Los Detectives Salvajes (Narrativas Hispanicas) (Narrativas Hispanicas) (Narrativas Hispanicas) (Spanish Edition) [Paperback]

Roberto Bolano (Author)

Book Description

Series: Narrativas Hispanicas | Publication Date: January 1, 1998

Arturo Belano y Ulises Lima, los detectives salvajes, salen a buscar las huellas de Cesarea Tinajero, la misteriosa escritora desaparecida en Mexico en los anios inmediatamente posteriores a la Revolucion, y esa busqueda el viaje y sus consecuencias se prolonga durante veinte anos, desde 1976 hasta 1996, el tiempo canonico de cualquier errancia, bifurcandose a traves de multiples personajes y continentes, en una novela en donde hay de todo: amores y muertes, asesinatos y fugas turisticas, manicomios y universidades, desapariciones y apariciones. Sus escenarios son Mexico, Nicaragua, Estados Unidos, Francia, Espana, Austria, Israel, africa, siempre al compas de los detectives salvajes poetas desperados, traficantes ocasionales, Arturo Belano y Ulises Lima, los enigmaticos protagonistas de este libro que puede leerse como un refinadisimo thriller wellesiano, atravesado por un humor iconoclasta y feroz. Entre los personajes destaca un fotografo espanol en el ultimo escalon de la desesperacion, un neonazi borderline, un torero mexicano jubilado que vive en el desierto, una estudiante francesa lectora de Sade, una prostituta adolescente en permanente huida, una procer uruguaya en el 68 latinoamericano, un abogado gallego herido por la poesia, un editor mexicano perseguido por unos pistoleros a sueldo?

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Born in 1953 and a resident of Spain since 1977, Chilean author Bolano didn't publish his first work of fiction until he was 43, but he's certainly made up for lost time. In the last five years he's published seven books, the last of which, Llamadas telefonicas (Telephone Calls, Anagrama, 1997), solidified his reputation as one of Latin America's premier postmodernist writers. In this his latest novel, Bolano presents the life of Sebasti n Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest and minor poet who, under the pseudonym H. Ibacache, doubles as one the country's most important literary critics. "Now I'm dying," Sebasti n declares in the book's first line, "but I still have a lot to say... There are some things that must be cleared up." Thus begins a hallucinatory rant in which Sebasti n recounts his adventures as part of Santiago's literary scene and attempts to justify his flirtations with the darker side of Chilean politics. (After all, this is the era of Pinochet, when, in Bolano's view, even society women can hide horrors in their basements.) A classic use of the unreliable narrator and a powerful allegory about the deceptions of political life, Bolano's novel is another success. Strongly recommended for both libraries and bookstores. Marcela Vald?s, "Criticas"
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

Review

“Un maravilloso torrente de emoción, una meditación histórica brillante, una fantasía cautivadora. Nocturno de Chile es uno de esos raros y auténticos prodigios: una novela contemporánea destinada a ocupar para siempre un lugar en la literatura universal”. —Susan Sontag

“La posguerra chilena y la literatura imbuyen esta inteligente y ricamente evocadora novela. La narrativa febril de Bolaño y sus ocasionales toque surrealistas nos recuerdan a los clásicos latinoamericanos del Realismo Mágico”. —The New York Times --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 609 pages
• Publisher: Anagrama (January 1, 1998)
• Language: Spanish
• ISBN-10: 8433910868
• ISBN-13: 978-8433910868
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,324,801 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Author of 2666 and many other acclaimed works, Roberto Bolaño (1953-2003) was born in Santiago, Chile, and later lived in Mexico, Paris, and Spain. He has been acclaimed "by far the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time" (Ilan Stavans, The Los Angeles Times)," and as "the real thing and the rarest" (Susan Sontag). Among his many prizes are the extremely prestigious Herralde de Novela Award and the Premio Rómulo Gallegos. He was widely considered to be the greatest Latin American writer of his generation. He wrote nine novels, two story collections, and five books of poetry, before dying in July 2003 at the age of 50. Chris Andrews has won the TLS Valle Inclán Prize and the PEN Translation Prize for his Bolaño translations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ethereal journey., November 9, 2004

By 

Javier A. Moreno (Lyon, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Detectives Salvajes/the Savage Detectives (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

I was there, I saw them walking on the street leaving the world behind. I was there when they left Mexico and when they came back. I was one of the few who remembers the chilean who saved the girl. I was there when Belano arrived to Africa. I've never understood their motives. I was a distant witness of a story thousands and thousands larger than mine. I was there, like a ghost.

Los Detectives Salvajes is the kind of book that you read to realize that you haven't read enough. This astounding novel takes you in a strange journey following the steps of two latinoamerican poets while they escape from an unknown past. It's a novel about the books that will never be written and the writers who were condemned to be their authors.

I strongly recommend you this book. This is Bolaño's best, and Bolaño is, undoubtly, one of the best spanish-speaking writters of late 20th century.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The novel that all the next generation writters must read, August 12, 2004

By 

Castulo Aceves Orozco (Guadalajara, México) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Los Detectives Salvajes/the Savage Detectives (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

Enrique VilaMatas said about this book, "And historic Move on to Cortazar's Rayuela". Since then, and a year after Bolaño's death, I've hear all kind of opinions. The real fact is, that in despite of comparing the quality, the structure or the author, this book is a step over the latinamerican literature.

In a time when all the american boom's writters had started to repeat each others, "Los detectives Salvajes" is proposing a new kind of literature. A literature that is easy to read (fluid) but hard to understand. As Carver, everything is a metaphore of something big, in an aparently common anecdote.

Maybe you could like this book, maybe not. But it is a MUST if you want to keep in touch with the new literature.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars If you're curious about Roberto Bolano, this may be a good book to start., July 7, 2007

By 

Antonio Gonzalez (Amarillo, TX U.S. A.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Nocturno de Chile (Narrativas Hispanicas, 293) (Spanish Edition) (Paperback)

NOCTURNO DE CHILE is a short book, 150 pages. Its text is presented without subdivisions: no chapters, no parts I, II etc. The book is the final confession of a dying priest Father Sebastian Urrutia , in essence, the story of his life. The events are presented in chronological order. The author often strays into metaphoric soliloquies and sometimes springs us with shower of strange, names. Beware, this eclectic bibliographies do very little to obscure a straight forward plot:

While, still an adolescent seminarian, Sebastian receives and unexpected invitation by a famous critic, Farewell, to a week-end stay at a his country estate. More than ever, Sebastian considered himself now favored by the muses and his Christian God. All goes well: during the visit he is introduced by Farewell, to the Chilean Nobel Laureate poet Pablo Neruda. And he meets many other Chilean poets. After the official recitations and laudations of the night,the host invites Sebastian to secretely watch Neruda, reciting by moonligh in the garden, the entranced young man is abruptly brought back to reality, as he finds himself the object and subject of Farewell's sexual advances.

No, this novel is not another case presentation of character disorders or about Gothic class injustice. Farewell's weaknesses are not much of the story. But maybe Bolano is introducing a portent, a foreboding for Sebastian's gathering storm. The communist revolution is due in Chile and so is the blood bath of Pinochet following in step.

After having read four books by Bolano, I consider myself an initiated fan. I thus do not hesitate to recommend him as new genius. If you are concerned about buying a relatively expensive paper- back, by an unknown author, I suggest you may start with this book. NOCTURNO DE CHILE is easy to read, poetic and interesting, and equal to the best of Latin American prose styles.

Happy reading