Jordi Canal Artigas: Literature at point-blank range

He arrives at dusk because, he confesses, "in the morning I don't know, nor do I answer" and, after putting out his Dunhill, his brand since he can't get his beloved Craven 'A', he immediately asks for "a very dry dry martini". Although then he thinks about it for a moment, while he dwells on the notes of his adored Avec le temps by Léo Ferré and, finally, sensing that there will be good conversation, he rectifies: "Well, make it two."

"I would say that, basically, I am a reader. I like to read, I love to read... This led me to the world of libraries and to being a librarian. I have worked thirty-eight years in public libraries and, in La Bòbila, in L'Hospitalet, I was able to combine my profession with my passion for the crime and detective genre. Can you ask for more?" explains Jordi Canal Artigas.

He is one of the highest authorities in popular and crime novels in our country, co-author, along with Àlex Martín Escribà, of the essential volumes of A Quemarropa (AlRevés): a detailed history of the crime novel, of which the eagerly awaited second installment is being published these days. "This work has taken Àlex and me eight years of reading, conversations, reflections, and discussions to achieve two volumes of popularization for restless readers. I prefer restless readers to dummies."

As director of La Bòbila, Jordi created the reference collection of popular novels in Spain, with the invaluable help of the late writer Francesc Caudet: "A collection that offers the possibility of consulting more than 4,000 copies of bolsilibros by the most important authors of this genre." An imposing work that serves as a guide for any fan of Pulp cooked here.

--I imagine you must be very proud of your work at La Bòbila.

--Yes, it was a dream come true to create a library with a strong specialization, which not only contained new releases, but also collected a good part of the most outstanding publications of the last seventy years.

Rapture in black and yellow

One day, a very young Jordi Canal witnessed "the appearance of a La Cua de Palla book in the window of a bookstore in my town, Berga." Captivated by that design characterized by "the power of black and yellow colors," the hallmark of the mythical collection directed by ---the no less mythical--- Manuel de Pedrolo for Edicions 62, Jordi acquired that book and there began an idyll with the crime novel "that lasts until today."

Years later, always in a one-on-one with Àlex Martín, he would write the definitive study on the subject: La Cua de Palla: retrat en groc i negre.

Another turning point he remembers with special affection was when he started working in libraries: "I was in Cardona for a little over a year. Reading The Name of the Rose in front of Cardona Castle, with snow falling, created an incredible climax." And he smiles, under his eloquent mustache.

Eighteen years later, he applied for the competition to direct La Bòbila after having traveled to Paris to visit the BILIPO (Bibliothèque des Littératures Policières). "I came back from there with a project: to merge the neighborhood library with a specialization, to mix audiences, to be a pole of attraction for fans and specialists, to create a need where there wasn't one, to disseminate and promote the crime and detective genre." The grade for his management – which includes having promoted the magazine and the prestigious literary competition, L'H Confidencial – is never less than an honors degree.

Carvalho and Méndez's Barcelona

"For me, Barcelona is a city of choice. I was born in Berga and, at seventeen, I came down to study here and this is where I stayed. I find it hard to imagine living anywhere else. I like Rambla de Catalunya, some wonderful passages, the Raval. I like this mixed city that, moreover, is not very big."

An expert in the streets of the heroes of Barcelona noir, Montalbán's (and Zanón's) Pepe Carvalho and González Ledesma's (and González Torralba's) Méndez, Jordi Canal abhors "a city that is a theme park for tourists, how provincial we have become, the disappearance of emblematic places converted into cardboard franchises."

And, after a few seconds, he anticipates what, perhaps, reading between the lines, could be an idea launched about his possible next work: "I miss a good guide to Pepe Carvalho's Barcelona, with photographs from the time of the many places that existed, bars, restaurants, and that have now disappeared."

--Yes, a guide to that city that was before its Olympic festivities. That would be great.

--I suppose we all have our sentimental geography, mine was there.