Cuentos de Guerra

This book offers a typical "opera aperta," as Umberto Eco described similar texts, that is, a challenge that the author throws at the reader, providing him with a couple of keys to decipher the code and then leaving him alone and undisturbed to do his own work of reading and intelligent interpretation. Few things here are explicit or transparent; it is necessary to think, to reflect, to let oneself be carried away, and to tune one's feelings to the content. It is necessary to fill the empty spaces deliberately left by the author so that each reader has the possibility to form his own interpretation and reach his own understanding. If this is achieved, it is a real pleasure. In this aspect, literature will always surpass movies and television series, no matter how sophisticated and accomplished they may be since the reader, unlike the viewer, must do his own casting, look for locations, and compose his own music to accompany the scenes. He is a camera and director at the same time. In other words, he creates his own individualized world that he can then comment on, compare, and evaluate with other fellow readers. Each one, in the course of his reading, creates his own films, which may be somewhat or even quite different from each other.