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A review by mgerboc
Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño
5.0
I’m not sure Roberto Bolaño knew, either in 1996 when he wrote this book or by the time he died at a young age in 2003, just how prescient this story would be in 2018. It details, concisely and with brutal efficiency, the rise of fascism in an otherwise peaceful country, through the eyes of idealistic students.
Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, aka Carlos Wieder, is possibly one of the scariest villains in literary history. The totalitarian coup d’état for Wieder is not about political control or ideology, but presents a platform for him to present his true passion - his art - which combines spartan poetry, the martial deftness of skywriting in a retired Nazi fighter plane, torture, murder, and exhibitionism.
There’s something particularly eerie to me about your society crumbling around you, your culture being persecuted, and then looking to the sky to see your persecutor, a deceitful infiltrator, channeling his creative energy into a more artful form of subjugation.
Bolaño truly was a genius, and his works will he read for generations.
Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, aka Carlos Wieder, is possibly one of the scariest villains in literary history. The totalitarian coup d’état for Wieder is not about political control or ideology, but presents a platform for him to present his true passion - his art - which combines spartan poetry, the martial deftness of skywriting in a retired Nazi fighter plane, torture, murder, and exhibitionism.
There’s something particularly eerie to me about your society crumbling around you, your culture being persecuted, and then looking to the sky to see your persecutor, a deceitful infiltrator, channeling his creative energy into a more artful form of subjugation.
Bolaño truly was a genius, and his works will he read for generations.