“El misterio de la cripta embrujada” by Eduardo Mendoza

“El misterio de la cripta embrujada” is a book written by the catalane Eduardo Mendoza in 1979. It is

the time of the Spanish transition to democracy after Franco’s death on 1975. For many Spaniards the nightmare was over, and the intellectual community recovered its voice to speak out. They didn't have to use literary resources anymore to hide their critical point of view about Spain. Finally, after so many years of censorship and repression, they were free to speak their mind without fear.

The plot is presented in first person by an urban pícaro (rogue) in a way that recalls to “El Lazarillo de Tormes”. Having a pícaro telling his own story in first person is not something new in the twentieth century Spanish Literature, “La familia de Pascual Duarte” (1942) by Camilo José Cela is clear an example. But what is fresh about Mendoza's novel is his humor. Although we still find misery and poorness, the criticism is brought through a sense of humor that makes the reader constantly laugh. Somehow, this humor reminds me of some pre-war novels like Gómez de la Serna’s “El caballero del hongo gris”.

“El misterio de la cripta embrujada” has many comments about the historical moment which Spain was going through right after Franco's death. Kalen R. Oswald explains in the article “An Urban Pícaro in Transitional Barcelona: Eduardo Mendoza's El misterio de la cripta embrujada and El laberinto de las aceitunas”, that this book reveals “essential details about the urban experience of Barcelona during the Transition to democracy” (32). María José Giménez Micó brings to our attention in her book “Eduardo Mendoza y las novelas españolas de la transición” that Mendoza’s books open a dialogue with History trying to understand reality. Also, she points out that this author offers a different perspective of Catalonia, caricaturing the construction of nationalist identities.