About this title: Father Urrutia wanted to be a poet but ended up a Jesuit literary critic who hobnobs with the famous and the mighty. Then he is secretly recruited to teach the dictator Pinochet the history of Marxism. Roberto Bolaņo's novel recounts all this in the priest's deathbed confession--a searing attack on the corruption and horror embedded deeply in ...
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Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
ISBN-13:9780811215473ISBN:0811215474
Description: Very Good. 0811215474 Paperback, Condition: Very Good; this book is in very good condition with light curve to the spine / light reading creases to the covers. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: New Directions
Date Published: 2003-12-01
ISBN-13:9780811215473ISBN:0811215474
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780811215473. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corpor
Date Published: 2003
ISBN-13:9780811215473ISBN:0811215474
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Like New. SHIPS FROM GERMANY. NO EXPEDITED SHIPPING! Allow 10-14 business days for delivery. Please always check the language in the product description section. Few left in stock-order soon. Selling online since 1995. Code: L20091106150713I. read more
"I was really excited to read this after having read glowing critical reviews. Truthfully, I never really "got into" the story. It was a quick read, and eloquently translated but I never made an emotional connection with the characters or the events. The narrative is a stream of consciousness....a dying man looking back on his life and judging his own behavior and detachment from reality during a gruesome political upheaval in his country. I'm under the impression that this confession should be disturbing to the reader, but it just misses the mark. Translation, perhaps?"
"In one regard, I am surprised that this is the first book of his to be translated. While it is short, the 130 page paragraph aspect is intimidating to the reader. Were it not for the fact that I have a few of his books that I have decided to save for last for the sake of savoring, I likely would have read this one last due to that reason. However, while a 130 page paragraph is difficult to read in multiple sittings, in this instance, it becomes hypnotizing in one. In fact, I don't think that I have ever seen someone do so much with 130 pages. While it is not Bolano's most enjoyable work, this novel (novella?) may be his most complete and perfected. I should have been to bed an hour ago, but I quite literally could not put the book down until I was finished, if that says anything."
"I decided in order to review this book I would read other reviews to help me understand the book I read one sentence of one review which said something like Bolano spends a lot of time making diversion while he takes you from plot point to plot point. I stopped here because I don't believe that this book has any plot. I mean I think the only way that you could assume that this book has a plot is if you forced one on it because you require books to have one. This is not an eco book where he is simply disinterested in the plot, he doesn't seem to have bothered to think of one to begin with.
Now I read wikipedia for more thoughts to react to because I am too sleepy to think of things on my own. wikipedia says this books is remarkably accessible. I strongly disagree. It is extremely confusing and convoluted. It seems to me to be a step down from joyce, but not much of a step down, perhaps because of the lack of plot.
On the other hand this is exactly the book that I asked for when I read the Swallows of Kabul. No wrapped up ending other than the one every person has, just several moments of life.
This book appears to be one paragraph meaning you have to read it all in as few sittings as possible.
I have trouble rating this book because I feel it will settle with me and I will have fond memories of it, but right now when I remember it so well I simply feel confused. I give the book a tentative four stars for innovation and giving me what I claim to want. The genius I think is in the blurring of the book with time. Although I felt while reading it that I should instantly read it again because I didn't understand all of it. I think that clarity makes something like this suffer. A death bed rant exists best in the natural form of a memory. A simple collage of this is me, who am I? and that is what this book gives you. That never makes sense in the moment, but like Emerson says nothing looks consistent while you are doing it, but when you see the overall trajectory everything makes sense.
In fact after this processing I have decided this book deserves its four stars. (Unlike the unnamed recent reviews where I talked myself down a star writing the review)"
"After completing every Bolaño book that I've read so far, I've said to myself, "I need to read that again!" By Night In Chile is no exception, but my desire to go through this novel again is perhaps stronger than the feeling I've had for any other Bolaño book. It's written as a single 130-page paragraph and in a semi-stream-of-consciousness style; it's hard sometimes to tell if you're reading about the narrator's real experiences, a dream he's had, or a story someone else is telling him. Things get confusing. But like every other Bolaño work, you can feel this one building towards something monstrous, but the monster stays on the sidelines here...or does it? I definitely have to read it again to find out. This one is probably only for Bolaño fanatics or those who have read some of his other works."
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