Historias del Kronen (novel)

Historias del Kronen is the first novel by Madrid-born Spanish author José Ángel Mañas, with which he was a finalist for the Premio Nadal in January 1994. Published by Spanish publishing house Ediciones Destino in 1994—when the author was only 23 years old, and which he claims he wrote in only 15 days —it is the first book by the author in the so-called "Kronen Tetralogy," along with Mensaka, Ciudad rayada, and Sonko95. It was adapted to the screen by director Montxo Armendáriz in 1995 and translated both into German—Die Kronen-Bar—and into Dutch. The novel has been considered a success and a best seller. Literarily speaking, it belongs to Generation X.

Detailed description of the plot
The novel takes place during the month of July 1992 in the city of Madrid. Carlos is the main protagonist. He's a young university student, barely 21 years old, who is described as a "spoiled brat," self-centered, and lacking empathy, whose life revolves only around alcohol, drugs, and sex. He often meets his friends at the Kronen, his favorite (fictitious) bar, located in the novel in the vicinity of Francisco Silvela Street in Madrid. In the book, he is described as a sociopath. Carlos experiences a progressive process of isolation, alienation, and "solipsistic introversion" that eventually leads to the novel's climax, in which the death of one of his friends—Fierro, a diabetic who has a weak personality and whom the gang believes is a homosexual, apart from a masochist—takes place at his own birthday party, resulting from being forced to drink a bottle of whisky through a funnel and putting cocaine on his penis, which leads to a fatal overdose.

Structure and style


The book's original cover included a silk-screen printing of Andy Warhol's 5 Deaths on Orange (Orange Disaster)—a crashed car with the dead body of a woman underneath it. The novel opens and ends with the lyrics from Giant, a song by British band The The. Narrated in the first person—through Carlos's point of view— it stresses the dizzying, very fluid rhythm, thanks to the dynamic dialogue that makes up most of the novel, alternated with narrated fragments. The visual component of the novel has also been praised.

In order to emphasize the fleeting and frivolous nature of the novel's narrative, the author makes use of the resource of inserting strings of location names, in which he omits verbs or articles, or even pronouns. Historias del Kronen is also characterized by the precise description of the place where the action unfolds, mentioning real places around Madrid, such as the Plaza del Dos de Mayo square, the Parque de las Avenidas park, the Las Ventas bullfighting ring, or the Gran Vía street, among others. The style used by Mañas in the book has been referred to as slightly monotonous. Despite this, he manages to reach a point of narrative tension by the end of the novel. This ending, which culminates in Fierro's death—one of Carlos's friends—has been praised by its original style in the form of a monologue. One hallmark of the narrative is also the constant recurrence to slang expressions used by young people, by putting them in the mouths of the protagonists. In this sense, some of the terms that stand out include the constant use by Carlos of the offensive term cerdas to refer to women; neologisms; or the appearance of colloquialisms that refer to the world of drugs, such as: costo, chocolate, tripi,, farlopa, or nevadito. The use of offensive or dysphemistic expressions is common in the slang used by the young people in the novel. Mañas also resorts to the insertion of numerous musical references in the book, even including song lyrics by bands such as The The, Nirvana (Come as You Are and Drain You), Siniestro Total (Bailaré sobre tu tumba), or Los Ronaldos (Sí, sí).

Context and influences
Historias del Kronen represents the conversion of the U.S. cultural concept of Generation X to the Spanish society. In fact, it has been considered one of the definitive novels of this generational movement in Spain, which has been called, precisely, "Generation Kronen." The novel is considered to be neo-realist in style.

It has been compared to Douglas Coupland's Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture—the novel that popularized the term Generation X—and it has even been mentioned that it could be its "Spanish version." On the other hand, it has been said that Historias del Kronen contains parallelisms with Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (1926), Carmen Laforet's Nada (1945), or Juan Marsé's Últimas tardes con Teresa (1966), as well as Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio's El Jarama (1955), due to the realism of these novels. Mañas even agreed with this latter comparison, although, according to him, the style is profoundly different. The author has also spoken about the supposedly strong resemblance that Historias del Kronen has with Bret Easton Ellis's Less than Zero (1985), saying that both are different as the nature of the former is menos descriptivo y más hosco, as well as more abierto socialmente, apart from claiming that he hadn't read Ellis's first novel before he wrote Historias del Kronen. Mañas mentioned Warhol, Camus's L'Étranger, and Raymond Carver as his main influences.

Criticism
Positive reviews highlight Mañas's "amazing" ability to capture the language of young people and to use it to set each character apart. The book was very well received by readers thanks to its "authenticity." However, the book has received very mixed reviews, with critics pointing out its supposed nature as a novela cutre, as well as its realismo sucio, in a pejorative sense, and also drawing attention to its alleged imitation of the dirty realism that originated in the United States. It has also been said about the book that, by enhancing realism in the narration of the facts as a sort of social commentary, it runs the risk of being only a superficial imitation of the society it is attempting to describe. More critical authors point out that the narration consists of an "endless reiteration of inane conversations" among the characters and the lack of "substance" of the novel, filled with "an incessant chattering, a bit crude, full of unoriginal phrases and conventionalisms." In any case, Historias del Kronen sold more than 100,000 copies, which represented an unprecedented success in Spanish literature at the time.

Analysis and themes


The novel portrays young people in 1990s Spain, the vacío existencial and isolation of many of them, and their characteristic disillusionment at failing to find their place in the world, with a pessimistic view of existence and the human condition—common aspects in Generation X writers— added to a perspective influenced by nihilism. Sexuality is an essential theme in Mañas's work, describing sexual relations between his characters in a manner that is explícita y desinhibida. Several of the male characters that appear in Historias del Kronen display a negative view of homosexuality, in contrast to the revelation about the homosexuality of one of them—Roberto—and the potential bisexuality of Carlos, the main character. Also palpable in the novel is the way that la presión social serves to shape the sexual conduct of the novel's characters. Carlos stresses the importance of the culture of TV, films, and visual media in detriment to poetry and literature. "Cualquier película, por mediocre que sea, es más interesante que la realidad cotidiana. Somos los hijos de la televisión, como dice Mat Dilon en Dragstorcauboi."



The non-profit association Fundación para el Progreso de Madrid chose the novel as one of the ten books that best portray the city. The author himself described the book as Kronen era un Madrid visto a través de la ventanilla de un coche que circula por la Emetreinta, referring to Madrid motorway M-30 and highlighting its symbolism and that of peri-urban areas in the novel. The book also highlights the superficial nature of all of Carlos's relationships, with his characteristic inability to develop empathy towards his surroundings and a behavior referred to that of an alpha male. Moreover, the novel stresses the generational gap between Carlos and his family. The character of Carlos's grandfather functions as a showcase and reflection of the evolution of women throughout the 20th century, precisely through the way he clings to the defense of traditional family values, and women's break with traditional patriarchy which, however, female characters in the novel such as Amalia or Nuria—both of whom are friends of Carlos and who at first are introduced as independent women that break the moldes de género— do not manage to overcome completely. The novel mentions the films The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, and A Clockwork Orange, as well as Bret Easton Ellis's novel American Psycho, which Carlos claims to be a fan of and ultimately seem to give shape to his misogynistic and violent behavior. Mañas has admitted that Historias del Kronen has a certain autobiographical component.

Film adaptation


A film based on the novel, directed by Montxo Armendáriz, was released in 1995. One of the main differences between the book and the film is the evolution of the character of Carlos—played by Juan Diego Botto—who, while in the novel does not evolve or improve in any way, in the film does experience in the end a sort of reshuffling of his moral values, possibly due to being affected by his grandfather's death, apart from demonstrating a certain concern for his friends. Thus, in general, he turns out to be a more humane and compassionate person than the character in Mañas's book.

In the movie, the novel's ending monologue is replaced by a sequence seen through a video camera that is passed around all the people present at the party, in which Pedro's death—Fierro, in the novel—becomes a sort of snuff film. The movie was criticized for its slightly moralistic tone. It depicts situations that are not present in Mañas's book, such as one scene in which Carlos steals money from his mother and lets the blame fall on the maid, as well as the most emblematic and well-known scene in the movie—included in the poster—in which two youngsters hang from a bridge over the Paseo de la Castellana thoroughfare in Madrid on a dare to see who lasts the longest. Likewise, the harshness of some comments appears to have been toned down in the film which, in a sense, is an edulcorada version of the book.

Sequel
In 2019, Mañas published La última juerga, a sequel to Historias del Kronen.

References in music
The novel is mentioned in the song Luis XIV by Spanish rapper Mitsuruggy, from his 2014 album The Coach.