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For fans of his work, it’s great to see that Bolano continues to get great attention. Nazi Literature in the Americas is on display at every bookstore I’ve been in recently, and has been getting decent review coverage, including a long piece in The Nation by Carmen Boullosa, which concludes with a strong endorsement:
The reader looking for information about Nazi writers who lived—or live—in Latin America had best look elsewhere. Those who want to revel in some lively, picaresque writing charged with hilarity and irony—and to step through the door into Roberto Bolaño’s private and handcrafted tradition—will find reading this book enjoyable, if that’s the right word for watching a parade of monsters go by.
This review is part of a trio of pieces on Bolano that were published in the March 31st issue of The Nation. Marcela Valdes—contributing editor to PW, NBCC board member, and all around awesome person—wrote one on Bolano’s Between Parentheses, a collection of essays, and Forrest Gander—poet, translator, referenced in our earlier Poetry post—has an essay on Bolano’s poetry. (Gander’s piece is only available online to subscribers.)
All three pieces are great on their own, but together this is pretty amazing. It’s great to see a major magazine creating a context for a writer of Bolano’s stature. Rather than doing a one-off, this truly provides readers with a slew of entry points to Bolano’s oeuvre. It’s a great idea, and one that I hope they employ in the future.
On the subject of Bolano, over at Bookninja there’s a conversation between David Orr, Marcela Valdes, and Carmine Starnino about The Savage Detectives. Very interesting and worth checking out.
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