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The Insufferable Gaucho edition by Roberto Bolaño Chris Andrews Literature Fiction eBooks

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The Insufferable Gaucho edition by Roberto Bolaño Chris Andrews Literature Fiction eBooks

This is kind of a hodgepodge collection, five short stories and two essays. The title piece and longest story doesn't feel like anything else Bolano ever wrote: its got a weirdly pastoral, homey quality to it as we watch an Argentine judge return to the village of his youth following an economic collapse. It's not bad, but it's not really a style that plays to Bolano's strengths. The stories here mostly feel redundant, like weaker variations of things he's done better in his other work.

BUT. The story 'Police Rat' (about a gritty rat cop trying to solve a series of serial killings in an underground rat civilization). Is not simply the strongest thing here, but very possibly the strongest fiction Bolano ever created, period. Maybe even better than 2666, Distant Star, and By Night in Chile.

Never has the ominous sense of dread he evokes, of some impossible evil lying just around the corner, been presented more powerfully. And the set-up of the whole thing, of someone trying to solve a forgotten mystery in a hopelessly marginal, doomed civilization, feels like the most direct distillation of his interests I've ever come across. If you can't be bothered to read 2666, read this instead. It's the seed that book comes out of, and for my money the best short story I've read in quite some time.

The two essays at the end are discursive, free-wheeling and angry. Bolano confronts the illness that would eventually kill him, and what he felt was the middle-class mediocrity of Spanish language literature towards the end of his life. They offer interesting, erudite perspectives, but are nowhere near as dazzling as his fictions. It's a mixed bag, but 'Police Rat' on its own makes the entire thing worth reading


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The Insufferable Gaucho edition by Roberto Bolaño Chris Andrews Literature Fiction eBooks Reviews

I always prefer a novel to a novella. Short pieces are far down on my list of `druthers. I've made an exception for Bolano, whom I've recently discovered and raised to a priority on my reading list.

This book has 5 short stories and 2 essays. The short stories are very good and I highly recommend each of them. The essays ramble; hence, the 4 star rating.

Each short story has very different content and style. The shortest piece, "Jim" is first, and serves, sort of, as an introduction in that it may be a signature for the author. The title piece is next, which is a commentary on social, political and economic life in Argentina followed by the somewhat allegorical "Police Rat". "Two Catholic Tales" tells parallel stories using a unique numbered non-paragraph format. My favorite story in this collection, "Alvero Rousselot's Journey", shows the activity of daily life and how the unexpected can be quite mundane through an excellent development of character and plot.

I read the stories in two sittings, but, should have savored each on its own, one or two at a sitting... or maybe, even, one a week. There is a lot to think about in each and each deserves, and will get, a re-read.

The essays ramble. The one on illness may have been written in Bolano's last months in 2003, but may be collected material with excerpts from the later personal experience. There is no way to know. I may have derived more from the one on literature had I more knowledge of South American writers and popular culture, but even without this knowledge, the meaning is very clear. While some ideas are presented in an original way, conculusions are not new, the same can be said for North American literature.

There are no notes or introductions, not even dates. The translator, perhaps, took pity on the poor reader (or maybe it's required by IP law or courtesy) and offered some fine print notes on the copyright page. One provocative note alludes to "Josephine the Singer or The Mouse People" by Kafka.
... at all. The writing was that of a beginner, not entertaining at all and not making any sense other than what was inside the writer's mind. Contrary to the friend that suggested I read Bolaño, who truly loves his writings, simply did not do it for me.
Didn't think it was. That good.
Harry
Each story is completely different and will leave you thinking for days. They may start off slow but once you get I to it there's no putting the book down. Police Rat is by far one if the most profound and disturbing peices of writing I have ever read. Mid story I had to go back to re-read parts that were very deep and each time they gave me more insight into the plot. I couldn't read another story for two weeks after because I was still digesting that one. It's worth getting this book if only for that story alone.
This is kind of a hodgepodge collection, five short stories and two essays. The title piece and longest story doesn't feel like anything else Bolano ever wrote its got a weirdly pastoral, homey quality to it as we watch an Argentine judge return to the village of his youth following an economic collapse. It's not bad, but it's not really a style that plays to Bolano's strengths. The stories here mostly feel redundant, like weaker variations of things he's done better in his other work.

BUT. The story 'Police Rat' (about a gritty rat cop trying to solve a series of serial killings in an underground rat civilization). Is not simply the strongest thing here, but very possibly the strongest fiction Bolano ever created, period. Maybe even better than 2666, Distant Star, and By Night in Chile.

Never has the ominous sense of dread he evokes, of some impossible evil lying just around the corner, been presented more powerfully. And the set-up of the whole thing, of someone trying to solve a forgotten mystery in a hopelessly marginal, doomed civilization, feels like the most direct distillation of his interests I've ever come across. If you can't be bothered to read 2666, read this instead. It's the seed that book comes out of, and for my money the best short story I've read in quite some time.

The two essays at the end are discursive, free-wheeling and angry. Bolano confronts the illness that would eventually kill him, and what he felt was the middle-class mediocrity of Spanish language literature towards the end of his life. They offer interesting, erudite perspectives, but are nowhere near as dazzling as his fictions. It's a mixed bag, but 'Police Rat' on its own makes the entire thing worth reading