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4.21 AVERAGE
4.21 AVERAGE
«Sono nato nel 1953, l’anno in cui morirono Stalin e Dylan Thomas. Nel 1973 fui incarcerato per otto giorni dai militari golpisti del mio paese. [...] Per quanto riguarda i miei libri devo dire che ho pubblicato cinque raccolte di poesie, un libro di racconti e sette romanzi. Le mie poesie non le conosce quasi nessuno, il che probabilmente è un bene. I miei libri di prosa hanno un certo numero di lettori fedeli, il che probabilmente è immeritato. [...] Sono molto più felice quando leggo che quando scrivo».
Di Bolaño, come quando si è finito di leggere un grande romanzo, si può dire tutto, ma si può anche non dire nulla. E dopo un libro come Tra parentesi dire qualcosa si rivelerebbe superfluo, se non ridicolo. Perché qui siamo di fronte ad un lettore (prima che a uno scrittore), un poeta (prima che a un prosatore), che aveva letto tutto quello che c’era da leggere. Come Borges, orgoglioso più delle pagine che aveva letto che di quelle che aveva scritto, Bolaño è stato un amante della letteratura, uno dei suoi più fini conoscitori e un critico dalla sensibilità unica. Attraverso un umorismo sfacciato e un’irriverenza che tuttavia non si libera delle maglie dell’umiltà, lo scrittore ammira ma critica anche, soprattutto gli autori di grande fama come Márquez e Coehlo, esaltando al contrario i “selvaggi” come direbbe lui stesso. Grazie
Gli articoli, i brevi scritti, i discorsi e l’intervista rilasciata all’edizione messicana di Playboy; tutto quello che riempie le pagine di Entre paréntesis è una dichiarazione d’amore (incondizionato) di Bolaño alla letteratura e alla magia che essa trasmette ogni volta che apriamo un libro e ci immergiamo completamente in esso. Leggete, leggete Bolaño e appassionatevi.
Di Bolaño, come quando si è finito di leggere un grande romanzo, si può dire tutto, ma si può anche non dire nulla. E dopo un libro come Tra parentesi dire qualcosa si rivelerebbe superfluo, se non ridicolo. Perché qui siamo di fronte ad un lettore (prima che a uno scrittore), un poeta (prima che a un prosatore), che aveva letto tutto quello che c’era da leggere. Come Borges, orgoglioso più delle pagine che aveva letto che di quelle che aveva scritto, Bolaño è stato un amante della letteratura, uno dei suoi più fini conoscitori e un critico dalla sensibilità unica. Attraverso un umorismo sfacciato e un’irriverenza che tuttavia non si libera delle maglie dell’umiltà, lo scrittore ammira ma critica anche, soprattutto gli autori di grande fama come Márquez e Coehlo, esaltando al contrario i “selvaggi” come direbbe lui stesso. Grazie
Gli articoli, i brevi scritti, i discorsi e l’intervista rilasciata all’edizione messicana di Playboy; tutto quello che riempie le pagine di Entre paréntesis è una dichiarazione d’amore (incondizionato) di Bolaño alla letteratura e alla magia che essa trasmette ogni volta che apriamo un libro e ci immergiamo completamente in esso. Leggete, leggete Bolaño e appassionatevi.
No one asks Balzac to be Stendhal. All anyone asks of Balzac is that he be God.
Two of my favorite books over the last few months have been [b:The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600|7783692|The Novel An Alternative History Beginnings to 1600|Steven Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351603790s/7783692.jpg|10713315] and [b:Written Lives|529078|Written Lives|Javier Marías|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348601693s/529078.jpg|516775] This collection is in a similar vein. These are prefaces, reviews, speeches and other observations herded together posthumously, though Bolano imagined this possibility, especially as he began a weekly newspaper column which is also gathered here.
I took some fellow GRers advice and read straight through Between Parenthese, as if it were a single narrative, parts memoir, parts novel. This remains a rich copse of joy and insight. It can also charge many a reading list, given Bolano's penchant for recommendations.
Two of my favorite books over the last few months have been [b:The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600|7783692|The Novel An Alternative History Beginnings to 1600|Steven Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351603790s/7783692.jpg|10713315] and [b:Written Lives|529078|Written Lives|Javier Marías|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348601693s/529078.jpg|516775] This collection is in a similar vein. These are prefaces, reviews, speeches and other observations herded together posthumously, though Bolano imagined this possibility, especially as he began a weekly newspaper column which is also gathered here.
I took some fellow GRers advice and read straight through Between Parenthese, as if it were a single narrative, parts memoir, parts novel. This remains a rich copse of joy and insight. It can also charge many a reading list, given Bolano's penchant for recommendations.
If you love literature, and if you love the hypnotic Bolaño style, but really most of all if you love literature, you'll love this.
Not only a treasure trove of what to read, but a distillation of why to read (i.e. what literature does for us, or even better, what literature does to us).
The typical Bolaño themes repeat, reiterate, redound: the abyss, the dark, ticking time bombs, courage, humor, survival, survivors, and of course literature, which is all of the above.
Here's a taste, from the section on Wilcock, page 159 of my (Italian) edition:
"That's how The Temple of Iconoclasts fell into my hands, during a cold and damp winter [1], and I still remember the enormous pleasure that its pages gave me, and comfort too, in those days that seemed to presage only sadness. Wilcock's book gave me back my happiness, as only masterpieces of literature can do... If you want to laugh, if you want to improve your health, buy [this book], steal it, borrow it, just read it." [my translation from the Italian]
OK, here's another. While talking about Twain's Huck Finn (page 290), he says:
"[at the end of chapter 21] the reader has the sensation of being witness to an absolutely real event, not literary, that is to say profoundly literary..." [my translation from the Italian]
The mirror of life: literature = reality, reality = literature.
I could go on and on, but if you want to be infected by the contagious bug that is Bolaño -- he's like the Richard Feynman of literature (!) -- buy this book, steal it, borrow it, whatever, just read it.
[1] Not sure of the exact year but most likely around 1983.
Not only a treasure trove of what to read, but a distillation of why to read (i.e. what literature does for us, or even better, what literature does to us).
The typical Bolaño themes repeat, reiterate, redound: the abyss, the dark, ticking time bombs, courage, humor, survival, survivors, and of course literature, which is all of the above.
Here's a taste, from the section on Wilcock, page 159 of my (Italian) edition:
"That's how The Temple of Iconoclasts fell into my hands, during a cold and damp winter [1], and I still remember the enormous pleasure that its pages gave me, and comfort too, in those days that seemed to presage only sadness. Wilcock's book gave me back my happiness, as only masterpieces of literature can do... If you want to laugh, if you want to improve your health, buy [this book], steal it, borrow it, just read it." [my translation from the Italian]
OK, here's another. While talking about Twain's Huck Finn (page 290), he says:
"[at the end of chapter 21] the reader has the sensation of being witness to an absolutely real event, not literary, that is to say profoundly literary..." [my translation from the Italian]
The mirror of life: literature = reality, reality = literature.
I could go on and on, but if you want to be infected by the contagious bug that is Bolaño -- he's like the Richard Feynman of literature (!) -- buy this book, steal it, borrow it, whatever, just read it.
[1] Not sure of the exact year but most likely around 1983.
Sometimes collected fragments like this can have a scraping the bottom of the barrel feel but not these. Plenty here for the Bolaño fan to savor.
this is really well put together and fun. lot of gems in here and good authors to be put on to. some funny Bolaño hot takes but also some real beautiful insight
Reading Bolaño, the English-speaker has to be overwhelmed by the vast ocean of Latin American literature that is virtually invisible in the United States. But, as Bolaño points out, that's hardly a problem unique to North Amerrica: "which brings us to a problem even worse than being forgotten: the provincialism of the book market, which corrals and locks away Spanish-language literature, which, simply put, means that Chilean authors are only of interest in Chile, Mexican authors in Mexico, and Colombians in Colombia, as if each Latin American country spoke a different language or as if the aesthetic taste of each Latin American reader were determined first and foremost by national — that is, provincial — imperatives, which wasn’t the case in the 1960s, for example, when the Boom exploded, or in the 1950s or 1940s, despite poor distribution." Bolaño's text could easily be used as an introduction to modern Spanish literature. He's incredibly widely read, and he covers a lot of authors in these mostly throw-away pieces he wrote for Spanish papers. Bolaño's enthusiasm is infectious--of the many books he mentions, I added to my reading list practically all of them that I could find in English translation (which was unfortunaely not many). So typical, his exhortation to read, as in this commentary:
"Thus it was that The Temple of Iconoclasts came into my hands, during a cold, wet winter, and I still remember the enormous pleasure it brought me, and the consolation, too, at a time when almost everything was full of sadness. Wilcock’s book restored happiness to me, as is only the case with those masterpieces of literature that are also masterpieces of black humor, like Lichtenberg’s Aphorisms or Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Of course, Wilcock’s book tiptoed out of bookstores. Today, seventeen years later, it has just been reprinted. If you want to have a good time, if you want to cure what ails you, buy it, steal it, borrow it, but most importantly, read it."
These essays are an endless pleasure to read: always invigorating, clever, opinionated, and sharp. Impossible to take everything in one reading: without question a book that will reward repeated readings.
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
Bolaño’s list of who’s worth reading (alternatively, who’s “plumbing the depths”).
Found myself relishing these bite-sized reviews and wily speeches centered around his approach to writing and engaging other writers.
Found myself relishing these bite-sized reviews and wily speeches centered around his approach to writing and engaging other writers.
I originally came across this book from an article in The New York Review of Books. It provided one of his essays about exile. It starts off with:
“To be exiled is not to disappear but to shrink, to slowly or quickly get smaller and smaller until we reach our real height, the true height of the self. Swift, master of exile, knew this. For him exile was the secret word for journey. Many of the exiled, freighted with more suffering than reasons to leave, would reject this statement.
All literature carries exile within it, whether the writer has had to pick up and go at the age of twenty or has never left home.”
I have been pining for this book ever since.
One of the many things I love about reading Bolano is where he takes a story. If he is given enough time with a vague topic, he can reveal a part of his soul. There is something in this collected non-fiction that comes forward more than his collection of short stories. Here he reveals many of his secrets, the rich stories of his own life, and the works that inspired him that were weaved in to the fictions of By Night in Chile, The Savage Detectives, 2666 and others. The pieces are taken from book prefaces, speeches, and mostly from his column Between Parentheses that ran after his success with The Savage Detectives.
I loved his perspective on literature, writers, and readers. When you read his fiction, especially 2666, it’s a swirl of ideas. That’s part of the fun of reading his fiction, this swirl of a million ideas passing through with no time to catch or contemplate unless you read slowly and carefully, but not too slow as to miss the rhythm. It’s much easier to find the source of many of these ideas in his non-fiction works. I think my favorite section was his column Between Parentheses. There are so many short punches and insights that you have to stop after each one and re-read it. There is also a long list of authors to find in which he recommends which can keep one busy for quite some time (many of which are translated, but some are not). It was fantastic and my best Christmas gift from my wife!
“To be exiled is not to disappear but to shrink, to slowly or quickly get smaller and smaller until we reach our real height, the true height of the self. Swift, master of exile, knew this. For him exile was the secret word for journey. Many of the exiled, freighted with more suffering than reasons to leave, would reject this statement.
All literature carries exile within it, whether the writer has had to pick up and go at the age of twenty or has never left home.”
I have been pining for this book ever since.
One of the many things I love about reading Bolano is where he takes a story. If he is given enough time with a vague topic, he can reveal a part of his soul. There is something in this collected non-fiction that comes forward more than his collection of short stories. Here he reveals many of his secrets, the rich stories of his own life, and the works that inspired him that were weaved in to the fictions of By Night in Chile, The Savage Detectives, 2666 and others. The pieces are taken from book prefaces, speeches, and mostly from his column Between Parentheses that ran after his success with The Savage Detectives.
I loved his perspective on literature, writers, and readers. When you read his fiction, especially 2666, it’s a swirl of ideas. That’s part of the fun of reading his fiction, this swirl of a million ideas passing through with no time to catch or contemplate unless you read slowly and carefully, but not too slow as to miss the rhythm. It’s much easier to find the source of many of these ideas in his non-fiction works. I think my favorite section was his column Between Parentheses. There are so many short punches and insights that you have to stop after each one and re-read it. There is also a long list of authors to find in which he recommends which can keep one busy for quite some time (many of which are translated, but some are not). It was fantastic and my best Christmas gift from my wife!
What a marvelous collection. RB’s wit and irreverence is on full display, but also his generosity and sharp readerly eye. Even the interview at the end, where the Playboy interviewer keeps trying to pull him into more lazy irreverence, he manages humor and self-deprecation while also channeling a real current of, hm, what we might call self-elegy? That the last piece is an interview and that yet it also feels both elegiac and hopeful? Strange alchemy.