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Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)
Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)
Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)
Audiobook4 hours

Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)

Written by Roberto Bolaño

Narrated by Walter Krochmal

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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About this audiobook

Es una historia vibrante sobre una serie de acontecimientos que un sacerdote del Opus Dei e importante critico literario chileno vivio durante la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix nos narra sus recuerdos padeciendo una fiebre muy alta y nos hace participes de algunos sucesos historicos en los que el participo en su natal Chile y sin entender el porque sucedio asi, tambien nos hace ver su relacion con importantes figuras del ambito politico y cultural chileno, como Neruda y Pinochet. El ritmo narrativo de Bolano nos hace entender en su particular punto de vista que los acontecimientos historicos en gran parte son generados al libitum y no planeados como la historia lo cuenta una vez consumado el hecho .
LanguageEspañol
Release dateDec 17, 2010
ISBN9781449847111
Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)
Author

Roberto Bolaño

Roberto Bolaño was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1953. He grew up in Chile and Mexico City, where he was a founder of the Infrarealist poetry movement. His first full-length novel, The Savage Detectives, received the Herralde Prize and the Rómulo Gallegos Prize when it appeared in 1998. Roberto Bolaño died in Blanes, Spain, at the age of fifty.

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Reviews for Nocturno de Chile (By Night in Chile)

Rating: 3.7956521553623186 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Juega con el mundo de los críticos, como un niño presumido que se unta la lengua con alfileres para probar sangre fresca. Sobrevuela el
    pensamiento lírico y ahí su grandeza. Quiere ser lo que es.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Bolano's novel is entirely retrospective, told from the point of view of a Catholic priest as he ruminates on his life as a poet and critic in Chile. It was an interesting structural choice although I found the constant second guessing of the narrator, due to the faults of memory, to be a bit grating after a while. The theme of literary immortality reoccurs and Bolano includes some tales throughout the novel, told to the narrator to reinforce the way in which all efforts are temporal even those accomplished with the most high-minded aspirations. I can't say I was too taken with the book on a whole but the narrator's opinions and classical education made this a more rigorous read than I expected.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    There are a pair of immediate observations concerning By Night in Chile. The first involvees its lyrical quality; this is more a cycle of poems than mere standard novella. Episodes unfold and the focus clips along back to the Narrator, who isn't as unreliable as I first guessed. The second acute sense from the book is one of dread. There are a number of darkened hallways, closed doors, and isolated hilltops in the book. One gathers gradually that it isn't sage to look around too closely.

    Confining itself to the Gothic whsiper, By Night in Chile does echo in one trope. There's certainly depth and poetic violence; what I think seperates Bolano is the imaginary bibliography; that Borgesian codex of spectral works which exist in world just so close yet distant from our own dusty trevails.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    And so I move from a book for which there were three reviews (Ivan Klima's 'My First Loves') to this with over 700... Strange how acclaim accumulates in reading circles - rock star status for some, the cabaret circuit for others equally worthy of our praise. In terms of reputation, then, Bolaño puts me in mind of Murakami. In Bolaño's case, the fuss is merited, to some extent at least.

    As ever with Bolaño, there is an extravagantly-named protagonist - Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, in this case - and a large cast of extravagantly-named others, some of whom are genuine historical figures and some pure invention. It concerns the sick-bed (and possibly, death-bed) reminiscences of a Chilean priest who is also a literary critic and minor poet. The priest joins the reactionary and secretive Catholic organisation, Opus Dei, becoming its "most liberal member". The crux of the novella explores Urrutia's ambiguous relationship with Augusto Pinochet's appalling neo-Falangist dictatorship (you remember him, the friend of Margaret Thatcher..)

    'By Night in Chile' is an example of the one-paragraph, stream-of-consciousness novel. In this, it's nothing new. Garcia Marquez's 'The Autumn of the Patriarch' and Bernhard's 'Old Masters' spring to mind. It does mean, though, it's unlikely to prove a good read for those who like their fiction broken up into readily consumed pieces. I found it thoroughly engaging. The compromised nature of Father Urrutia (think of Greene's 'Whisky Priest' here), the surreal and menacing nature of the episodes and some beautiful imagery compelled me to read it almost in one sitting. Well, in one lying, actually... I write this while propped up on one elbow like Urrutia himself, nursing a lower back injury...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Though far shorter than my first encounter with Bolaño, The Savage Detectives, this novella typifies his thematic preoccupations: the fragile sinews that join the literary and the political, the apprehensive nature and mood of memory, and the bizarre events materialized in strained political climates. There is something to Bolaño's work, tonality perhaps, that is so decidedly steeped in the tradition of the Latin American novel. However, he also exceeds it. The beginning of the novel, WHere Urrutia travels to Farewell's estate, appropriately named La Bas after the novel by Huysmans, possesses a decidedly Decadent mood that the book never fully shakes off. This book is a bit haunted, but by what? The hypocrisies of the Church? The blood on the boots of Pinochet? Above all, by the fear of transformation. A fear inspired by the knowledge that as we live the world moves and churns outside us indifferent to our wants and despite our protest, and when we die it moves beyond us, and all that remains is a series of soft impressions that we utter or pen down, trying to situate our small incision in the fabric of history. That is what this novella captures, with exactitude and seamless grace.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    At the end of his sorry life, a catholic priest, intellectual and poet tells the stories that keep swirling in his mind, asking him the uncomfortable rethorical question, again and again: have you done the right thing, have you acted as you should have, what have you done, where have you been, and why that and there, why not something else, somewhere else? The question is targeted at all Chilean intellectuals, writers and artists and shows the disappointment the young generation is bound to feel. Personally, I could not enjoy or appreciate the author's style, but much could have been lost in translation and culture. since I am not familiar with it. It was nevertheless interesting and very intensive read, even if it was a short one.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    As riveting as a conscious descent into dementia can be ... stream of consciousness musings on a life lived under strict self-control, the facade of order falling away as death nears.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In this slim book, Bolaño manages to attack everything from the literati to religion, from politics to dissident desires, from memory and its unreliability to flat-out fabrications and historical inconsistencies.

    The narrative voice here is really the technical vehicle that navigates the reader, and it's at this that Bolaño succeeds in such a wonderfully brilliant and uncharted way. While at times reminiscent of Dostoevsky's Underground Man or Camus's Clamence, or perhaps the comparison is solely rooted in the motif of confession, Bolaño's Urrutia is a literary, religious, political, and existential crisis all his own.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In Bolaño's stream of consciousness narrative, he presents the deathbed confessions of Father Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, a Jesuit in Chile who also wrote as a literary critic and a poet. Through a spellbinding combination of feverish memories and anecdotes, dreams and nightmares recalled, and desperate justifications of past actions and inaction, Father Sebastián leads the reader through an evocative and disturbing picture of life and art in Pinochet's Chile. I found the novel mesmerizing. In one long paragraph, Bolaño moves deftly through Father Sebastián's life, using the priest's fears about his own choices and actions as a means to point an accusing finger at the Chilean literati, at modern society in Europe and the Americas, at all of us.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    His best? Not sure yet. It's certainly the funniest work I've read of his. There are some great comical scenes of the Father teaching Pinochet and his generals the basics of Marxism, as well as a dead-stop hilarious discussion of the merits and uses of literature between the Father and his literary critic friend, Farewell. His genius, I believe, is weaving this tragicomedy into the brief, recollected life. I was expecting to be annoyed by the deathbed flaneur conceit, but very early in the story I bought into the epic sentence 'confessions'...it worked, somehow. One expects this to be a thousand pages long, but he gives us only a fraction of the shit story, one hundred and thirty or so. I also like that he doesn't emphasize his anti style; in other words his style of writing reads as if he doesn't give a shit about style. But of course he does. I think.

    I kick myself for not having the energy or focus to soak up more spanish and read him unfiltered...
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    By night in Chile is a short but powerful book that fits all the frustration and rage against the artist and government of Bolano's day. This story's main character, Father Lacroix, is writing his deathbed confession, a rambling wild ride that takes you through nightmare dreams that characterize the futility of his situation. Lacroix is put to the moral test. Allegories and stories weave in and out to emphasize his dire situation. In the end this was Bolano's protest against artists who would sell their art to politics for personal gain. Those that aided conservatives in Chile during assassinations and torture are just as guilty as those pulling the strings and carrying out. The story is a miniature version of bigger works such as Savage Detectives and 2066. The scene with the Father and Pinochet reminded me of a scene from Detectives (one side justifying their actions by exposing how they are not dissimilar.) a great short read that provide a taut gripping introduction to Bolano."Then, to my astonishment, I realized that nobody gave a damn. The country was populated by hieratic figures, heading implacably towards an unfamiliar, grey horizon, where one could barely glimpse a few rays of light, flashes of lightening and clouds of smoke. What lay there? We did not know. No Sordello. That much was clear. No Guido. No leafy trees. No trotting horses. No discussions or research. Perhaps we were heading towards our souls, or the tormented souls of our forefathers, towards the endless pain spread before our sleepy or tearful eyes, our spent or humiliated eyes, by all the good and bad things that we had done. So it was hardly surprising that nobody cared about my introductory course on Marxism. Sooner or later everyone would get their share of power again. The right, the centre and the left, one big happy family." p. 102
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a failed priest, literary critic, and occasional poet, is dying. In a long and rambling deathbed confession, Urrutia looks back over the achievements and shortcomings in his life with an increasingly shaky grasp of reality. His memories, which range from the specific (meetings with Pablo Neruda, teaching Marxist philosophy to Augusto Pinochet) to the absurd (engaging in falconry with European clergymen), come tumbling out in a stream-of-consciousness style as his end draws nearer. Throughout the narrative, Urrutia takes a decidedly defensive tone as he attempts to justify his actions to the unseen “wizened youth” who sits in judgment.Although brief in length, this is a deceptively complex novel. It can be read as either a straightforward tale of one man’s final thoughts before passing away or as an allegorical and political history of the author’s native land of Chile. It is no secret that Bolaño’s sentiments ran contrary to those of the military dictatorship that controlled the country for many years—in fact, he spent time in jail under the Pinochet regime—and that attitutde of dissent is evident throughout the entire book. However, the story can also be seen as an indictment of the community of Chilean artists and writers that turned a blind eye toward the repression happening around them at that terrible time.‘By Night in Chile’ is not as well known nor as well received as the author’s longer works of fiction (‘The Savage Detectives’, ‘2666’), but that should not dissuade potential readers. Bolaño was a marvelous writer and his talents for stylistic innovation (e.g., the entire story is essentially told in a single paragraph stretching to more than 100 pages) and insights into social conventions and human nature are on full display here. His prose is at once challenging, thought provoking, and profoundly moving, which is a most generous reward for the effort it takes to read it.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Did I like this book? Sure, I liked it, but it was still a major let down. Reading The Savage Detectives and 2666 first, this one was a little slight. I can see how it would have made a splash though when it was first translated. No one writes like Bolano. He deserves the praise. I didn't feel like I learned anything from this book, but perhaps he was not writing this book for me. Perhaps he was writing it for someone else, an accusation against someone else, like a prayer into space.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An elegantly written 'death-bed' confession, full of allegory and innuendo - exploring the tension between silence and complicity in Pinochet's Chilean regime - within the life of priest and sometime poet / literary critic Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, but also the relationship between artists, the intelligensia and authority generally.Bolano's playful spirit shines through although this is a serious and thoughtful novel - I particularly enjoyed the Father's accounts of his visits (or not, as he recalls!) to the soirees of Maria Canales.The somewhat esoteric form of the novel (a single paragraph of 130 pages and a final paragraph of one line) appears at first glance to be intimidating, but as commented by other reviewers, the wonderful rhythmic style of Bolano makes this a pleasure to read.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I'm giving this 3 stars even though I don't feel that I can properly review it. This book must be read in one sitting. It just has to be.And I didn't (read it in one sitting).It has no chapters, no section breaks, no paragraphs. It's just one long monologue.I don't think I quite caught what it was about, thought it's certainly not about one thing. Chile, literature, heroism, honesty...?I'll get back to you when I've re-read it properly....
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    In '2666' Bolano mentions an exchange with a reader of books - maybe a pharmacist by trade, I can't remember - who lists his favourite books as the shorter works of great writers, and Bolano wonders what has happened to the courage of the novel reader (in general) in preferring the shorter, more carefully crafted works to the sprawling epics - 'Bartleby' instead of 'Moby Dick' and so on. So really I should prefer '2666' to 'By Night In Chile', and I do, but only because there's more of Bolano's scintillating writing in the former; this book still contains everything I could possibly ask of a novel, sucking me in as it did with the very first page and spitting me out, a changed man, at the end. 'By Night In Chile' might only last two paragraphs, and run to only 130 pages, but it is as involved and involving as any great novel, and I'm so, so glad that I troubled myself to read it.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Meh. This book was just Not For Me. The writing style had the trifecta of things I hate: no plot, sentences that ran on for pages, and no paragraph breaks at all. Roberto Bolano is supposed to be the greatest Latin American writer since sliced bread. I'll take their word for it. I'm just glad the book wasn't any longer than it was, or I would not have finished it.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    When I picked up this one hundred and fifty pages long book I thought I was in for a tough reading experience: after all the fact that it had only two paragraphs (one of which is one hundred and forty nine pages long...) did suggest a dense piece of literature. But appearences are indeed misleading: it is a very easy to read (although not light), very interesting book. Its main character, an ailing chilean priest and literary critic, indulges in an extensive one night monologue remembering aspects of his life (some pretty bizarre ones, such as when he gave a set of lectures on marxism to Pinochet's Junta) and pondering on the meening of it all. A fast, febrile, writing. An excelend book by one of the most important contemporary latin american writers.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Sordel, Sordello, Which Sordello?Having heard much about the deceased-mega-hyped-Chilean-novelist works, but having yet to read them, I started with his 2000 New Directions published By Night In Chile. Of his oeuvre at the time of this posting eight have been translated into English, and New Directions has plans for at least 6 more titles.Bolano is known for populating his works with actual (and thinly veiled hypothetical) historical and literary figures. By Night and Chile can lay claim as having Pinochet and Nobel prize winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda as characters (with speaking parts).It is a first person account, confessional-memoir of one Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, aka Father Urrutia. A now old Jesuit Priest slash poet who we learn on his deathbed is compelled to “clear up a couple of points” of his life. He does so in a single paragraph or stanza, at times dreamlike, almost always lyrical. (he can do this, he’s a poet after all). In Father Urrutia’s account there are six flashbacks, scenes or slices of time in which form the novels’ chronological structure. We are reliant on the lucidity of his memory, as he “tries to penetrate the phantasmagoric folds of time”. What becomes apparent, immediately, is the reader must treat his tale as an implied poem, or literary work, NOT a report of events. Secondly, he is old and his “memory” waivers in its detail and style suiting Bolano’s purpose perfectly, as his narrator is given a long leash to vary the language from the surreal to the limpid, and since thematically we are examining the relationships of literature/literati vs the state and religion in a culture he has masterfully wielded his form to his function.Besides our narrator, the second most important character is Father Farewell. We are told Farewell is Chile’s most important literary critic, who just by coincidence is ALSO a Jesuit Priest. Farewell acts as a mentor and sounding board for our narrator and a friend of significant Chilean writers (Neruda spends time at his digs). The first section takes place at Farewell’s estate, La Bas, (significantly the name of a novel by the Fin de siècle writer Karl Huysmans). To the background of a haunting tango, there is a bacchanalian scene on the terrace, where the iconic Neruda is spied by the younger narrator chanting to the moon. Farewell drunkenly asks the younger Urrutia if he is familiar with the “role of night” in the Italian Troubadour poets, particularly Sordel de Goit (or) Sordello Da Goito as sometimes known. He chants, Sordel, Sordello, which Sordello? Dante’s Sordello? (he figured in the Purgatory section of The Divine Comedy) Pound’s Sordello? (referenced in the Cantos) or Sordello’s own planh (funeral lament) on the death of his patron, Blacatz? He could be seen as a either the unprincipled historical figure, or Dante’s Sordello, a moral voice of his country. This “confession” parallels Dante’s Sordello, who was prevented from confessing and reconciliation by sudden death.This drunken Sordello riff frames a theme of the novel, and prefigures later scenes that explore the role of the literati, the intelligentsia and their place in one’s country. This early epiphany also sets in motion the young priest Urrutia’s quest to become a “storyteller”(poet). But we also see that he is impressionable, and maleable, and readerly sympathies with him are cast in doubt. This novel is layered with images, allusions and symbols. On second reading, I decided it is as a whole a lot more allegorical than at first glance. Motifs that Urrutia/Bolano works in the text. Birds and more birds, (yes those are pigeons in day glow orange on the novel’s cover page).Urrutia is early on referred to as a fledgling, Farewell is frequently seen having qualities of the falcon. The voice of the popes are referred to the sound “distant screeching of a flock of birds”. There even an insinuated corrupt “Trinity” Poet/Church (Dogma)/ State, but Urrutia asks, does it matter, as long as you are bored, and turn your back on the ugliness:Sooner or later, everyone would get their share of power again. The right, the center, the left, one big happy family…sometimes at night, I would sit on a chair in the dark and ask myself what difference there was between fascist and rebel. Just a pair of words. Two words, that’s all. And sometimes, either one will do! I will resist going further into depth here so as to avoid plot spoilers, but would be happy to discuss my notes in the “Comments”Following the Don Salvador and Opus Dei sections, our judgement and sympathies for our narrator/hero(?) is further questioned when Urrutia in cloak and dagger fashion is solicited and accepts tutoring the illustrious Pinochet junta in Marxism.There is then the question of betrayal. Urrutia needs the assurance of Farewell to measure whether he was right in helping the junta. If one has no moral alignment, no true loyalties, or rather, if the powers are not clear cut, undefined, can there be such thing as betrayal? Who or where, are the patriots? Can there be “patriotism”?Sordel, Sordello, which Sordello? IndeedYou will have to read By Night and Chile and decide for yourself.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book is the deathbed confession of a priest in Chile, during the years surrounding the Allende presidency. The priest is as much of a literary figure as a religious one, and his confession follows his life as a critic and a priest in Opus Dei. It is his job as a critic however, where most of the focus is one. The priest spends his time meeting the rich and powerful and it is these activities that preoccupy the priest in his last days. Overall a good book, and a good introduction to Roberto Bolano, though a little less blood-filled and sex-filled than most of his books.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    The recap of this book sounded interesting. A dissolute and half-hearted priest is recounting his life and transgressions on his deathbed, a confession. He is Chilean and the book is set during the time of Allende and Pinochet. He hob-knobs with the great and the powerful, rather than taking on pastoral duties.The priest, Father Urrutia, is more a priest because he needs a clean day job and doesn't know what else to do, than through any calling or belief in God. He is attracted to literature as a writer and a critic. He is from the pampered upper class and has no real concern for the poor or those who are not in his artistic circle. Unfortunately, the book is rather bland and bloodless. I don't really care about the priest, and I am neither interested nor horrified by his acts of omission and commission. It is a very short book, but very badly written. Its a translation so I am not sure who is to blame. But it is almost 1 sentence that is 130 pages long. I am serious, there is very little punctuation. Perhaps that is why there is a distance to the events and people in the book.The story is more of an excuse for his life and the choices he made, rather than a confession. He really isn't sorry. It is a musing on the life he lead and an attempt to justify himself. He was fine with working for the corrupt and the powerful, as long as his goals were met. He appears not to be a literary giant, and he knows it, so he settles for fame as a critic. He is aware that it gives him power to uplift or to crush others, especially those new to the literary scene.The corrupt dictators also have the power to crush life, but Urrutia is oblivious to that aspect. He seeks out power and wants attention and will take it where he can find it. The implication is that he will even pander sexually to get what he wants.It was short so it wasn't hard to read, and perhaps there is more than I am getting, but I thought it was a very average book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Un uso extremadamente sofisticado del lenguaje, una pena que el contenido no este a la altura del continente.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Some sections of this novel really grabbed me, while others left me too easily distracted. Part of this I chalk up to my own indiscipline, part to the demands of the book: the whole thing is a single paragraph, and many sentences are several pages long. But the writing is elegant and the conceit--the monologue of a dying Chilean priest/literary critic lamenting his quiet complicity with the Pinochet government--is arresting. To better appreciate the narrative's temporal unity, I'd read the whole book in one sitting if I had it to do over again--it's slim at 130 pages, and reads fairly quickly once one finds its rhythm. Strong final sentence: "And then the storm of shit begins."
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Bolano’s slim novel takes the form of a deathbed confession of a Catholic priest, one Father Urrutia. Although by ‘calling’, a priest, Urrutia is by ‘profession’ a writer and literary critic. The historical context is the period from the rise and fall of Allende to the assumption of power by Pinochet and his Generals. The crucial polemic of Bolano’s text is the collaboration - either active or passive - between the elite literati, the clergy and the repressive regime.There is one pointed and powerful metaphor that is drawn toward the end of the novel. Urrutia is part of a literary salon that meets several times a week at the home of a Maria Canales. The talk is of the theater, poetry, literature and all of the arts. Meanwhile, as we later find out, the basement of the house is used as an interrogation chamber for enemies of the state by her husband Jimmy Thompson, a sort of shadow CIA operative.Unfortunately, this one very vivid metaphor does not a compelling novel make. I found it somewhat muddled and lifeless - strangely without much impact.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An odd but ultimately compelling revery, with vivid images & dreamlike logic. Not everything works, but enough does.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    An almost surreal account of a priest who becomes complicit in the period of repression of human rights during the Pinochet regime. It has always been of interest to me how seemingly "civilized" cultures of Latin America which produce great writers and thinkers suddenly plunge into savage violence. This has occurred in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. The novel addresses the mentality that accommodates and justifies totalitarianism.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    It’s Chile sometime in 1990s. These are the last hours of a dying priest. He is lying on his deathbed which he steers through the river of his memory using his hands as oars. All the fused stream of consciousness scenes he goes through while changing landscapes are the flashbacks from his memory. On our journey through his visions, we are taken on a personal journey through his life and through the recent history of Chile. The title then may have a double meaning given the recent Chilean history of political violence.There is an odd beauty in the imagery, an interesting story of priests, falcons, and pigeons, and we meet characters like Pinochet, Neruda and Allende.Recommended if you like Jose Saramago, as Bolano’s style is very reminiscent of his.