and Bolsonaro. It is a novel that is really a rich tapestry of
Latin American life, infused with betrayal, violence and abuse.
5 Given the current situation in
Guatemala, would you not agree that the book's release is very prescient?
Definitely, all the reviewers in the Washington Post,
Harper’s Magazine, The NY Times, The New York Review of Books express their
astonishment about how accurate the novel is in depicting our Latin American
reality. Guatemala, in particular, is a dysfunctional country thanks to the
“Pacto de corruptos”—the Pact of Corrupt entities—that has a stranglehold on the
country. We had primary elections ten days ago, and by surprise, Bernardo
Arevalo—the son of what was a brilliant Guatemalan president in the 1940s—made
the August 20th runoff. The industrialists, military officers and
narco-traffickers are accusing him of being a Communist and that his Semilla
Party (Seed Party) wants to destroy capitalism, the Church, marriage, the
schools, tortillas, tamales, the volcanoes. Do you get my drift? These
megalomaniacs don’t want to give up an ounce of their power. It is disgusting.
But I believe that despite these forces of evil, he will succeed. He is a
centrist with good values, and, most important, he isn’t corrupt.
6 What are you working on now?
I am at the airport (my flight was delayed) on my way
to take part in the Guatemala International Book Fair (FILGUA). There I will
present the Spanish version of my children’s book Sleeping With the Lights On
(a fictionalized account of the U.S.-directed overthrow of Jacobo Arbenz in
1954) and discuss Mr. President with Miguel Angel Asturias’s son. I don’t think
I have another novel in me—I don’t have anything new to say—but I will continue
to write children’s books and translate. I’ve written four novels and, a
collection of short stories, 4 children’s books and translated nearly 20 books
from Spanish, and I am happy with what I have done.
About the Author
BY DAVID UNGER:
Sleeping With the Light On
CHILDRENS, 2020
The Mastermind
NOVEL, 2015
La casita
PICTURE BOOK, 2012
The Price of Escape
NOVEL, 2011
Para mi eres divina
NOVEL, 2011
Ni chicha ni limonada
SHORT STORIES, 2010
Life in the Damn Tropics
NOVEL, 2002
