Book Summary and Reviews of I Made You Up Inside My Head by Marta Pérez-Carbonell

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Janine_S

Magical realism tells a story
A provocative exploration into the meaning of the stories we tell showing who we are and what we choose to believe.

Alicia, a Spanish woman living and working as a translator for a company called WorldTrans is required to work one week a month in Edinburgh. Boarding a train for her monthly trip, she meets Terence Milton, an American professor traveling with his student, Mick “Bo” Boulder, to Edinburgh to speak about his recently published book, Rocco, a fictionalized version of his friendship with a Swiss actor, Hans Haig. The critics have panned the book in America which is devastating to Milton. As he shares his story with Alicia and Bo, Alicia shares one as well about a haunting and cruel breakup with Daniel, her botanist boyfriend.

While the novel is written as a book within a book, the author has a concern about the reality we live and the reality we share with others. Alicia identifies with Hans Haig who feels betrayed by what Milton wrote about him. She feels there is more to Milton’s story than he is telling. The book ends with Alicia trying to find out what happened to Hans and his version of events.

This was a strangely beautiful read - that is, the author blends Milton’s fictional story of Hans with Alicia’s story. They sort of alternate in the telling but you sense there is a lack of honesty in one - Milton’s takes long to tell but Alicia’s is terse. In the structure the author has created - almost a stream of consciousness - I found myself getting confused at times. I think that’s my biggest criticism of the book. But the mystery surrounding Rocco’s terrible critical reception takes hold and as the reader you want to understand what happened.

My thanks to NetGalley and Riverhead Books for allowing me access to this ARC.