roberto bolaño.pdf

8/14/2019 Roberto Bolao.pdf

1/9

Roberto Bolao 1

Roberto Bolao

Roberto Bolao

Born Roberto Bolao valos28 April 1953Santiago, Chile

Died 15 July 2003 (aged 50)Barcelona, Spain

Occupation Writer, poet

Language Spanish

Roberto Bolao valos (Spanish:[roerto ola o aalos]) (28 April 1953 15 July 2003) was a Chilean writer,author of novels, short-stories, poems, and essays. In 1999, Bolao won the Rmulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Losdetectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives ), and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book CriticsCircle Award for Fiction for his novel2666 , which was described by board member Marcela Valdes as a "work sorich and dazzling that it will surely draw readers and scholars for ages." He has been described by the New York Times as "the most significant Latin American literary voice of his generation."[1]

Life

Childhood in ChileBolao was born in 1953 in Santiago, the son of a truck driver (who was also a boxer) and a teacher.[2] He and hissister spent their early years in southern and coastal Chile. By his own account, he was a skinny, nearsighted,bookish, and unpromising child. He was dyslexic and was often bullied at school, where he felt an outsider. He camefrom a lower middle class family,[3] and while his mother was a fan of best-sellers they were not an intellectualfamily. He had one younger sister.[4] He was ten when he started his first job, selling bus tickets on theQuilpu-Valparaiso route. He spent the greater part of his childhood living in Los ngeles, Bo Bo.[5]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_%C3%81ngeles%2C_B%C3%ADo_B%C3%ADohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Valparaisohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Quilpu%C3%A9http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Santiago%2C_Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Timeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2666_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Book_Critics_Circle_Awardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Book_Critics_Circle_Awardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=R%C3%B3mulo_Gallegos_Prizehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Help:IPA_for_Spanishhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spainhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barcelonahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Santiagohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3ARoberto_bola%25C3%25B1o.jpg


2/9

Roberto Bolao 2

Youth in MexicoIn 1968 he moved with his family to Mexico City, dropped out of school, worked as a journalist, and became activein left-wing political causes.[6]

Brief return to ChileA key episode in Bolao's life, mentioned in different forms in several of his works, occurred in 1973, when he leftMexico for Chile to "help build the revolution" by supporting the socialist regime of Salvador Allende. AfterAugusto Pinochet's coup against Allende, Bolao was arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist and spent eight daysin custody.[7] He was rescued by two former classmates who had become prison guards. Bolao describes thisexperience in the story "Dance Card." According to the version of events he provides in this story, he was nottortured as he had expected, but "in the small hours I could hear them torturing others; I couldn't sleep and there wasnothing to read except a magazine in English that someone had left behind. The only interesting article in it wasabout a house that had once belonged to Dylan Thomas. . . . I got out of that hole thanks to a pair of detectives whohad been at high school with me." The episode is also recounted, from the point of view of Bolao's formerclassmates, in the story "Detectives." Nevertheless, since 2009 Bolao's Mexican friends from that era have castdoubts on whether he was even in Chile in 1973 at all.Bolao had conflicted feelings about his native country. He was notorious in Chile for his fierce attacks on IsabelAllende and other members of the literary establishment. "He didn't fit into Chile, and the rejection that heexperienced left him free to say whatever he wanted, which can be a good thing for a writer," commentedArgentinian novelist and playwright Ariel Dorfman.

Return to MexicoOn his overland return to Mexico in 1974. Bolao allegedly passed an interlude in El Salvador, spent in the companyof the poet Roque Dalton and the guerrillas of the Farabundo Mart National Liberation Front, though the veracity of

this episode has been cast into doubt.In the 1970s, Bolao, an atheist since his youth,[8] became a Trotskyist and in 1975 a founding member of infrarrealismo , a minor poetic movement. He affectionately parodied aspects of the movement inThe Savage

Detectives .

On his return to Mexico he lived as a bohemian poet and literary enfant terrible, "a professional provocateur feared atall the publishing houses even though he was a nobody, bursting into literary presentations and readings," his editor,Jorge Herralde, recalled. His erratic behavior had as much to do with his leftist ideology as with his chaotic lifestyle.

Move to SpainBolao moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on theMediterranean coast near Barcelona, on the Costa Brava, working as a dishwasher, campground custodian, bellhop,and garbage collector. He worked by day and wrote at night. From 1981[9] to his death, he lived in the small Catalanbeach town of Blanes.

He continued with poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolao said that he beganwriting fiction because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he couldnever secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolao"abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" because the birth of his son in 1990 made him "decide that he wasresponsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." However, hecontinued to think of himself primarily as a poet, and a collection of his verse, spanning 20 years, was published in

2000 under the title Los perros romnticos (The Romantic Dogs ).
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Blaneshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cataloniahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Costa_Bravahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Infrarrealismohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Trotskyismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Atheismhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farabundo_Mart%C3%AD_National_Liberation_Fronthttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roque_Daltonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=El_Salvadorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ariel_Dorfmanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isabel_Allendehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Isabel_Allendehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinochethttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Salvador_Allendehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mexico_City


3/9

Roberto Bolao 3

Declining health and deathBolao's death in 2003 came after a long period of declining health. He suffered from liver failure and was near thetop of a transplant list at the time of his death.

Six weeks before he died, Bolao's fellow Latin American novelists hailed him as the most important figure of hisgeneration at an international conference he attended in Seville. Among his closest friends were the novelists

Rodrigo Fresn and Enrique Vila-Matas; Fresn's tribute included the statement that "Roberto emerged as a writer ata time when Latin America no longer believed in utopias, when paradise had become hell, and that sense of monstrousness and waking nightmares and constant flight from something horrid permeates2666 and all his work.""His books are political," Fresn also observed, "but in a way that is more personal than militant or demagogic, thatis closer to the mystique of the beatniks than the Boom. " In Fresn's view he "was one of a kind, a writer whoworked without a net, who went all out, with no brakes, and in doing so, created a new way to be a great LatinAmerican writer." Larry Rohter of the New York Times wrote, "Bolao joked about the 'posthumous', saying theword 'sounds like the name of a Roman gladiator, one who is undefeated,' and he would no doubt be amused to seehow his stock has risen now that he is dead."[10]

Bolao was survived by his Spanish wife and their two children, whom he once called "my only motherland." In hislast interview, published by the Mexican edition of Playboy magazine, Bolao said he regarded himself as a LatinAmerican, adding that "my only country is my two children and wife and perhaps, though in second place, somemoments, streets, faces or books that are in me...." Bolao named his son Lautaro, after the Mapuche leader Lautaro,who resisted the Spanish conquest of Chile, as related in the sixteenth-century epic La araucana . His other child, adaughter, was named Alexandra.

WorksAlthough deep down he always felt like a poet, in the vein of his beloved Nicanor Parra, his reputation ultimatelyrests on his novels, novellas and short story collections.[11] Although Bolao espoused the lifestyle of a bohemian

poet and literary enfant terrible for all his adult life, he only began to produce substantial works of fiction in the1990s. He almost immediately became a highly regarded figure in Spanish and Latin American letters.

In rapid succession, he published a series of critically acclaimed works, the most important of which are the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives ), the novella Nocturno de Chile ( By Night in Chile ), and,posthumously, the novel2666 . His two collections of short stories Llamadas telefnicas and Putas asesinas wereawarded literary prizes. In 2009 a number of unpublished novels were discovered among the author's papers.

By Night in Chile By Night in Chile (Spanish title: Nocturno de Chile ) is a narrative constructed as the loose, uneditorialised deathbedrantings of a Chilean Jesuit priest and failed poet, Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix. At a crucial point in his career, FatherUrrutia is approached by two agents of Opus Dei, who inform him that he has been chosen to visit Europe to studythe preservation of old churches the perfect job for a cleric with artistic sensitivities.

On his arrival, he is told that the major threat to European cathedrals is pigeon droppings, and that his Old Worldcounterparts have devised a clever solution to the problem. They have become falconers, and in town after town hewatches as the priests' hawks viciously dispatch flocks of harmless birds. Chillingly, the Jesuit's failure to protestagainst this bloody means of architectural preservation signals to his employers that he will serve as a passiveaccomplice to the predatory and brutal methods of the Pinochet regime. This is the beginning of Bolano's indictmentof "l'homme intellectuel" who retreats into art, using aestheticism as a cloak and shield while the world lies aroundhim, nauseatingly unchanged, perennially unjust and cruel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Opus_Deihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jesuithttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Spanish_languagehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=By_Night_in_Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2666_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=By_Night_in_Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nicanor_Parrahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=La_Araucanahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lautaro_%28toqui%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mapuchehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Playboyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Enrique_Vila-Matashttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rodrigo_Fres%C3%A1nhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Seville


4/9

Roberto Bolao 4

Amulet Amulet ( Amuleto in Spanish) focuses on the Uruguayan poet Auxilio Lacouture, who also appears inThe Savage Detectives as a minor character trapped in a bathroom at the Universidad Nacional Autnoma de Mxico (UNAM) inMexico City for two weeks while the army storms the school.[12]In this short novel, she runs across a host of LatinAmerican artists and writers, among them Arturo Belano, Bolao's alter ego. UnlikeThe Savage Detectives , Amulet

stays in Auxilio's first-person voice, while still allowing for the frenetic scattering of personalities Bolao is sofamous for.

Distant Star Distant Star ( Estrella distante in Spanish) is a novella nested in the politics of the Pinochet regime, concerned withmurder, photography and even poetry blazed across the sky by the smoke of air force planes. This dark satirical workdeals with the history of Chilean politics in a morbid and sometimes humorous fashion.

Nazi Literature in the Americas Nazi Literature in the Americas ( La literatura Nazi en Amrica in Spanish) is an entirely fictitious, ironicencyclopedia of fascist Latin and North American writers and critics, blinded to their own mediocrity and sparsereadership by passionate self-mythification. While this is a risk that literature generally runs in Bolao's works, thesecharacters stand out by force of the heinousness of their political philosophy. The last portrait was expanded into anovel in Distant Star .

The Savage DetectivesThe Savage Detectives ( Los detectives salvajes in Spanish) has been compared by Jorge Edwards to Julio Cortzar's

Rayuela and Jos Lezama Lima's Paradiso .

In a review in El Pas , the Spanish critic and former literary editor of said newspaper Ignacio Echevarra declared it

"the novel that Borges would have written." (An avid reader, Bolao often expressed his love for Borges andCortzar's work, and once concluded an overview of contemporary Argentinian literature by saying that "one shouldread Borges more.") "Bolao's genius is not just the extraordinary quality of his writing, but also that he does notconform to the paradigm of the Latin American writer", said Echeverria. "His writing is neither magical realism, norbaroque nor localist, but an imaginary, extraterritorial mirror of Latin America, more as a kind of state of mind thana specific place."

The central section ofThe Savage Detectives presents a long, fragmentary series of reports about the trips andadventures of Arturo Belano, an alliteratively named alter-ego, who also appears in other stories & novels, andUlises Lima, between 1976 1996. These trips and adventures, narrated by 52 characters, take them from Mexico DFto Israel, Paris, Barcelona, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vienna and finally to Liberia during its civil war in themid-nineties.[13]The reports are sandwiched at the beginning and end of the novel by the story of their quest to findCesrea Tinajero, the founder of "real visceralismo", a Mexican avant-garde literary movement of the twenties, set inlate 1975 and early 1976, and narrated by the aspiring 17-year-old poet Garca Madero, who tells us first about thepoetic and social scene around the new "visceral realists" and later closes the novel with his account of their escapefrom Mexico City to the state of Sonora. Bolao calledThe Savage Detectives "a love letter to my generation."
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sonorahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Liberiahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Viennahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=San_Franciscohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Los_Angeleshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barcelonahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Parishttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Israelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mexico_DFhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Argentine_literaturehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jorge_Luis_Borgeshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ignacio_Echevarr%C3%ADahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=El_Pa%C3%ADshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Paradiso_%281966_novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jos%C3%A9_Lezama_Limahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rayuelahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Julio_Cort%C3%A1zarhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jorge_Edwardshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Nazi_Literature_in_the_Americashttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pinochethttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Distant_Starhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Universidad_Nacional_Aut%C3%B3noma_de_M%C3%A9xicohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Amulet_%28novel%29


5/9

Roberto Bolao 5

2666The novel2666 was published in 2004. Allegedly a first draft submitted to his publisher prior to his death, the text of 2666 was the major preoccupation of the last five years of his life.

At more than 1,100 pages (898 pages in the English-language edition), the novel is divided in five "parts". Focusedon the mostly unsolved and still ongoing serial murders of Ciudad Jurez (Santa Teresa in the novel), the apocalyptic2666 depicts the horror of the 20th century through a wide cast of characters, including the secretive, Pynchon-likeGerman writer Archimboldi whom four literary critics are engaged on a quest to find.

In 2008, the book won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The award was accepted by NatashaWimmer, the book's translator.

In March 2009,The Guardian newspaper reported that an additional Part 6 of2666 was among papers found byresearchers going through Bolao's literary estate.

Last Evenings on Earth Last Evenings on Earth (Llamadas Telefnicas in Spanish) is a collection of fourteen short stories narrated by a host

of different voices primarily in the first person. A number are narrated by an author, "B.", who is in a move typicalof the author a stand-in for the author himself.

The Romantic DogsBolao has stated that he considered himself first and foremost a poet and took up fiction writing primarily later inlife in order to support his children.The Romantic Dogs ( Los perros romnticos in Spanish), published in 2006, ishis first collection of poetry to be translated into English, appearing in a bilingual edition in 2008 under NewDirections and translated by Laura Healy.

The Skating RinkSet in the seaside town of Z, on the Costa Brava, north of Barcelona, The Skating Rink is told by three malenarrators, revolving around a beautiful figure-skating champion, Nuria Mart. When she is suddenly dropped fromthe Olympic team, a pompous but besotted civil servant secretly builds a skating rink in a local ruin of a mansion,using public funds. But Nuria has affairs, provokes jealousy, and the skating rink becomes a crime scene.

AntwerpConsidered by his literary executor Ignacio Echevarra[14] to be the big bang of the Bolao universe, the looseprose-poem novel was written in 1980 when Bolao was 27. The book remained unpublished until 2002, when itwas published in Spanish as Amberes , a year before the author's death. Antwerp contains a loose narrative structured

less around a story arc and more around motifs, reappearing characters and anecdotes many of which went on tobecome common material for Bolao: crimes and campgrounds, drifters and poetry, sex and love, corrupt cops andmisfits.[15]The back of the first New Directions edition of book contains a quote from Bolao about Antwerp : "Theonly novel that doesn't embarrass me is Antwerp."
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antwerp_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ignacio_Echevarr%C3%ADahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Barcelonahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Costa_Bravahttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Directions_Publishinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Directions_Publishinghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Romantic_Dogshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Last_Evenings_on_Earthhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Guardianhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natasha_Wimmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natasha_Wimmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Book_Critics_Circle_Awardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Archimboldihttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Thomas_Pynchonhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rezhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Female_homicides_in_Ciudad_Ju%C3%A1rezhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2666_%28novel%29


6/9

Roberto Bolao 6

English translation and publicationBolao's first American publisher, Barbara Epler of New Directions read a galley proof of By Night in Chile anddecided to acquire it, along with Distant Star and Last Evenings on Earth , all translated by Chris Andrews. By Night in Chile came out in 2003 and received an endorsement by Susan Sontag; at the same time Bolao's work also beganappearing in various magazines which gained him broader recognition among English readers.

By 2006 Bolaos rights were represented by Carmen Balcells, who decided to place his two bigger books at a largerpublishing house; both were eventually published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (The Savage Detectives in 2007 and2666 in 2008) in a translation by Natasha Wimmer. At the same time New Directions took on the publication of therest of Bolaos work (to the extent that it was known at the time) for a total of 13 books, translated by Laura Healy(two poetry collections), Natasha Wimmer ( Antwerp and Between Parentheses ) and Chris Andrews (6 novels and 3short story collections).[16]

The posthumous discovery of additional works by Bolao has thus far led to the publication of the novelThe Third Reich ( El Tercer Reich in Spanish), (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2011, translated by Wimmer) andThe Secret of Evil( El Secreto del Mal ), (New Directions, 2012, translated by Wimmer and Andrews), a collection of short stories. Atranslation of the novelWoes of the True Policeman ( Los sinsabores del verdadero polica in Spanish), (Farrar,Straus and Giroux, translated by Wimmer) was released on November 13, 2012.

ThemesIn the final decade of his life Bolao produced a significant body of work, consisting of short stories and novels. Inhis fiction the characters are often novelists or poets, some of them aspiring and others famous, and writers appearubiquitous in Bolao's world, variously cast as heroes, villains, detectives and iconoclasts.

Other significant themes of his work include quests, "the myth of poetry", the "interrelationship of poetry andcrime", the inescapable violence of modern life in Latin America, and the essential human business of youth, loveand death.[17]

In one of his stories, "Dentist", Bolao appears to set out his basic aesthetic principles. The narrator pays a visit to anold friend, a dentist. The friend introduces him to a poor Indian boy who turns out to be a literary genius. At onepoint during a long evening of inebriated conversation, the dentist expressed what he believes to be the essence of art:

"That's what art is, he said, the story of a life in all its particularity. It's the only thing that really is particular andpersonal. It's the expression and, at the same time, the fabric of the particular. And what do you mean by the fabric of the particular? I asked, supposing he would answer: Art. I was also thinking, indulgently, that we were pretty drunkalready and that it was time to go home. But my friend said: What I mean is the secret story.... The secret story is theone we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under

control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tellourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie."

Like large parts of Bolao's work, this conception of fiction manages to be at once elusive and powerfullysuggestive. As Jonathan Lethem has commented, "Reading Roberto Bolao is like hearing the secret story, beingshown the fabric of the particular, watching the tracks of art and life merge at the horizon and linger there like adream from which we awake inspired to look more attentively at the world."[18]

When discussing the nature of literature, including his own, Bolao emphasized its inherent political qualities. Hewrote, "All literature, in a certain sense, is political. I mean, first, its a reflection on politics, and second, its also apolitical program. The former alludes to reality to the nightmare or benevolent dream that we call reality whichends, in both cases, with death and the obliteration not only of literature, but of time. The latter refers to the smallbits and pieces that survive, that persist; and to reason."[19]
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Lethemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Woes_of_the_True_Policemanhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Secret_of_Evilhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Third_Reich_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Third_Reich_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antwerp_%28novel%29http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Natasha_Wimmerhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2666http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Savage_Detectiveshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Farrar%2C_Straus_and_Girouxhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmen_Balcellshttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Susan_Sontaghttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=By_Night_in_Chilehttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Galley_proofhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_Directions_Publishing


7/9

Roberto Bolao 7

Bolao's writings repeatedly manifest a concern with the nature and purpose of literature and its relationship to life.One recent assessment of his works discusses his idea of literary culture as a "whore".

Among the many acid pleasures of the work of Roberto Bolao, who died at 50 in 2003, is his idea thatculture, in particular literary culture, is a whore. In the face of political repression, upheaval and danger,writers continue to swoon over the written word, and this, for Bolao, is the source both of nobility and

of pitch-black humor. In his novel "The Savage Detectives," two avid young Latino poets never losefaith in their rarefied art no matter the vicissitudes of life, age and politics. If they are sometimesridiculous, they are always heroic. But what can it mean, he asks us and himself, in his dark,extraordinary, stinging novella "By Night in Chile," that the intellectual elite can write poetry, paint anddiscuss the finer points of avant-garde theater as the junta tortures people in basements? The word hasno national loyalty, no fundamental political bent; it's a genie that can be summoned by any would-bemaster. Part of Bolao's genius is to ask, via ironies so sharp you can cut your hands on his pages, if weperhaps find a too-easy comfort in art, if we use it as anesthetic, excuse and hide-out in a world that isvery busy doing very real things to very real human beings. Is it courageous to read Plato during amilitary coup or is it something else?

Stacey D'Erasmo,The New York Times Book Review , 24 February 2008

Further reading

In English Will H. Corral, "Roberto Bolao: Portrait of the Writer as Noble Savage".World Literature Today LXXXI. 1

(November-December 2006). 51-54. Roberto Bolao, Sybil Perez, Marcela Valdes. Roberto Bolao: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations .

Brooklyn, NY, Melville House Publishing, 2009.

Spanish Celina Manzoni. Roberto Bolao, la literatura como tauromaquia . Buenos Aires, Corregidor, 2002. Patricia Espinosa H.Territorios en fuga: estudios criticos sobre la obra de Roberto Bolao . Providencia

(Santiago), Ed. Frasis, 2003. Jorge Herralde. Para Roberto Bolao . Colombia, Villegas Editores, 2005. Celina Manzoni, Dunia Gras, Roberto Brodsky. Jornadas homenaje Roberto Bolao (1953 2003): simposio

internacional . Barcelona, ICCI Casa Amrica a Catalunya, 2005. Fernando Moreno. Roberto Bolao: una literatura infinita . Poitiers, Universit de Poitiers / CNRS, 2005. Edmundo Paz Soldn, Gustavo Favern Patriau (coord.). Bolao salvaje . Canet de Mar (Barcelona). Ed. Candaya,

2008. (Includes DVD with documentary, Bolao cercano , by Erik Hasnoot.) Will H. Corral, Bolao traducido: nueva literatura mundial . Madrid, Ediciones Escalera, 2011. Myrna Solotorevsky, 'El espesor escritural en novelas de Roberto Bolao' . Rockville, Maryland, Ediciones

Hispamrica, 2012. ISBN 978-0-935318-35-7.
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=World_Literature_Todayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_New_York_Times_Book_Review


8/9

Roberto Bolao 8

Other languages Karim Benmiloud, Raphal Estve (coord.). Les astres noirs de Roberto Bolao . Bordeaux, Presses Universitaires

de Bordeaux, 2007.

References[1] Harvesting Fragments From a Chilean Master (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2012/ 12/ 20/ books/

woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano. html?_r=0)[2] Goldman, Francisco. "The Great Bolao",[[New York Review of Books (http:/ / www. nybooks. com/ articles/ 20395)] , 19 July 2007][3][3] Madariaga, 2010, op. cit. Los beatniks de Mxico, pp. 29-44.[4] Braithwaite, ed., 2006, op. cit. 'Si hubiera otra vida y fuera posible elegir, escogera ser mujer', pp. 79-81. [Extracto de la entrevista de Ima

Sanchs en La Vanguardia, Barcelona, 23 Septiembre, 2002.][5] Echevarra, ed., 2004, op. cit. Recuerdos de Los ngeles, pp. 204-205. [Published originally between September, 2002 and January, 2003

in the column Entre Parntesis of Las ltimas Noticias.][6] Rohter, Larry. 'A Writer whose Posthumous Novel Crowns an Illustrious Career',[[New York Times (http:/ / www. anagrama-ed. es/ PDF/

2666 - NYT. pdf)] , August 9, 2005][7] Schama, Chloe. 'Dust and Literature',The New Republic , May 8, 2007 (http:/ / www. tnr. com/ doc. mhtml?i=20070507& s=schama050707)[8][8] Echevarra, ed., 2004, op. cit. pp. 168, 219, 340.

[9] Bolao, Roberto (2002). "Total Anarchy: Twenty-Two Years Later", 2002 introduction to Antwerp . Bolao explains how he wrote thisbook in 1980, his last year in Barcelona, then moved to Blanes in 1981.

[10] Rohter, Larry. 'A Writer whose Posthumous Novel Crowns an Illustrious Career,' New York Times , August 9, 2005[11] http:/ / www. poetryfoundation. org/ archive/ print. html?id=182491[12] Amulet Roberto Bolao (http:/ / biblioklept. org/ 2011/ 04/ 08/ amulet-roberto-bolano/ )[13] Durn-Merk, Alma (2010): Representaciones de la experiencia migratoria en la literatura: Los detectives salvajes de Roberto Bolao. Opus:

Augsburg, onlinne available under: http:/ / opus. bibliothek. uni-augsburg. de/ volltexte/ 2010/ 1660/ .[14] Harvesting Fragments From a Chilean Master (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2012/ 12/ 20/ books/

woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano. html?_r=0)[15] http:/ / www. ndpublishing. com/ books/ BolanoAntwerp. html[16] This Week in Fiction: The True Bolao (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ online/ blogs/ books/ 2012/ 01/ this-week-in-fiction-roberto-bolano.

html) - interview with Barbara Epler. "The Book Bench", The New Yorker website, 16 January 2012.

[17] Goldman, Francisco. "The Great Bolao" (http:/

/

www.

nybooks.

com/

articles/

20395), New York Review of Books , 19 July 2007.[18] Lethem, Jonathan. "The Departed" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2008/ 11/ 09/ books/ review/ Lethem-t. html), New York Times Book Review , 9 November 2008.

[19] Boullosa, Carmen. "Roberto Bolao" (http:/ / bombsite. com/ issues/ 78/ articles/ 2460), Bomb Magazine , Winter 2002. Retrieved on 25 July2012.

External links "The Caracas Speech", Roberto Bolao accepting the Rmulo Gallegos Prize, translated inTriple Canopy (http:/ /

canopycanopycanopy. com/ 2/ the_caracas_speech) "Literature + Sickness = Sickness" translated in (http:/ / www.bu. edu/ trl/ 16/ bolano. html) News from the

Republic of Letters

Entry (http:/ / www. sf-encyclopedia. com/ entry/ bolano_roberto) in the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction Literary Game (http:/ / souciant. com/ 2012/ 02/ literary-game/ ) in Souciant
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soucianthttp://souciant.com/2012/02/literary-game/http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Encyclopedia_of_Science_Fictionhttp://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/bolano_robertohttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=News_from_the_Republic_of_Lettershttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=News_from_the_Republic_of_Lettershttp://www.bu.edu/trl/16/bolano.htmlhttp://canopycanopycanopy.com/2/the_caracas_speechhttp://canopycanopycanopy.com/2/the_caracas_speechhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bomb_Magazinehttp://bombsite.com/issues/78/articles/2460http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Times_Book_Reviewhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Times_Book_Reviewhttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/09/books/review/Lethem-t.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jonathan_Lethemhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=New_York_Review_of_Bookshttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/20395http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_New_Yorkerhttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/01/this-week-in-fiction-roberto-bolano.htmlhttp://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/books/2012/01/this-week-in-fiction-roberto-bolano.htmlhttp://www.ndpublishing.com/books/BolanoAntwerp.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/books/woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/books/woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano.html?_r=0http://opus.bibliothek.uni-augsburg.de/volltexte/2010/1660/http://biblioklept.org/2011/04/08/amulet-roberto-bolano/http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/print.html?id=182491http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Antwerp_%28novel%29http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20070507&s=schama050707http://www.anagrama-ed.es/PDF/2666%20-%20NYT.pdfhttp://www.anagrama-ed.es/PDF/2666%20-%20NYT.pdfhttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Las_%C3%9Altimas_Noticiashttp://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=La_Vanguardiahttp://www.nybooks.com/articles/20395http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/books/woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano.html?_r=0http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/books/woes-of-the-true-policeman-by-roberto-bolano.html?_r=0


9/9

Article Sources and Contributors 9

Article Sources and ContributorsRoberto Bolao Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=579907412Contributors : 32X, 850 C, AMuseo, Active Banana, Aeusoes1, After Midnight, Alarbus, Anakolouthon,Anaxial, Asavino, AshcroftIleum, Austin.abc, Bateau, Beguemot, Bluelephant, CarolGray, ChrisCork, Christiaanl, Clpm, Colonies Chris, CommonsDelinker, Cranea, Cyrusc, D6, DO'Neil,Danny, Dentren, Donfbreed, Drmies, Eamontoplease, Elenagarro, Flewis, Forthgone, Fothergill Volkensniff IV, Gabbe, Galaver, Gartre, Goodwin4u, Griot, Ground Zero, Gwern,Habiaunavezuncirco, Hu12, Jetman, Joseph Solis in Australia, Kallerdis, Knutsonbo, Koavf, Kusunose, Kyeungha, Lamontse, Leonor377, Ligase1, Lowfellow, Lucio Di Madaura, MER-C,Macphysto, Maher27777, MajMaverik, MarkPritchard, Masque, Mboverload, Mbroderick271, Mdieboldv, Melromero, Monegasque, Mrt3366, NJA, Naomieva, Ndbooks, Nickyus, Nortondruida,Numb82, Ojoplastico, Olga Sala, Omnipaedista, Oalob, PaWor, Parababelico, Patricio00, Platyjoe, Poconnorchi, Pristino, Quywompka, Reader34, Respibien, Rodrigo Larco, Rubbersoul20,

Rumour, Ruodyssey, SCFilm29, SDC, SaulSoy1, Scandza, Seguro64, ShelfSkewed, Sighrik, Sludge, Snori, Snowmanradio, Snykanen, SophiaKD, Spanglej, SqueakBox, Tao Lu, TetsuDC,TheRedPenOfDoom, TomPynch, Tyrenius, Ulflin, UnicaBellmer, Varlaam, Vichugo, Waxwingshadow, Will h. corral, Woohookitty, Wrdsx, Yanclae, Zaqarbal, 220 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and ContributorsFile:Roberto bolao.jpg Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Roberto_bolao.jpg License : Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0Contributors : User:Farisori

LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 //creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

roberto bolaño.pdf

Documents