World Lit Wednesday: BY NIGHT IN CHILE by Roberto Bolaño

ISBN: 9780099459392 [UK]

Continent: South America

Country: Chile

Title: By Night in Chile

Author: Roberto Bolaño

First published in: 2000

"...[H]e said: Pablo's going to win the Nobel Prize. And he said it as if he were sobbing in the middle of an ashen field. And he said: America is going to change. And he said: Chile is going to change. And then his jawbone hung out of joint, but still he said: I won't live to see it" (p. 50).

My first South American novel for the Global Reading Challenge is By Night in Chile by Chilean author Roberto Bolaño. Taking place over the course of one night, the novel follows the wandering thoughts of Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a priest and literary critic who is approaching the end of his life.

What I found interesting about By Night in Chile was the feeling I got while I was reading it that I was inside the narrator's head, drifting in the current of his thoughts and memories. This reminded me a bit of the feeling I had when I tried to read Marcel Proust's The Way by Swann's, another rather beautiful novel of meandering thoughts and philosophical ideas. However, By Night in Chile is much faster paced than The Way by Swann's, and, though a scant 130 pages, it covers a lot of ground. The events that Father Urrutia remembers cover several decades, beginning with his friendship with Farewell, a literary critic who introduces him to the famed poet Pablo Neruda, and spanning over Urrutia's travels to Europe and his return to Chile, where he finds himself teaching classes in Marxism under a cloak of secrecy to the upper echelons of Chile's military. Through all of this reminiscing, Father Urrutia is haunted by thoughts of the "wizened youth," a shadowy figure who has been trailing him, trying to ruin his reputation and discredit his work.

There are a few unique things about this book. For one, there isn't a paragraph break in all 130 pages. The whole narrative is one long paragraph, told in first-person narration with loads of run-on sentences, and no quotation marks to denote speech. But because of the reflective nature of the writing, this not only works, but in parts it's really beautiful.

The novel has plenty of allusions to Chilean culture—famous Chileans dot the landscape of the narrative, important political events are mentioned, and Chilean literature is heavily present throughout the story. I found these things interesting because I don't have much prior knowledge of Chile, and I felt that by reading this book I got a bit of a flavor for the country and its culture.

By the end of the novel, Father Urrutia has started to lose grip on reality as he traverses the terrifying descent toward death. His thoughts become confused and fearful, leaving the reader questioning some of his earlier narrative.

Overall thoughts: I like this book. I think it has some really pretty sections, and enough happens to keep it interesting and moving at a decent pace. But I think if it were any longer it would be difficult to continue reading it due to the lack of breaks in the text.

Three stars out of five for a reflective, literary novel with a sympathetic, flawed protagonist and an interesting set of backing characters.