Book contents
- Roberto Bolaño in Context
- Roberto Bolaño in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Chronology
- Part I Geographical, Social, and Historical Contexts
- Part II Shaping Events and Literary History
- Part III Genres, Discourses, Media
- Part IV Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics
- Chapter 23 The Abomination of Literature
- Chapter 24 Religion and Politics
- Chapter 25 Gender and Sexuality
- Chapter 26 Race and Ethnicity
- Chapter 27 Trauma and Collective Memory
- Chapter 28 Fictions of the Avant-Gardes
- Chapter 29 Love and Friendship
- Chapter 30 World Literature: Twenty-First-Century Legacies
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 29 - Love and Friendship
from Part IV - Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 December 2022
- Roberto Bolaño in Context
- Roberto Bolaño in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Chronology
- Part I Geographical, Social, and Historical Contexts
- Part II Shaping Events and Literary History
- Part III Genres, Discourses, Media
- Part IV Aesthetics, Culture, and Politics
- Chapter 23 The Abomination of Literature
- Chapter 24 Religion and Politics
- Chapter 25 Gender and Sexuality
- Chapter 26 Race and Ethnicity
- Chapter 27 Trauma and Collective Memory
- Chapter 28 Fictions of the Avant-Gardes
- Chapter 29 Love and Friendship
- Chapter 30 World Literature: Twenty-First-Century Legacies
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
The significance of love and friendship in Bolaño’s life and oeuvre cannot overstated. Many of his best friends were writers or editors, including Roberto Brodsky, Javier Cercas, Jorge Herralde, Ignacio Padilla, Antoni García “A. G.” Porta, and Juan Villoro. That love and friendship were among Bolaño’s central concerns is unmistakably reflected in his oeuvre. For instance, one of the ways the central character Carlos Weider is demonized in Distant Star is precisely by exposing his betrayal of people who were supposed to be his friends, such as the Garmendia sisters. Friendship is often a key topic, if not the main one, in many of his plots, at times the engine that moves the action. In fact, several of his novels could be considered novels about friendship, including The Savage Detectives and parts of 2666. Many of his drifting characters, in Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce, Monsieur Pain, Nazi Literature in the Americas,Distant Star, Amulet, By Night in Chile, Antwerp, The Third Reich, Woes of the True Policeman, and The Spirit of Science Fiction, along with several short stories, have long lost hope in utopian political projects and find solace only in true friendships.
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- Roberto Bolaño In Context , pp. 323 - 332Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023