SanFermin 3

All rivers flow eventually to the sea. In the culminating volume of SanFermin 3 long drowned strands of the saga rise at last to the surface. Lives take new bearings. Gates open to unexpected avenues: the worlds of politics, television and accidental media fame. Prisoners are freed; children are born; the Camino continually beckons. Time and change are more and more to be reckoned with. For the bulls keep their same speed forever while each year the runners lose a step.
In a post cold war 21 st century world the stakes are complicated. Many of the habituals find themselves directly engaged in the fall out of both man made conflicts and natural calamities. From the sunken wrecks of Bikini Atoll to the ruins of Belchite. From the Towers to Katrina. Journeys and escapes from Iran to Afghanistan. From abandoned ghost towns in the Inyo range to a boat stranded on the immense Pacific. Revisiting old haunts to wind back the clock. Rekindling old embers in order to alter the old outcomes and perhaps come to different answers.
Scanning the past to make sense of the present, the narrative weaves and shuttles from the early 50’s to the late 60’s and onwards to the challenges of a remorselessly altering world. The threats of terrorism abroad and at home. The speedily expanding web of the Internet, smart phones and drone surveillance. Navigating through the multiplying and unseen consequences. Trying to chart voyages into the future. Clinging on. Letting go.
Through it all, as the cuadrilla hold to the lifeline of fiesta, San Fermin keeps the covenant. The wheel still turns. The tales get told. As some leave the stage, new faces appear. The dance goes on. Giants still waltz and bulls still run in the streets as they did before the wondering eyes of a young American writer all those years ago.