Connection

In Barcelona Dreaming, the author presents three narrative parcels, each of which might be regarded as its own distinct short story. Yet, over the course of the novel, the author knits these seemingly disparate sections and first person points of view into the same common narrative world. Minor characters from "The Giant of Sarrià," for example, become major players in "The King of Castelldefels" and "The Carpenter of Montjuïc." In this way, the author uses his approach to structure in order to formally enact his thematic interest in exploring the interconnection between human lives and unlikely events. In the scene from "The Giant of Sarrià" where Amy relays her relationship with Abdel to Mar, she says: "I started at the beginning . . . and then I just kept going, and though the story felt natural, the way one moment fed into the next, I could see that...