Novelist and poet Roberto Bolano died in 2003 at the age 50. Before his death he had became known as an important writer in the Spanish-speaking world. His two huge novels, The Savage Detectives (1998, 2007 English translation) and 2666 (2004) were particularly acclaimed. Since his death the majority of his works have been translated into English and he’s become the not so obscure cult literary name to drop. His last novel – 2666 was completed in a frenzy of writing before his death and emerged in English in 2008. Distant Star is one of many novellas Bolano wrote in Spain whilst in exile from Chile. Like many Chileans with something to lose he fled the country after a brief period of imprisonment in 1973 after Pinochet’s coup. After leading an itinerant life he finally settled in Spain and undertook numerous menial jobs whilst writing at night. Distant Star is linked with another work - History of Nazi Literature in Latin America (1996, English translation 2008). Bolano refers to it in a forward to Distant Star, stating that: “In the final chapter of my novel…I recounted in less than twenty pages and perhaps too schematically, the story of Lieutenant Ramirez Hoffman of the Chilean air force, which I heard from fellow Chilean, Arturo B…He was not satisfied with my version.”Humorously Bolano claimed that he and Arturo shut themselves up in his house and that during the writing of this extended version his role mainly consisted of “preparing refreshments” and “consulting a few books.” As good a clue as any that Arturo is based on Bolano himself. Although the narrator of Distant Star is not revealed I believe that it is Arturo (therefore Bolano) recounting how he and his fellow poets interacted with the enigmatic Alberto Ruiz Tagle. Tagle both attracts and repulses his fellow young poets and as the book moves on his story becomes macabre and sinister. Tagle disappears and later emerges as a pilot in the Chilean air force going under the name of Weider. The narrative recounts how he attempts to create the ‘New Chilean Poetry’ by writing poetry in the sky using an old German WWII fighter plane. He goes on to become famous throughout Chile due to his sky writing exploits.This is a deceptive book with layers of meaning and humour so black that it seems to be forged from the dark matter that holds the galaxies together. The tales of Weider spin their web and become surreal and bleakly farcical in nature. However, the book has serious intentions, although they are not immediately obvious - the mark of a quality writer. The prose is subtly compelling and I found myself drawn into the narrator’s obsession with Weider. The last part of the book becomes like a detective narrative, with the narrator himself drawn into a manhunt for Weider. As the book drew to its conclusion I strongly felt that I was being lead towards a certain understanding or insight. I did eventually get there, although I’m not going to elaborate simply because I don’t want to give the game away. Distant Star is one of those books that you find yourself thinking about for days and weeks later - thoughts emerging uninvited to spark ideas and then finally understanding. This is the kind of rare book that I always look for, providing an interaction that goes far beyond actually finishing the book. The Savage Detectives also had this effect on me. I felt like I lived with its characters and it stayed with me for months after. Bolano’s critical status may be a bit over the top, but reading Distant Star has reinforced the notion that he is a significant writer. If you attempt to read Bolano and falter, bear in mind that he is worth persevering with through the tangents, the obscure concepts and his obsession with poets and poetry. He has something important to say about humanity and what he has to say is open to interpretation without suffering from being too diffuse. It’s also worth remembering that Bolano was predominately a poet, only turning to prose to provide a more secure future for his family. As he was slowly dying from a diseased liver he invested his remaining energy into longer works and he succeeded in creating a unique body of work. Invest some time yourself, buy his books and go out on a limb. You will not regret it.From my blog http://excelsiorforever.blogspot.com.au/
Que libro! Cómo puede concentrar tanto un libro aparentemente tan pequeño. Por dónde empezar? El mejor libro que he leído, de los chilenos, de Bolaño. Porque cuando se pone chileno se pone muy muy chileno. Esta historia, la de Carlos Wieder, un maligno, un hombre hecho en el mundo militar de la dictadura chilena, en donde todo le es permitido. Es la otra cara de la moneda de “los Detectives Salvajes”, está siempre presente la poesía, está el reconstruir hechos, pero mientras los detectives son dos locos que pasan por muchos momentos de la historia, mexicana, aquí se trata de un ser terrible, que vive bajo la protección de la dictadura chilena, que solo puede ser lo que es como parte de un todo que le es cómplice. Como dice un oficial al tratar de defenderlo “sólo hizo lo que todos los chilenos tuvieron que hacer, debieron hacer.. Quién en medio del terremoto de la historia, podía culparlo de haberse excedido en el cumplimiento del deber?” Hay otros personajes claro, siempre poetas, la poesía siendo un elemento unificador en medio de todo y casi un personaje en la historia.Hay escritores, artistas, perdidos en medio de un mundo revolucionado, también revolucionarios, que juegan diferentes papeles en esa reconstrucción. Y hay lugar para que el protagonista imagine lo que ha sido de ellos, está todo lo que se va perdiendo, la gente que conoció y que perdió, de quienes solo sabe por el “triste folklor del exilio”. Ese exilio, solo deja eso, pedazos de historias personales que se pueden intentar reconstruir, y las amistades, las familias, van quedando en el camino.La escena más horrorífica para mí es la de la exposición, ay! No solo por lo que muestra, sino por la reacción de complicidad de los presentes. Y el hecho de que lo puedan defender. Es terrible. Terrible porque además habla de la realidad, no es un invento, Bolaño tiene una forma de llevarlo a la vida tque te deja sin aliento. Sus personajes simplemente están reconstruyendo, juntando los datos y armando una historia que pueda ayudarles a completar el retrato de un personaje. Me gusta porque no intenta juzgar, simplemente hacer un retrato, y es más fuerte que cualquier argumento. “En parte era su historia… y en parte era la historia de Chile. Una historia de terror.” Este libro te pone de frente con la realidad, mejor que cualquier libro de historia. Arriba Bolaño, que con su arte nos puede despertar a todos.Alucinante.
What do You think about Distant Star (2004)?
Vintage Books continue their Roberto Bolaño series with Distant Star, a short work translated into English by Chris Andrews in 2004, and which won the prestigious Valle-Inclán Prize.Distant Star, a short novella, not even 150 pages long, opens with an explanation by Bolaño that the story that follows is a fuller retelling of a story first recounted in Nazi Literature in America (1996), a version that would be ‘a mirror and an explosion.’ However the note is not all it seems to be, and neither is the story that follows. The story is this: an unnamed narrator is trying to reconstruct the life and works of a poet and military assassin in Pinochet’s Chile. Distant Star has the same reflexive qualities of 2666 and The Savage Detectives, but is less epic in scope than those works – and though the focus at first appears slighter because of it, Distant Star proves itself another masterpiece from Bolaño.“Like the story of Chile itself in those years, the story of Jason Stein, who ran our poetry workshop, is larger than life.”This explanation, given at the start of chapter four, reveals much. Bolaño is as interested in Alberto Ruiz-Tagle and Chile’s poets as he is in the nature of the country itself. Distant Star, unlike his other short novella, By Night in Chile (2000), only really hints at the crimes of Pinochet’s Chile, but their insidious nature underscores every page. There is fear and suspicion here.I think the fascination with Bolaño’s work is that he is a South American writer unafraid of facing these issues directly: others would face them through magic realism and indulgent fantasy; Bolaño tackles things head on. He is unafraid of the fight, of apportioning blame. It is what makes Distant Star, and all of Bolaño’s work that I have read so far, so powerful and unmissable. He is the shining star of South American fiction.
—Ben Dutton
A satire on the insular world of creative writing; and the skywriting literature of Carlos Wieder forecasts, perhaps, the ephemeral writing of the Internet (the book was originally published in 1996 when the World Wide Web was still figuring itself out). This book is for anybody who has ever cracked open the latest Granta, Tin House or Kenyon Review with that stomach-deep sick feeling (that primal intuition) that you'd see the name of a creative writing class rival in the Table of Contents. ***See also the entry for the Infamous Ramirez Hoffman in Nazi Literature in the Americas (which is referenced as a real-in-the-fictional-world text a few times throughout the novel).
—R.
Forty years ago, Chile's elected president, Salvador Allende, was overthrown by the Pinochet regime. Reading Roberto Bolaño novella DISTANT STAR today, recollections of the coup events and, especially, their aftermath re-emerge vividly in my mind. In this work, originally published (in Spanish) in 1996, the author confronts us with different kinds of regime collaboration, from the activist to the sections of society that see themselves as standing innocently at the sidelines. While fictionalizing his scenarios and characters, with hindsight we can recognize many aspects not only of the reality of the time but also as experienced in other comparable totalitarian regimes. This is a disconcerting and challenging read that will hang on in the reader's memory.DISTANT STAR opens a short time prior to the coup: a group of left-leaning students and their poet-teacher are debating literary traditions and it current heroes and reciting their own writing efforts. Among the group are the unnamed narrator, his friend Bibiano, and Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, the charming, somewhat enigmatic figure, who, we learn from the outset, will become known as Carlos Wieder.From the outset the reader is put on notice that the narrative may not be as straightforward and reliable as we might expect. In the book's introduction, Bolaño explains that DISTANT STAR is the 'rewrite' of the last chapter of his previous novel, NAZI LITERATURE IN THE AMERICAS, in particular the portrait of one of those writers featured in that novel. If that sounds confusing, it probably is, but also, very likely, deliberately so. Much is told in indirect voice creating the illusion of distance between the narrator and his subject.Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, aka Carlos Wieder, is the focus of the story that soon evolves into a kind of personal investigation by the narrator and his main source, Bibiano. 'Wieder', German 'again', seems a very fitting name for somebody who appears again and again whenever there is political upheaval. After the coup his position as army pilot is revealed and what his "new Chilean poetry" consists of: "There, high above the city, it [the plane] began to write a poem in the sky. […] But then suddenly, the letters appeared, as if the sky itself had secreted them. Perfectly formed letters of grey-black smoke on the sky's screen of rose-tinged blue, chilling the eyes of those who saw them…"But that is just the beginning, an innocent one, of his actions… Bolaño expands his sharp critique to include those in society, who, in order to remain on the side of political power, can afford to overlook and/or quietly condone the brutality as long as it is presented as of no or little consequence to them and the society at large. Carlos Wieder, meanwhile, moved on to other quests.
—Friederike Knabe
