The Speed of Light.

Cercas, Javier (author).

A novelist strongly resembling Cercas (they’ve written the same books and lived in the same places) recounts this cautionary tale of mishandled success foretold by Rodney Falk, a fellow teaching assistant at the University of Illinois. When the young writer achieves literary acclaim back in his native Spain, his monstrous ego soon destroys everything of importance to him. Grasping for purchase in the world, he attempts to track down his old classroom comrade and perhaps tell his story. He even tries the Vietnam vet’s life on for size but finds it doesn’t fit the way he imagined it might. They’ve both committed unspeakable atrocities, and Cercas explores what it is to rebuild amid the psychic rubble. He playfully suggests writing may hold the seeds of salvation as well as destruction. As Rodney puts it, “If you don’t yet know what you want to say but you’re crazy enough or desperate enough or brave enough to keep writing, you might end up saying something that only you can come to know, and that might be of interest.” Indeed.