Milo and the Calf

Review: Bolano’s Distant Star

Distant Star

Roberto Bolano

Perhaps my favorite Bolano book yet.* A spin off of one of the chapters in Nazi Literature in the America’s this is the story of psychopathic fascist poet and murder. It’s also the story of how we justify Chile under dictatorship, the politics of art, and what literature is. Like all Bolano’s its gorgeously written – just on the edge of showy, but not quite there. It’s got obscure fictional fascist publications, idealistic political dissidents, crazed murders and the after effects of life in a police state. It’s wonderful, and kind of unexplainable.

You should read it.

Recommended.

*though Savage Dectectives and 2666 still sit on mys helves, unread, taunting me

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  1. 2016: My Year In Books | Milo and the Calf

    […] I also painted with an absurdly large brush. I conflated the vastly different experiences of a Chilean poet and a Dominican novelist under the umbrella […]

    Reply
  2. Stanislav Feldman

    I am curious, did you prefer it to By Night in Chile? It was the first thing I read by Bolano, and it blew me away.

    Reply
    1. seanv2

      I did! Had a great conversation with some friends about this very issue. By Night In Chile is great, a but more pyrotechnic in its style, but I think Distant Star is a better book.

      Reply
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