Introduction

Fragmentos de interior was written in three months, from January to March 1976, and was published by Destino the same year. It was submitted to the censorship office on 7 June 1976 and was authorized without cuts on 9 June. The censor's report in this case details the family's living arrangements, describing ‘una familia anormal’ (an abnormal family), a family ‘en la que domina un ambiente influenciado por las corrientes actuales de plena libertad’ (in which an atmosphere influenced by the current trends of absolute freedom dominate). The censor highlights the lesson to be extracted from the novel: ‘La parte positiva de la novela, aparte de su calidad literaria, es el demostrar una vez más que la desunión de los cabezas de familia lleva al desastre’ (the positive part of the novel, besides its literary quality, is in demonstrating once more that the separation of the heads of families leads to disaster). The only section to cause some concern was the reference to terrorist trials, though the censor points out that this reflects what has already been published in a certain section of the press and, therefore, is not worthy of censure. The censor's reservations about society reflect the conservatism of the now rudderless regime, but there is a recognition in the very act of authorizing this novel of the changes that were afoot.

Fragmentos de interior is set in the time and place in which it was written: Madrid in 1975. It accurately depicts the city as it experiences a period of change and expansion and explores relationships – social, familial and amorous – in a fast-changing society. This society is viewed with the fresh eyes of Luisa, the servant girl whose arrival in and departure from Madrid three days later mark the beginning and end of the novel. As with Los parentescos, the very structure of the bourgeois family at the centre of Fragmentos de interior is evidence of a society transformed: the parents, Diego and Agustina, are separated and Diego lives with his new partner, Gloria. His daughter, Isabel, also lives with them, while his son, Jaime, stays occasionally.