¿Dónde está el libro? / Where is the book?
Review of the Eterna Cadencia Kindle eBook edition (2020) of the Eterna Cadencia paperback original (2019)

"La primera vez que T. Gautier vio Las meninas de Velázquez dijo: "¡¿Pero dónde está el cuadro!?". Es el mejor elogio que se le puede hacer a una obra de arte." - Enrique Vila-Matas.

"The first time T. Gautier saw Las meninas by Velázquez, he said: "But where is the painting¡?". That is the best compliment that can be paid to a work of art." - Enrique Vila-Matas.

I very much enjoyed Luis Sagasti's mixed fiction/non-fiction style in the recent English language translations by Fionn Petch in A Musical Offering (2017/2020) and Fireflies (2011/2018). I was so taken with them that I searched out Sagasti's other, still untranslated works. This led me to his most recent published work, Leyden Ltd. (2019), which seemed paradoxically to be quite readable / translatable for a non-Spanish reader as myself.

Leyden Ltd. is not a book in the conventional sense. It consists of 550 footnotes spread over 6 chapters. The actual body of the supposed book is missing and you therefore have to imagine its contents based only on the footnotes. There is an index provided which provides the clue that the complete book would consist of at least 487 pages, based on its highest-numbered page reference.

The reason I describe this as "readable", is that most of those footnotes are one-sentence statements that usually relate to the various artistic, musical, historical, geographical etc. themes that are characteristic of Sagasti. A few of them relate to more obscure avant-garde composers e.g. Stockhausen, but most are from easily identifiable culture/pop-culture e.g. The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Stanley Kubrick, Francis Ford Coppola, Emily Dickinson, etc. Some of the footnotes consist solely of photographic images.

So what is Leyden Ltd.? It is a secret organization, a sort of artistic Bilderburg Group or Illuminati. Its supposed leader (described as its general co-ordinator) is Paul Wilkes, whose excerpted diary entries make for a dozen or so of the footnotes. There are some fictional members named Matheson, Robinson and Pryce that are frequently mentioned. The fictional Robinson is described as being a photographer for the real-life graphic design firm Hipgnosis, famous for their record album covers for Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and others. Supposed members drawn from real-life include artist Jenny Holzer and members of Monty Python.

The ironic tone with which Eric Idle and Michael Palin of Monty Python denied that they belonged to Leyden Ltd. in the 1970s is very eloquent. - Footnote 14 from Chapter 6 of Leyden Ltd.

In any case, you have to imagine the book however you wish to, based on the clues of the provided footnotes. Your enjoyment will likely depend on how easily you can identify the references and their real life or fictional basis. For myself, I enjoyed it thoroughly and I hope that I'll see further Sagasti in translation soon.

To conclude, a favourite footnote and a clue* to decipher it:

Only twenty-four days separate the two most famous walks of the 20th century. - Footnote 112 of Chapter 3 of Leyden Ltd.

Other Reviews
Las micro ficciones de Luis Sagasti (The microfictions of Luis Sagasti) at Página/12 (May 24, 2020).

*Hint: The Beatles are discussed in several footnotes prior to this one. ( )