Beneath the surface, it is about literature, decline, personal ambition and legacy, all bound in a meditation on the troubled history of Chile. What happens from that point on I’ll shut up about and let you experience for yourself. Oh, Bolaño. Tweet. That Bolaño trusts his talents enough to introduce characters that are only there to make a single point, that they exist in the novel just to die or to cease to exist just so some small nuance of Chile, the Church. By Night in Chile describes the tormented life of Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest, and writer, who is telling the story of his own life throughout a deathbed confession narrative. By Night in Chile (Book) : Bolaño, Roberto : "During the course of a single night, Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest who is a member of Opus Dei, a literary critic and a mediocre poet, relives some of the crucial events of his life. While most people might feel the need to confess on their deathbed, the Opus Dei priest of Robert Bolaño's By Night in Chile does just the opposite. Although I know of Bolaño, this is the first book that I've read by him. A deathbed confession revolving around Opus Dei and Pinochet, By Night in Chile pours out the self-justifying dark memories of the Jesuit priest Father Urrutia. BY NIGHT IN CHILE. There are a pair of immediate observations concerning By Night in Chile. . He himself was clearly a little underwhelmed by the contemporary Chilean scene, and perhaps with good reason. It cannot be, because Bolaño is a different kind of novelist and because he is no longer resident in Chile. Episodes unfold and the focus clips along back to the Narrator, who isn't as unreliable as I first guessed. A very memorable, powerful book that asks the very difficult but important question: what is the relevance (if any) of literature to Real Life, especially when said Real Life involves political turmoil? Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. Indeed, the wizened youth who Urrutia is forever lashing against and defending himself from, seems to be yet another trace of Roberto Bolaño inscribing himself into his stories, while also serving as a younger Urrutia who has not compromised himself as the current narrator himself has, suggesting that Urrutia has understood since his first words to the reader that he is compromised. In Bolaño's stream of consciousness narrative, he presents the deathbed confessions of Father Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, a Jesuit in Chile who also wrote as a literary critic and a poet. What a poet Bolaño was! (Specifically a military coup when people are being tortured and killed in basements while literary parties are taking place upstairs.) The priest was also a poet and a literary critic. “As time goes by, as time goes by, the whip-crack of the years, the precipice of illusions, the ravine that swallows up all human endeavour except the struggle to survive.”, Emily St. John Mandel's Latest Is a Modern Morality Test. In By Night in Chile, Bolaño creates an unreliable narrator who represents not only one man’s personal indifference, but the destructive apathy of the entire subculture of Chilean literature in the face of true corruption and moral deficit. Dull at times (not dull - like watching a perfect snowfall while sitting on a slow-moving train, mesmerizing like that) but sometimes trained falcons protect cathedrals from pigeons and their shit (ah! Re-5-starred. KIRKUS REVIEW. A deathbed confession revolving around Opus Dei and Pinochet, By Night in Chile pours out the self-justifying dark memories of the Jesuit priest Father Urrutia. I can also see (more than ever) the super Borgesian influence. In very little (this is a novel composed solely of TWO paragraphs!) Other articles where By Night in Chile is discussed: Roberto Bolaño: …is Nocturno de Chile (2000; By Night in Chile), the searing deathbed rant of a Chilean priest through which Bolaño chastised what he saw as the many failings of his native country, from the Roman Catholic Church to the Pinochet regime. You almost don't realize that he is doing it until you finish one of these tangents and get led carefully back to the main storyline. AMAZON BARNES & NOBLE GET WEEKLY BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS: Email Address Subscribe. As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. A deathbed confession revolving around Opus Dei and Pinochet, By Night in Chile pours out the self-justifying dark memories of the Jesuit priest Father Urrutia. Garcia Marquez's 'The Autumn of the Patriarch' and Bernhard's 'Old Masters' spring to mind. Since 1973, Bolaño has lived outside Chile and most of his fiction has reflected that. In Bolaño's stream of consciousness narrative, he presents the deathbed confessions of Father Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, a Jesuit in Chile who also wrote as a literary critic and a poet. A Night Out in Chile Is A Marathon, Not A Race. I thought this very good. Why don’t you establish this character as an actual character? What is this cobblers? Chilean author Roberto Bolaño’s novella, By Night in Chile (Spanish: Nocturno de Chile) (2000), was translated into English by Chris Andrews in 2003. In this, it's nothing new. One gathers gradually that it isn't sage to look around too closely. Max Khalil By Night in Chile December 6, 2020 By Night In Chile by Roberto Bolaño Avalos, A book published in 2000 that was written by the Chilean writer and poet, born in Santiago, the capital of the country on April 28 th, 1953 and died in Barcelona, Spain, on July 15, 2003. By Night in Chile, for me anyway, is not a typical Bolaño novel, thus I didn't like it as much when thinking of 2666, The Savage Detectives, and the brilliant collection of short-stories in Last Evenings on Earth. As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. By the end of the story, Urrutia seems to be making a last apology directed to himself, understanding that the reason by which he has led his life is flawed. I'm sticking to that suggestion. There are a number of darkened hallways, closed doors, and isolated hilltops in the book. (Specifically a military coup when people are being tortured and killed in basements while literary parties are taking place upstairs.) By Night in Chile by Roberto Bolano, 9780099459392, available at Book Depository with free delivery worldwide. December 1st 2005 The priest even met the famous Chilean poet Neruda at a soiree and later attended his funeral. In Chile, Peaceful Protests Turn Violent by Night President Sebastian Piñera last week canceled two international summits as authorities lose control of capital’s streets As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. The prose is constantly exciting and challenging - at times lyrical and allusive, at others filled with a biting wit (Bolaño has dissected the Chilean literary tradition with such gleeful eloquence that the novel may not win him many dinner invitations back in the country of his birth). As through a crack in the wall, By Night in Chile's single night-long rant provides a terrifying, clandestine view of the strange bedfellows of Church and State in Chile. In one long paragraph, Bolaño moves deftly through Father Sebastián's life, using the priest's fears about his own choices and actions as a means to point an accusing finger at the Chilean literati, at modern society in Europe and the Americas, at all of us. Nevertheless, as a Bolaño fan it was still worth reading, and it felt like writer who had an enviable control over every heartbeat, every change in tempo, and every dazzling image. An Instagram fanatic coaches his friend on how to take the best photos of him. James Wood from The New York Times said By Night in Chile was “still his greatest work”[1], Ben Richards, writing in The Guardian, said "this is a wonderful and beautifully written book by a writer who has an enviable control over every beat, every change of tempo, every image. Welcome back. The story takes place on the deathbed of Jesuit priest Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, as he confesses to his failure to … UP. And he writes mainly about other writers, poets, literary critics. Urrutia is chosen to teach Augusto Pinochet and his top generals about Marxism after the coup and death of President Allende. I found the novel mesmerizing. How postmodern can one get? Does the world needs another review of "By Night in Chile"? Is it brave and wise to read Thucycides and Plato when a democratically elected president is being overthrown, or just stupid and detached? His family moved to Mexico City when he was still a teenager. Add to basket. Taking place over the course of a single evening, the book is the macabre, feverish monologue of a flawed man and a failed priest. Provocative and slyly funny, By Night in Chile, is a good introduction to Roberto Bolano. "[2], The Millions wrote "Bolaño’s novella is a psychological portrait of complicity, and the ways in which we rationalize our complicity. It ended up being quite a ride, beautiful and funny and dark and horrible and depressing all at once. By Night In Chile Adjust Share By Lola Arias, By Lola Arias, from her play The Year I Was Born, recently produced at the Under the Radar Festival, in New York. And it’s usually later. It is hard to go wrong with partying in Chile, but the biggest mistake is showing up too early. But, for someone who’s read only the first third of the novel, well my friend, might I humbly suggest pulling this down from your ‘seduced and abandoned shelf’ for reconsideration? With Alina Tamara, Patrick Oury. More than anything else, Bolaño has shown me that truly great literature can be more often than not be interpreted as strongly political in nature. Robert Bolaño, By Night in Chile, Harvill Press, London, 2000; ISBN: 1-84343-035-5. Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. Except for the final sentence, the book is written without paragraphs or line breaks. Through a spellbinding combination of feverish memories and anecdotes, dreams and nightmares recalled, and desperate justifications of past actions and inaction, Father Sebastián leads the reader through an evocative and disturbing picture of life and art in Pinochet's Chile. By Night in Chile By Night in Chile (Spanish title: Nocturno de Chile) is a novella written by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño, and first published in 2000. Hovered between three and four stars but the super-bold/perfect last line thoroughly cocked it up to four, plus I'll need to read it again in a single sitting (or two) instead of several. 'By Night in Chile' is an example of the one-paragraph, stream-of-consciousness novel. I’ll single out one particular section as being my personal favorite: there is a very long sentence that runs from page 81 - 82 (in this edition, the New Directions paperback) in which the entire chunk of history from Allende’s election through Pinochet’s coup occurs in the background while the narrator keeps to himself and rereads basically the entirety of Classical Greek literature. Dull at times (not dull - like watching a perfect snowfall while sitting on a slow-moving train, mesmerizing like that) but sometimes trained falcons protect cathedrals from pigeons and their shit (ah! Buy By Night in Chile by Bolaño, Roberto (ISBN: 9780099459392) from Amazon's Book Store. Not surprisingly, Urrutia's criticism is met with more applause than his poetry (written under a pen-name) and there is little if any mention of Urrutia attending to matters of the church until two individuals from a shipping company (likely undercover government operatives) send him on a trip through Europe, where he meets priest after priest engaged in falconry. Good enough for me. I knew next to nothing about the contents of this book when I started in on it, just that it consisted of a single long paragraph and concerned a priest recounting his collaboration with the Pinochet regime. Overall. It ended up being quite a ride, beautiful and funny and dark and horrible and depressing all at once. With confidence & style, Bolano continues his attempt at crystallizing the exploits of the literati in Latin America—here more specifically, in Chile. At Farewell's estate he encounters the critic's close friend Pablo Neruda and later begins to publish literary criticism and poetry. A single-sitting read, so artfully paced, so musical, it leaves you breathless. This short novel is first and foremost a pleasure to read, due to its easy, flowing style; its consistently coherent and engaging stream of consciousness. By Night in Chile, for me anyway, is not a typical Bolaño novel, thus I didn't like it as much when thinking of 2666, The Savage Detectives, and the brilliant collection of short-stories in Last Evenings on Earth. Long sentences, steady tone, recollected in uneasy tranquility, like Bernh. And it is so true for all his books I've read so far. And so I proceeded. During the course of a single night, Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest, who is a member of Opus Dei, a literary critic and a mediocre poet, relives some of the crucial events of his life. The story begins with the lines "I am dying now, but I still have many things to say", and proceeds to describe, after a brief mention of joining the priesthood, how Father Urrutia entered the Chilean literary world under the wing of a famous, albeit fictitious, tacitly homosexual literary critic by the name of Farewell. This wild, eerily compact novel—Roberto Bolano's first work available in … A hypnotic deathbed confession revolving around Opus Dei, crazed schemes, poetry, and Pinochet, By Night in Chile pours out the self-justifying dark memories of Father Urrutia, a half-hearted Chilean priest. by New Directions. It might be traced all the way to Don Quixote, but more recently it is very visible in the modern Latin American Literature starting from Borges, the Argentinians, and all the way to Zambra and Luisseli). Fantastic writing, also, of course. . 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