May 25, 2001

Peeling Back the Layers of a Touchstone of Spanish Culture

By PETER MONAGHAN

On the floor of Jacques Lezra's book-crammed office here at the University of Wisconsin is a bundle of papers that represents the rising star's latest, much-anticipated contribution to Spanish and comparative literature.

Reviewers described his first book in such terms as "unspeakably learned," an "astonishing intellectual voyage," and an "intertextual tour de force."

And as incredibly difficult to read, too.

But as he talks about his new project, he proves to be as