Tom Spanbauer: In the City of Shy Hunters. New York: Grove Press, 2001. [Versión castellana La ciudad de los cazadores tímidos. Poliedro editorial, 2006.]

Esta novela de Spanbauer es una variante de la sabiduría mágica y el misticismo que encontramos en la obra de Hermann Hesse. La liberación del cuerpo y la mente nos lleva detrás de las apariencias, allí donde todo adquiere sentido. Es una propuesta interesante en medio de tanta floritura estilística y anécdota trivial del postmodernismo. Hay ocasiones en que su versión de Hesse resulta demasiado previsible (o new age)  y otras donde impacta con fuerza. Aquí dos ejemplos:

LA is the me city, Ruby said, and New York es the you city. In LA it’s fuck me. In New York it’s fuck you. Adopt the attitude. It’s all in the face. Mostly in the eyes.

Like this, Ruby said. Ruby’s eyes were looking right at me, but they were more like looking through me: no smile, his lip curled up, his nostrils in and out.

New York drop-dead fuck you, Ruby said.

(…) It’s like you’re alredeady dead and you wish everybody was dead too.

New York drop-dead fuck you. Ruby said.

(pp. 27-28)

I am very shy, Rose said.(…)

The Shy Hunter is terrified that others will destroy the truth within his heart, Rose said, And so the Shy Hunter armors himself.

No one surprises a Shy Hunter, Rose said. Not even death, because the Shy Hunter has covered his ass and, thus armored, he watches and waits and studies meticulously, hunting the world for prey. (…)

Prey not in the sense of devouring or murder, Rose said, But prey in the sense of hunting for the sore truths within another human heart. Prey for truth, Rose said.
(p. 133-134)

Recomendable, aunque algo menos que sus dos primeras novelas: Faraway places, The Man Who Fell In Love With The Moon.