In the previous chapter, it was argued that although the collective project which is the focus of Gopegui's second novel, Tocarnos la cara, is abandoned by the characters, solidarity does not end up being deemed an unachievable ideal. despite the presentation of the Probador project as an eventual failure, the struggle to put it into practice can nevertheless be viewed as an instructive experience and even one which ultimately gives rise to a reinterpretation of the concept of solidarity. Even so, this potentially new model for solidarity tends to be undermined by Simón, the novel's secondary narrator and creator of the Probador. He concludes that for the group to achieve their aim of fostering a sense of social solidarity ‘debe de haber mil formas mejores que las citas en nuestro estudio’ (TLC: 181). In this way, he effectively endorses the criticism of his method expressed by other theatre practitioners at the beginning of the novel as ‘demasiado hermético’ (TLC: 20).

It is significant that Gopegui's reflections on the novel echo Simón's verdict. For her, the dilemma in Tocarnos ‘podía estar colocado sobre un tema demasiado ligado al arte y por tanto algo minoritario’, whereas money, the central concern of her next novel, is one that ‘atraviesa a toda la sociedad en su conjunto’ (Legido Quigley, 1999: 101). The selection of this somewhat uncommon subject matter for a novel, coupled with its particular resonance at the time of its publication – a subject explored in detail below – accounted in part for the virtually unanimous critical reception.