uncertain forgotten unnameables

In praise of the novel
Author Carlos Fuentes on Cervantes, Kafka, and the saving grace of literature.

An uncertain place: a forgotten village in an insolated province of Spain. An un-namable place… An uncertain author… Uncertain names…

Places, names, authorship, all is uncertain in Don Quixote. And uncertainty is compounded by the great democratic revolution wrought by Cervantes and which is the creation of the novel as a common place, lieu commun, lugar común, that is, the meeting place of the city, the central plaza, the polyforum, the public square where everyone has a right to be heard but no one has the right to exclusive speech.