Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño

Nazi Literature in the Americas Reviews

• 
  s.penkevich

  ‘A novel about order and disorder, justice and injustice, God and the Void.’
  
  In the final narrative of Roberto Bolaño’s Nazi Literature in the Americas—a literary joke that is executed with such deadpan precision it becomes a transcendent work of brilliance—we read the life story of Ramírez Hoffman, member of the Chilean Air Force, poet and cold-blooded murderer of the
  Pinochet regime. Later expanded into the novella,
  Distant Star, this section includes a scene where Hoffman presents a private art exhibit consisting of countless photos of the women he tortured and murdered. It is clearly an act of evil and an indication that art has moral boundaries not to be crossed lest you become evil. However, if one were to find these photos and display the same exhibit in, say, a Human Rights museum, as a overwhelming warning against evil, would the framing remove the art from proximity of being evil and instead turn the same elements into an aesthetic battering ram against evil? This is precisely what Bolaño has done with Nazi Literature in the Americas, an encyclopedia chronicling the lives and works of fascist artists and the literary outlets that gave them a platform. The joke is, however, that none of them are real yet Bolaño never breaks character and presents the entire book in deadpan seriousness as if it were a highly researched academic work. While 20 pages in it may seem like beating a dead horse of a joke, but as life upon life pile up in this compilation his execution and framing break through the doors of mere playfulness into artistic genius and genuine literary might.
  
  Owing obvious influences in
  Jorge Luis Borges and
  Juan Rodolfo Wilcock—Bolaño openly admits in an interview with Spanish literary journal Turia to being influenced by
  A Universal History of Iniquity and
  The Temple of Iconoclasts—Nazi Literature is a conjuring of literary oddities, madmen and monsters (and one character that is referential to
  Fernando Pessoa through the use of many heteronyms) that reveal the dark underbelly of an artform that aims to shape public opinion and convey ideologies. ‘When I’m talking about Nazi writers in the Americas,’ Bolaño says in
  The Last Interview and Other Conversations, ‘in reality I’m talking about the world, sometimes heroic but much more often despicable, of literature in general.’ While neither celebrating or openly mocking these writers (though the occasionally humor in this impressively consistent tongue-in-cheek novel allows you to assume the latter), Bolaño reminds us that evil lurks in every corner and just because an author can write a good story doesn’t mean their ideology or personhood is worth enabling.
  
  This book is an excellent microcosm of the Bolaño cannon as a whole, being a hotbed of indicators to his penchant towards in-literary-universe expansion, metarepresentation of novels within novels, and exploration of themes such as the pull of proximity to power and the shadowy evils residing in human nature. Here you will find the names of fake novels and literary journals that will show up in other Bolaño novels as well as characters that make appearances elsewhere, such as the Romanian General Eugenio Entruscu who appears here in the Epilogue for Monsters catalogue of secondary figures as well as crosses paths with Benno von Archimboldi in
  2666, the PI Romero who appears in
  The Savage Detectives and
  Distant Star along with, most notably, Ramírez Hoffman.
  
  Hoffman appears in
  Distant Star under the name Alberto Ruiz-Tagle/Wieder, which is a larger aspect of Bolaño’s expansion technique that his English translator,
  Chris Andrews discusses at length in his book
  Roberto Bolaño's Fiction: An Expanding Universe. The name change on one hand represents how Hoffman/Ruiz-Tagle was an enigmatic character (‘in fact, he had always been an absent figure’ -- Distant Star) going under many aliases (his section in Nazi Literature is narrated by Bolaño himself whereas in
  Distant Star it is filtered through the memories of Arturo B, who, as the authors in-novels alter-ego interacting with the author-himself, forms sort of a surreal meta extravaganza) but also how Bolaño tends to blur the lines of his own fiction as a way of exploding and expanding it. This is similarly done in the story Prefiguration of Lalo Cura in
  The Return, which gives an alternate backstory to the one presented of Lalo Cura in
  2666 or how the story of Bolaño’s own father differs significantly in
  Cowboy Graves: Three Novellas from anything else he ever wrote about him (usually a boxer). While Bolaño has claimed in interviews and essays that all of his work exists in a singular literary universe, evidence shows this statement is facetious but likely as a further element to his unique style of self-mythologizing and mythmaking that is so central to his work. There is a very distinct Bolaño flair to his self-referential works that separate it from autofiction or purely fictional narratives.
  
  The sheer volume of fictional books and poems that appear in this novel are fascinating and certainly indicative of his influence in Borges. There is a sort of double-distancing, as Andrews puts it, in the way that these stories are surveyed much in the way literary joker Borges would essentially write reviews of fake novels, ‘accessible only through the filter of a summary.’ Bolaño is able to convey the idea of what registers as a fully-fledged novel through a brief synopsis that discards any need for particulars, assuring you the story works as intended. Borges himself joked about why write a novel when you can just make the same point in a single sentence about a novel that doesn’t even need to exist, or as he writes in
  The Garden of Forking Paths ‘the better way to go about it is to pretend that those books already exist, and offer a summary, a commentary on them.’ These sorts of short assessments of fake novels appear in many of his works, often a brief aside about a sci-fi novel a character has written to further investigate some moral or existential perspective on life.
  
  What is interesting is that many of the characters contained in this volume don’t appear to be very successful. These episodic lives often end in tragedy and a few short books that don’t receive many sales. Yet, by collecting them, it appears that their life left an impact on the movement. This is particularly fascinating as Bolaño rarely tells you if the books they wrote were good or not, but usually what the critics thought or if public opinion drove up sales, alluding to the idea that our established literary canons are one of popularity and not necessarily quality. A frequent theme in his work is the duality of literature as if it were the most important and life-affirming aspect to be found in life while also lampooning it as overwrought and unimportant. He frequently pokes fun at canonization as a temporary privilege, such as the prophecy in
  Amulet references authors such as
  Marcel Proust disappearing from public knowledge in the near future. Whether the lives collected here matter or not is irrelevant.
  
  I enjoyed buddy reading this book with Kenny, and it is certainly a masterful part of the Bolaño canon. He reminds us that evil is everywhere, even in art, and shows characters that are very human yet double as an example of evil as a force of nature (particularly Hoffman). The fictional characters interact with several real figures and works, which boosts the impression that this could be real while also being an avenue for the author to name-drop all his favorites and show off his enviable grasp of world literature. I have yet to read anything, even his posthumously published scene sketches, that have not left an impact on me or charmed me. Certainly one of my favorite authors and this book is such a joy because you can feel his excitement to emulate and surpass his own literary heroes in creating this work. Like Hoffman’s photographs, this book collects moments and members of evil and displays them to remind us what vileness may lurk in any corner.
  
  4/5
• 
  Fabian

  The artists, writers, poets which inhabit this lexicon-type novel breathe the air of history, and all lead individual destinies never devoid of woe. The pursuit of art is presented warts-&-all, & is as realistic of art as it is about the appreciation of art.
  
  "Nazi Literature in the Americas" is one prolonged lament. (As if anything R. Bolano ever wrote wasn't one.) The uniqueness of the novel is that it has no plot but has instead the overwhelming urge to collect writers as economically, poignantly, & as fanatically as one would with baseball player cards.
  
  To say this writer appreciates other writers would be a gross understatement. He creates entire mythologies, constructs entire literary movements... which never even occurred! The apocryphal is superbly mixed in with the real. The feeling of being left out, of uncovering only Iceberg tips, in short... of the deprivation of intellect & emotion... this is what this phenomenal novel's really about.
• 
  Seemita

  Somewhere in the midst of this book, Bolaño spells out in explicit words what I suspected to be the undercurrents from the word go:

  ….a novel about order and disorder, justice and injustice, God and the Void.

  So there I was - witnessing a swashbuckling cavalcade of ideas, overflowing from the chariot of Bolaño’s mind; irreducible owing to their weight, hypnotic owing to their flight.
  
  My first Bolaño could not have been a better book. 30 essays written as biographies of fictitious authors, who lived under the tremulous skies of Nazism and dabbled in poetry and science fiction, magical realism and political sagas, span the length and breadth of the written word; presenting an inclusive, although explosive, picture of Bolaño’s thoughts that bodes well with establishing acquaintance with his ideologies too, perhaps.
  
  The fascist authors, who are mostly Argentine or American languishing under pallidity and the arcane, display a wide array of literary faith: perseverance and manipulation, suppression and connivance, displacement and return, satire and humor; they push originality and also fall prey to plagiarism, they spark the rebel and turn victim too. The aspect, however, that secured my curiosity the tightest was the masterful amalgamation of real places, events and people into these imaginary lives. While there is generous reference to Trotskyism, Falangism, Peronism and the likes, there are veiled questions on the theocratic and Episcopalian diktats. There is generous mention of Borges and Cortázar who are known to have influenced Bolaño in many inspirational ways.
  
  Of course, the ingenuity of story-telling that had to befall Bolaño later in his writing career was visible in many of these essays, three of which, I took in with a chortle and awed smirk: in one work, the chapters, so begin, that joining the first letter of each chapter spell HITLER!; in another, a poem is written as a series of maps which upon further deciphering, reveal verses that point to their placement and use and in the last, a book is called Geometry that deploys variations like the barbed-wire fence, to join unrelated verses and provoke meaning out of the criss-cross.
  
  Oh there were far too many captivating things in this book and it turned out to be indeed a spectacle close to a chariot ride: slow and heavy at the beginning, loading the substantial thoughts one after another, gingerly finding foothold to attain stability, rolling the bearings forward and backward, hoisting the protagonists while narrating their significance to the ride, hopping cautiously for the initial furlongs and then, gaining speed with a wicked kick and speeding away with the confidence of a wise, chuckling driver.
  
  Let me sign off with one of the many flabbergasting paragraphs highlighting Bolaño’s boundless imagination that left my jaw drop with sheer pleasure:

  ..the action unfolds in a distorted present where nothing is as it seems, or in a distant future full of abandoned, ruined cities, and ominously silent landscapes, similar in many respects to those of the Midwest. His plots abound in providential heroes and mad scientists; hidden clans and tribes which at the ordained time must emerge and do battle with other hidden tribes; secret societies of men in black who meet at isolated ranches on the prairie; private detectives who must search for people lost on other planets; children stolen and raised by inferior races so that, having reached adulthood, they may take control of the tribe and lead it to immolation; unseen animals with insatiable appetites; mutant plants; invisible planets that suddenly become visible; teenage girls offered as human sacrifices; cities of ice with a single inhabitant; cowboys visited by angels; mass migrations destroying everything in their path; underground labyrinths swarming with warrior-monks; plots to assassinate the president of the United States; spaceships fleeing an earth in flames to colonize Jupiter; societies of telepathic killers; children growing up all alone in dark, cold yards.
• 
  Luís

  How does the question of evil arise? By retracing the life and works of around thirty fictional authors of the 20th century fascinated by fascism or Nazism, this anthology of the infamous but delectable in its form finds a unique way to ask this question.
  "Nazi Literature in America" ​​is a fascinating and dizzying book, of the profusion of details in the invention, a biography of the authors and their classification by categories. The details provided on correspondence, notes, dedications, supports, the lists of criticisms and insults with which the authors showered, the information on the structure of the poems, the speculations on the authors' intentions, the links between the fictitious authors, etc.
  "Among the qualifiers used by his critics are the following: paleonazi, crazy, a standard-bearer of the bourgeoisie, puppet of capitalism, agent of the CIA, bad poets with cretinizing intentions, plagiarist of Euguren, plagiarist of Salazar Bondy, plagiarist of St -John Perse [...], a henchman of the cesspools, junk prophet, rapist of the Spanish language, versifier with satanic intentions, a product of provincial education, people who show wealth to get attention, hallucinated mestizo, etc."
  That's a dizzying book by its double-bottom, when it tells anecdotes invented in lives that are just as much, or when Bolaño evokes manuscripts that never existed, burned by their author for lack of publisher.
  "About his life in Havana after his release from prison, an infinite number of anecdotes are told, mostly invented. It is said that he was a police informer, that he wrote speeches and harangues for a famous politician of the regime, that he founded a secret sect of fascist poets and assassins, that he visited all the writers, painters, musicians by asking them to intercede for him with the authorities. "
  This work is fascinating finally by the irony and the leniency with which the authors are treated here ("its infinite enthusiasm compensates its accidental lack of verbal rigour"), never to lose sight of the fact that "real" literature is itself, the vehicle of barbarism.
• 
  Paul

  This is a real oddity, very clever, ironic and satirical, hardly a novel; more an encyclopedia. Basically it is a list of fascist and ultra right wing authors of the Americas. Each one has a brief biography and analysis of their works, with their dates (some don't pass away until the 2020s). They are generally self deluded, often vicious, mostly mediocre and Bolano sends them all up remorselessly.
  Their fictional biographies sometimes overlap with real life; Ginsberg, Octavio Paz and Borges pop up, as does Bolano himself in a Chilean prison.
  The general madness, poetic soccer hooligans, struggling publishing houses and outright Nazis can get a little predictable, but Bolano himself explained he was talking as much about the left as the right and indeed about literature. On the whole it's a tour de force and very well written. It all hangs together; there are interrelations between the characters and Bolano pulls it off splendidly.Underneath is a very sharp analysis of fascism and its modes of thought and doctrines, laid bare by Bolano; making them seem as ridiculous as they are. Well worth the effort.
• 
  Lyn

  I like Latin American literature and I had seen Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño’s name before, but I have to admit, it was the title that drew me in to find out what was going on.
  
  Nazi Literature in the Americas? Huh, OK, I’m interested. Reading the description, I learn that this is set up like a bibliography of writers and poets living in South, Central and North America that have decidedly right wing or even outright fascist leanings, written with dark humor and personality. And it’s a lean and hungry 227 pages, so yes this is an investment in time I am willing to spend.
  
  And glad I am that I did.
  
  Bolaño has crafted just as advertised, a running catalogue of writers born as early as the late 1800s and who died as late as 2029 (?) born from Canada to Argentina and who have travelled the world over but all with one theme – their writing is about far right politics, or at least they are inspired by Nazi and / or fascist agendas. Each biographical entry is told like a short story giving some detail to when and where they were born, where and when they published their work, a description of their work and when where and how they died. If you didn’t know better, you may actually believe that this is a real list of such writers and poets.
  
  Organized into sections, Bolaño lists poets, short story writers, science fiction writers, history and war games aficionados and even those whose meager offerings fit into the category of manifestos. Many allowed their inspirations to lead them into right wing politics or the military or even paramilitary groups. There are clandestine organizations, underground magazines and surreptitious publishers. The author inserts his fictional writers into real places and cities and history, creating for us a world building as close to our own as possible while still maintaining the alternate reality setting and theme.
  
  The strength and lasting impression of this encyclopedia of illusory fascist writing is Bolaño’s voice and his razor wit and deft satire. Most thought-provoking is the longest and most sinister entry, a writer involved in torture and serial killings, a shadowy figure but with a cult like following, where Bolaño himself appears in first person narration.
  
  Thought provoking, darkly comical, but sometimes also disconcerting and creepy, Bolaño has me intrigued and I’ll be reading more from him.
  
  
• 
  TK421

  Few novels bring me to a place that is best described as that plane one is trapped in before waking from a very lucid dream. You know the place where you can taste the air, feel the colors, where reality and imagination are embraced so thoroughly that borders blend and realign themselves. NAZI LITERATURE IN THE AMERICAS is like that place. Bolano creates a completely fabricated world where poets and novelists and artists mingle with other characters-both fictional and real-as if they were all sitting next to you, as neighbors in a world where divisions and boundaries are merely political jargon that are refused entry into the mind. The shear depth of this world is staggering. The novel is almost a collection of individual stories; the individual stories make this a novel. "How can one person be interlocked with so many others?" I kept asking myself as I read. That is when I began to understand Bolano. You see, Bolano wrote in a manner that was more than storytelling; he was creating. He was making and destroying, alloting, toiling, humoring, and redefining what it means to write fiction. Does it all work? NO. But that is part of the novel's beauty. When it doesn't work that makes it all seem the more real. Life is messy. (At least mine is.) And when you stop to think about all the people that have come in and out of your life (and all of thier stories) you will begin to get an understanding and appreciation for this "modest" novel. To say more would only spoil the surreal entrance one gets as they read.
  
  HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION
• 
  brian

  i spend way too much time making my bookshelves pretty: pruning, arranging, designing... i'm regularly plagued by some pretty critical issues: chronologically? by author? color? size? (y'see... unlike the rest of my shitty and privileged generation who gets all pantiebunched about evil corporations & all them bombs dropped on all them brown people, i actually have serious things on the brain) i fantasize that i'm gonna bring some gorgeous woman back home (please god let it be marisa tomei and/or rosario dawson) and she'll be kind of on the fence and then when she sees all the fantastic books in my collection and how beautiful they all are she'll fuck me all night.
  
  and bolano's all about that. he loves books and writers more than me. more than anyone, i think. the man is kinda deranged. but it's not in some egghead annoying hermetically-sealed shut-off-from-humanity way. his books explode with cigarette-smoking scotch-swilling cafe-hanging author-referencing sex-starved book-obsessed maniacs.
  
  and the one above? Nazi Literature? could've been a slight literary joke. or seriously dull. but again, books are to bolano what deprivation was to larkin what daffodils were to wordsworth: life. books = life. and this book is alive with both.
• 
  foteini_dl

  Όταν διάβασα τον τίτλο του βιβλίου,μου κέντρισε αυτόματα το ενδιαφέρον.Μα,καλά,θα μπορούσε να υπάρχουν ναζί συγγραφείς στη Λατινική Αμερική;
  Σύμφωνα με τον Μπολάνιο,ναι.Ο συγγραφέας δημιούργησε 30 εκκεντρικούς λογοτέχνες,άλλοι περισσότερο διάσημοι και άλλοι λιγότερο (κάποιους θα τους χαρακτηρίζαμε άγνωστους,σίγουρα),που προσπαθούν να αναγνωριστούν απ’το αναγνωστικό κοινό και τους κριτικούς.Όλοι τους ασπάστηκαν τη ναζιστική ιδεολογία,είτε γιατί δε γούσταραν τους κομμουνιστές είτε γιατί βρέθηκαν σε κάποια φάση της ζωής τους σε ευρωπαϊκές χώρες που βρίσκονταν υπό την επιρροή του Χίτλερ (ή τον Μουσολίνι) και γοητεύτηκαν απ’ τη ρητορική τους.Δηλαδή,αποτέλεσε ατομική επιλογή και όχι κάποιο κίνημα (όπως είχα στο μυαλό μου ότι θα έβλεπα) που τους έσπρωξε σ’ αυτή την επιλογή.
  Το χιούμορ του Μπολάνιο είναι,για μια ακόμα φορά,υπόγειο και καυστικό.Εναλλάσσεται με το σοβαρό,σε βαθμό που να μην είσαι απόλυτα σίγουρος πότε ειρωνεύεται και πότε μιλάει σοβαρά.Γενικά,με τον Μπολάνιο δεν είσαι σίγουρος για το τι ακριβώς διαβάζεις και το που θα οδηγήσει αυτό,αλλά ξέρεις ότι κάτι θέλει να (σου) πει.Ακόμα και αν δεν ξέρεις τι είναι αυτό το κάτι.
  Δεν ξέρω γιατί κάποιος να διαβάσει τις βιογραφίες 30 φανταστικών συγγραφέων,τα ονόματα των οποίων είναι δύσκολο να τα θυμάσαι όταν κλείσεις το βιβλίο.Αυτό που ξέρω,όμως,είναι ότι αν η έκβαση του Β’ Παγκόσμιου Πολέμου ήταν διαφορετική και είχε επικρατήσει ο ναζισμός,οι άνθρωποι αυτοί όχι μόνο δε θα ήταν φανταστικοί,αλλά θα αποτελούσαν και την πρωτοπορία της λογοτεχνίας που θα κυριαρχούσε.
• 
  Barry Pierce

  This is an encyclopedia of writers associated with the Nazi Literature movement of the 20th century, focusing mainly on those living in the Americas. It gives each writer a couple of pages of biography and discusses most of their major works. All of it is backed up by an extensive index and a vast bibliography. So far so simple yeah? Oh hell no. This is fucking Bolaño.
  
  Y'see, there is no such thing as Nazi Literature. It's all made up. And all of the people discussed in this book? All made up as well. This is a fictional encyclopedia. None of it is real.
  I will admit, if you haven't read any Bolaño before then this work will be completely wasted on you. This is Bolaño at his most Bolaño. It is just so weird and fun and strangely tragic. You honestly treat these fictional people as real, living writers. You become intrigued by their oeuvres only to remember it's all made up. It's utterly original and a fine antinovel. It only further elevates Bolaño to the level of a genius.
• 
  Jim Coughenour

  This brutal little classic will be only appreciated by misfits, if they're lucky enough to discover it. It's the most recently translated novel of the late Roberto Bolaño (in another handsome edition from New Directions): a volume of invented biographies, detailing the lives and works of fascist litterateurs who never existed.
  
  Here is wicked humor of the highest order – but I suspect it will be opaque to anyone innocent of the cruelties of literary gossip masquerading as criticism (and as an occasional contributer, I would know). It also helps to have a cursory knowledge of the history of South American fascism, which provides the black backdrop to Bolaño's potted poisoned lives. His tone is insistently aseptic, his evaluations all the more lethal for being neutral in their execution. It's one of the sharpest, funniest books I know, but its hilarity cuts to the bone and is almost indistinguishable from grief.
  
• 
  Richard Derus

  Abandon ship! Abandon ship! On p41, I admit defeat and Roberto Bolaño wins the archly clever condescending twit sweepstakes hands down.
• 
  Anastasia Fitzgerald-Beaumont

  In Nazi Literature in the Americas Roberto Bolaño - a Chilean writer who sadly died aged fifty in 2003 - has provided the perfect literary companion. It’s an exhaustive collection of pocket obituaries of all the major and many of the minor poets, writers and novelists whose political conservatism took them to the extreme right, who became Nazis or fellow travellers, all of whom were born in the Americas. It’s such a pity we do not have a European equivalent.
  
  I confess I had never heard of many of the poets, novelists and artists in his exhaustive anthology. No, I’ll go further: I had never heard of any of them. But perhaps that’s just the nature of the subject, that and the fact that most of them were miserable failures who came to rather bleak and lonely ends.
  
  For those of you who are in as much ignorance as I am over this subject the author has helpfully provided a good summary at the end. There is also a decent bibliography, with the main works of the poets, writers and novelists listed, together with their place and date of publication.
  
  I’m glancing over it now, as I write and as I think. My eye is immediately drawn to The Birth of the New City Force by Gustavo Borda, published in Mexico City in 2005. I pause, surprised. Obviously there is something wrong. Remember, Bolaño died in 2003. He could not possibly know about this book, first appearing two years later. It must be a misprint. But then there is Untitled, a posthumous novel by Zach Sondenstern, published in Los Angeles in 2023, thirteen years from now. Thirteen years! Bolaño could not know this; I could not know this; you could not know this.
  
  I apologise; I’m being deeply disingenuous, as those of you who have already read this book will know. For, you see, it’s not an encyclopedia at all: it’s a novel, though one of the strangest that you are ever likely to encounter. It’s a deadpan anthology, darkly humorous at points, bitingly ironic, of people who never existed, poems never written and novels never published. I would go further: it’s a literary zoo, a collection of people who could never exist.
  
  Bolaño, whom I am only just discovering, is from the same place and the same tradition as Jorge Luis Borges. We are in the same territory, in other words, as The Universal History of Infamy and Borges’ other brilliant fictions, which exist in a half-world between truth and inventiveness. Nazi Literature in the Americas, first published in Spanish in 1996, owes a considerable debt to Borges. Bolaño has the same imaginative and creative facility, if not the same economy of genius.
  
  His book is the world of the impish imagination; his creations for the most part grotesque and, for me, outrageously funny. There is the Brazilian Luiz Fontaine Da Souza, who writes obsessive, and eye-wateringly lengthy, multi-volume refutations of the carriers of the modern idea, from Montesquieu to Sartre ( the latter’s Being and Nothingness is a particular obsession!). There is Zach Sodenstern, the American who wrote the Gunther O’Connell series of science fiction novels, whose hero has a German Sheppard dog with telepathic powers and Nazi tendencies! And then there is my personal favourite, Carlos Ramirez Hoffman, a Chilean poet in the pay of Pinochet’s death squads, who composes poetry in the sky in a plane fitted with smoke canisters, to “write out his nightmares, which were our nightmares too, for the wind to obliterate.” I have a feeling that both the Futurists and Dadaists would have adored him!
  
  And so it goes on. Bolaño does not just invent people and ideas, he invents complete schools of literature, including French ‘barbaric’ writing, lead by a retired Parisian concierge much given to urinating on the novels of Stendhal! The whole thing is a great pastiche. In the sense the subject matter is almost irrelevant, in that the real explorations here are into words and ideas, to the imaginative and creative use of language in a brilliantly playful fashion. It’s the work of a literary trickster, the Loki of the imagination. The real love, the inner love, is that of books and all they have to offer.
  
  There is, of course, another possibility, another piece of Borges-style magic. Bolaño has created an alternate literary universe, one peopled by obsessives, cranks and literary mediocrities. Goebbels once lamented that National Socialism seemed incapable of creating great art. What he did not understand, what he could not understand, was that such a thing was impossible, because great works of art can only be created by minds that are free to roam without restriction. In the Goebbels universe the only art that could exist is that of the oddities who populate the pages of Nazi Literature in the Americas.
• 
  Tony

  In the one notorious ‘Book’ in 2666, Bolano numbs his reader with one vignette of rape and murder after another. They read like a police blotter. In Nazi Literature in the Americas, one capsule biography of an extreme right-wing writer follows another. They read like encyclopedia entries. There’s an ostensible simplicity there; but this is not just some mere exposition of cleverness. I mean, it can’t just be that, can it?
  
  (Whenever I make some pretense of discussing what a work of fiction really means, I always offer the disclaimer that: I don’t know. And I really don’t. Just thinking out loud on the keyboard.)
  
  Bolano writes about Evil (with a capital E). And nothing epitomizes evil like the Third Reich. So, Bolano goes again and again to that Nazi well. Which is nice for a reader (looking around my very quiet office) who doesn’t like to burn too many brain cells trying to spot the allegory. There is no hidden DSM-V denouement; no child abuse or bedwetting or near death experience to add explanation. Evil Is.
  
  But that doesn’t mean we can’t laugh at it. Among the poems of John Brock that Bolano assures us “merit special attention” is Street Without a Name: “a text in which quotations from MacLeish and Conrad Aiken are combined with the menus of the Orange County jail and the pederastic dreams of a literature professor who taught classes for the prisoners on Tuesdays and Thursdays.” Bolano has that kind of mind. My guess is that that came out in one take.
  
  There are quick bios of 100 or so made-up writers and artists. Here’s just two:
  
  Arthur Crane. New Orleans, 1947 – Los Angeles, 1989. Poet. Author of a number of important books, including Homosexual Heaven and Disciplining Children. He indulged his suicidal tendencies by frequenting the underworld and hanging out with lowlifes. Others smoke three packs of cigarettes a day.
  
  Antonio Lacouture. Buenos Aires, 1943 – Buenos Aires, 1999. Argentinean military officer. He defeated subversives but lost the Falklands. An expert in the “submarine” technique and the application of electrodes. He invented a game using mice. The sound of his voice made prisoners tremble. He received various decorations.
  
  Some of the “dates of death” for these writers are beyond the date of publication and beyond today, as I write this: 2021, 2022, 2015, 2029. Again, I don’t know and maybe it’s all too simple, but Evil exists, it is. It did not end at Nuremburg with a few well-deserved hangings. Evil is embedded and lasts. At least until 2666.
  
• 
  MJ Nicholls

  An alternative literary history. Bolaño holds a mirror up to the fascist blowhards canonised by the establishment with his cast of lovable Nazi sympathisers.
  
  This is basically a book of spurious biographical details about spurious writers. How it manages to be a rip-roaring and bum-loving read is part of its magical sway. Recommended.
• 
  AC

  This book is not for everyone - it requires that you are already in on Bolaño's prosopographical (inside) jokes (if you are, much of this is hysterical); love his jungle of proper nouns - reminiscent of Whitman or Catullus, but lusher -- and have a serious interest in understanding the pathologies of fascism and Nazism. For what Bolaño offers here is nothing less than a filleting of the psychology/pathology of fascism -- on the premise that fascism is not a doctrine (not wholly true), but a mood, a sentiment, a virus... an "instinct in the soul" (Maurice Bardèche), this is precisely (one of) the right approach(es). Bolaño is one of the great anti-fascist writers of our times -- and serves to warn us, from his grave, of the dangers that the fascist international (always hiding under different names and different romances) poses in the coming century.
  
  (For an example of what I mean by the 'lyrical' element in Nazism, see the appendices to this book - the two letters written by Cioran in the mid or early-30's that express his "love", admiration, and exaltation of Hitler:
  http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31... -- a sentiment that proves to have been quite widespread in Romantic circles in Europe at this time. There are photos of Hitler entering Austria by car at the Anschluss, where the women lining the street are screaming orgasmically as if he were one of the Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show.)
  
  Finally, regarding the lyrical fascist aesthetic, here is Susan Sontag's 1974 NYRB article on "Fascinating Fascism" and Leni Riefenstahl, which makes many of the essential points, and is a must read:
  http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/m...
  
  And don't skip the Epilogue, with its lists of "Secondary Figures" and "Publishing Houses"... e.g.
  
  Eugenio Entrescu. Bacau, Rumania, 1905 - Kishinev, Ukraine, 1944. Rumanian General. During the Second World War he distinguished himself in the capture of Odessa, the Siege of Sebastopol and the Battle of Stalingrad. Erect, his member was exactly twelve inches long, half an inch longer than that of Dan Carmine [see ad loc.]. He commanded the 20th Division, the 14th Division and the 3rd Infantry Corps. His soldiers crucified him in a village near Kishinev.
  
  or...
  
  María Teresa Greco. New Jersey, 1936 - Orlando, 2004. Argentino Schiaffino's [see ad loc.] second wife. According to eye-witnesses she was tall, thin and bony, a sort of ghost or incarnation of the will.
  
  The final chapter, "The Infamous Ramirez Hoffman" is the chapter that was expanded into Distant Star.
  
  I agree w/ others (William) that this is not the book to start with, for Bolaño, and think that Distant Star and Last Evenings on Earth are the place to start. But for those with the strange and requisite interests, this book has much to offer.
• 
  Edward

  I kept waiting for something - a revelation, a common thread - to draw the narrative together and bring it into focus, but there was nothing. I searched for common themes, something to unify the novel, but there is very little of this nature. It seems that the brief, fictional biographies are simply to be taken for what they are, in and of themselves. There is humour there, and intelligence, and a wild imagination, but for me these things weren't enough. I'm hesitant to reward such ambition and creativity with a low rating, and I trust Bolaño enough to believe that Nazi Literature in the Americas is a brilliantly subtle and intricate work, but I am personally too far removed from its context. Overall, it was a little too esoteric for me.
• 
  Xenia Germeni

  Υπάρχουν πειράματα λογοτεχνικά που έχουν την ικανότητα να ιντριγκάρουν τον αναγνώστη με κάθε δυνατό τρόπο. Ο Μπολάνιο είναι ένας από τους mastermind τεχνήτες αυτού του είδους. Ένα κείμενο στημένο με δομή λογοτεχνικής εγκυκλοπαίδειας που μοναδικό στόχο έχει την αφύπνιση και του πιο "αθώου" αναγνώστη, σχετικά με αυτό που ονομάζουμε φασισμό και πως αυτό μπορεί και στοιχειοθετείται μέσα από μια αναφορά φανταστικών λογοτεχνών της αμερικάνικης ηπείρου. Αν και το κείμενο εκδόθηκε το 1996, ο Μπολάνιο δεν θα μπορούσε να βγει πιο προφητικός για αυτό που συμβαίνει στο πολιτικό σύστημα της Αμερι��ής σήμερα. Με χιουμορ, ειρωνία και εύστοχα σχόλια που κάνουν της καρικατούρες των υποθετικών λατινων - φιλοναζιστών- συγγραφέων να μοιαζουν με υπαρκτά πρόσωπα, τολμά να παρουσιάσει την πραγματική διάσταση ενός καυτού προβλήματος, με αμεσότητα και φαντασία. Ακολουθώντας το μπορχεσιανό μοντελο παράθεσεις μικρών ιστοριών και βιογραφιών, ο Μπολάνιο επιδιδεται στο σχεδίασμα ενός πειράματος, γλώσσας και δομής που δεν αφήνουν ασυγκίνητο τον απαιτητικό αναγνωστικό κοινό, αλλά θα μπορούσε να προσελκύσει και ένα μερος λιγότερο "γυμνασμένου" κοινού. ΥΓ Μερικά σημεία ειδικά προς το τελος, ισως κουρασουν, αλλά και νιώθεις την επιθυμια να το ρουφήξεις, αφου ολα περιγράφονται με πολυ ευφυές χιουμορ...ΜΗΝ ΤΟ ΔΙΑΒΑΣΕΙΣ ΑΝ: Ι) ΔΕΝ ΔΙΑΘΕΤΕΙΣ ΦΑΝΤΑΣΙΑ, ΙΙ) ΔΕΝ ΣΟΥ ΑΡΕΣΟΥΝ ΟΙ ΛΑΤΙΝΟΑΜΕΡΙΚΑΝΟΙ, ΙΙΙ) ΔΕΝ ΕΧΕΙΣ ΔΙΑΒΑΣΕΙ ΜΠΟΡΧΕΣ
• 
  William2

  The format of this fiction is as a biographical guide to Nazi writers, pre- and post-World War II. I was expecting the "entries" to tie together into some sort of recognizable narrative. Bolaño does not do this. Indeed, Bolaño is not even interested in this. Each entry is freestanding and could be subtracted from the whole as easily as, say, new entries could be added. While there is some cross-pollination it doesn't pull the disparate parts together into a story. While the book has relevance for Bolano's œuvre as a whole, it is not the place to start if you are new to this author. I would recommend first trying
  By Night In Chile or
  Distant Star or
  Amulet or
  Monsieur Pain or
  2666.
• 
  Canon

  "The next day Luz set off for Buenos Aires in her Alfa Romeo. Halfway there she crashed into a gas station. The explosion was considerable.”
  
  “Schiaffino makes his political position clear. From his own point of view, at least. He is neither on the right nor on the left. He has black friends and friends in the Ku Klux Klan.”
  
  How glorious and necessary to have an encyclopedia of contemporary American rightwing ideologues, authoritarians, and fascists modeled on this bizarre, uproarious little biographical dictionary?
  
  From the traditionalist anti-liberalism of Deneen or MacIntyre to the theocratic fever dreams of Franklin Graham or Robert Jeffress to the Redeeming the Culture literature of mainstream evangelicalism to the frank nationalism of Rich Lowry to the culture war rhapsodies of Coulter or Levin or Shapiro to the voodoo histories of O'Reilly or D'Souza to the Reasonable Centrist rearguard defenses of a Douthat or Sullivan or Will to the Principled Conservative autofictions of a Romney, Rubio, etc. to the heartlandia elegies of a Vance to the Populist-cum-Plutocrat theses of a Hawley or Cruz to the Trump apologias of sycophants ranging from Hannity to Carlson to Lewandowski to Gingrich to Hewitt to the anti-democratic manifestos of a Jason Brennan to the reactionary screeds of anti-social justice scions like James Lindsay or Christopher Rufo to the Deep State conspiracy thrillers my father-in-law likes to read to the tyrannical libertarianisms of Friedman or Sowell to the Global Government conspiracies of anti-vaxxer or QAnon aficionados to the aggrieved white supremacist tracts of the alt-right to the I Will In My Superior Wisdom Classify and Denounce You monographs of Anderson or Shrier, not to mention the bottomless cesspool of lies, idiocy, venality, and unfulfilled longings for the sublime that is rightwing social media, with its rumors of violence, secession, civil war, decadence, renewal, domination, paranoia.
  
  Juxtaposing the small, unglamorous, loser lives of social media ideologues — those screen-dwelling red-eyed denizens of the mainstream who imagine they are vanguard evangelists from outside the system —with their world-historic pronouncements would be particularly entertaining. I can see it now. In sum, there's so much material for an updated guide! Such a book would have to interact and be inspired by this mordant, satirical tour de force.
• 
  Lee Foust

  This novel is a brilliantly-conceived OuLiPo-style formal game: it's a collection of short biographies of imaginary Nazi writers from Chile to Canada from the nineteen thirties well into the twenty-first century (some years after the date of the novel's publication!). Probably the inspiration for the non-narrative format, French writer Georges Perec, is name-checked--and Bolano himself has a kind of cameo in the last chapter/bio. Along the way the short bios cleverly weave in many of the cultural touchstones that go hand-in-hand with Nazism: football, serial killing, woman/foreigner hating and racism, failed machismo, aviation, and economic humiliation, the red scare etc., etc. There's also--surprisingly--plenty of variety and commentary on the varying aspects of Spanish, German, and Italian fascism, as well as variety in the type of writing, from autobiography to formal verse, soccer memoir to science fiction, it's all here. Nicely done, a hoot to read.
• 
  FotisK

  Ένα φάντασμα πλανιέται επάνω από το "Ναζιστική λογοτεχνία στην Αμερική", εκείνο του Μπόρχες. Ίσως το πιο "Μπορχεσιανό" κείμενο του Μπολάνιο (ξεκάθαρα επηρεασμένου από τον μεγάλο Αργεντινό συγγραφέα), κάτι που ταυτόχρονα αποτελεί πλεονέκτημα και μειονέκτημα - πλεονέκτημα για τους προφανείς λόγους, και ταυτόχρονα μειονέκτημα, πάλι για τους ίδιους ακριβώς λόγους!
  Η σύγκριση με τον Δάσκαλο, αναπόφευκτη…
  Μια ακόμα αντίρρηση είναι πως το εν λόγω βιβλίο υπολείπεται κατά τι σε σχέση με τους "Αγριους Ντετέκτιβ" και προφανώς το "2666" (που ακόμα δεν έχω διαβάσει). Τούτου λεχθέντος, αξίζει να του αφιερώσει κάποιος το χρόνο του.
  
• 
  Andrea

  Si potrebbe definire in molti modi “La letteratura nazista in America”: un'immaginaria panoramica degli scrittori filonazisti d'America, una “terra fertile di imprese ai limiti della follia, della legalità e della stoltezza”, un continente che, a differenza di quello europeo, gode di un contesto culturale che “non ha coscienza di cosa significhi cadere nell'eccesso”; un'enciclopedia fittizia ma molto plausibile di personaggi appartenenti al passato, al presente e anche al futuro; un catalogo di una trentina di biografie apocrife, in cui vengono descritte vite, morti, imprese, produzioni letterarie, relazioni interpersonali, movimenti artistici, riviste e case editrici; un manuale diviso in quattordici sezioni tematiche, compresa un'appendice, “Epilogo per mostri”, contenente un indice dei nomi di autori, case editrici e riviste, e da una bibliografia che elenca i libri citati in precedenza; una raccolta di storie aberranti, ripugnanti, ma non prive di risvolti esilaranti; una galleria di mostri, che si dimostrano spesso tremendamente comici.
  
  In questa enciclopedia veniamo a conoscenza della ricca dinastia, infelice ed irrequieta, dei Mendiluce; di viaggiatori, avventurieri e mercenari; di filosofi antilluministi, poeti maledetti e letterate giramondo; di tedeschi espatriati che hanno conquistato il loro angolino di mondo; di nostalgici scrittori di fantascienza da quattro soldi; di miserabili maghi, ciarlatani, fondatori di sette religiose e falsi profeti; di artisti dai mille eteronimi; dei sostenitori della misteriosa casa editrice “Il Quarto Reich Argentino”; dei membri della Fratellanza Ariana e di altre sette esoteriche; delle mirabolanti imprese dei fratelli Schiaffino, nazionalisti argentini e ultras del Boca Juniors; e, infine, del poeta aereo ed infame pluriomicida, Carlos Ramirez Hoffman.
  
  Sarà difficile dimenticarsi di personaggi come Silvio Salvatico (Buenos Aires, 1901-1994), che si augura “la restaurazione dell'Inquisizione, le punizioni corporali pubbliche, la guerra permanente contro i paraguaiani o contro i boliviani quale forma di ginnastica nazionale, la poligamia maschile, lo sterminio degli indios onde evitare l'ulteriore contaminazione della razza argentina, la limitazione dei diritti ai cittadini di origine ebraica, l'immigrazione di massa dei paesi scandinavi per schiarire progressivamente l'epidermide nazionale scurita da anni di promiscuità ispano-indigena”; Ernesto Perez Mason (Matanzas, 1908-New York, 1980), santero cubano che all'interno delle sue opere nasconde acrostici come “Viva Adolf Hitler” e che fonda il Gruppo di Scrittori e Artisti Controrivoluzionari (GSAC), dietro cui si celerebbe in realtà il Gruppo Scrittori Ariani di Cuba; Zach Sodernstern (Los Angeles, 1962-2021), scrittore di fantascienza di grande successo e creatore della saga fantapolitica del Quarto Reich; Gustavo Borda (Città del Guatemala, 1954-Los Angeles, 2016), “alto appena un metro e cinquantacinque, di carnagione scura, con i capelli neri e dritti e una chiostra di denti enormi e bianchissimi. I suoi personaggi, invece, sono alti, biondi, con gli occhi azzurri”; Segundo José Heredia (Caracas, 1927-2004), fondatore di una Comune Ariana Naturista, frequentata anche da Franz Zwickau (Caracas, 1946-1971); Carlos Hevia (Montevideo, 1940-2006), autore, fra l'altro, del “Premio di Giasone”, “favola allegorica nella quale la vita sulla Terra sarebbe il risultato di un concorso televisivo intergalattico fallito”; Harry Sibelius (Richmond, 1948-2014), plagiario che descrive nelle sue opere ucroniche una Germania nazista vincitrice e padrona del mondo, e che finisce per progettare giochi di strategia; Jim O'Bannon (Macon, 1940-Los Angeles, 1996), il quale “conservò fino alla fine il disprezzo per gli ebrei e gli omosessuali; i negri cominciava pian piano ad accettarli quando lo raggiunse la morte”; Rory Long (Pittsburgh, 1952-Laguna Beach, 2017), poeta fanatico e predicatore religioso, appartenente prima alla Chiesa dei Veri Martiri d'America, poi alla Chiesa Texana degli Ultimi Giorni, infine fondatore della Chiesa Carismatica della California; e l'elenco di questi mostri potrebbe procedere ancora oltre.
  
  “La letteratura nazista in America”, opera pubblicata nel 1996, potrebbe rappresentare lo spartiacque nella produzione artistica di Roberto Bolaño. Se prima era un perfetto sconosciuto, autore di romanzi e poesie di scarsissimo successo, in seguito a questa fatica letteraria inizia a farsi un nome, per diventare poi scrittore di culto con i grandi romanzi-mondo, “I detective selvaggi” e “2666”, ed entrare, infine, con la morte prematura, nel terreno della leggenda. Come in queste ultime opere ben più famose, anche qui sono al centro le vite di scrittori fittizi, disperati e falliti per definizione; anche qui si ha l'impressione di trovarci catapultati in una realtà grottesca, allucinata e distorta, diametralmente opposta ma al tempo stesso terribilmente simile, sovrapponibile alla nostra; anche qui Bolaño costruisce un inquietante e picaresco universo parallelo, un mondo aperto dove tutto è plausibile e tutto è fittizio, ma niente è totalmente irreale.
  
  Le fonti di ispirazione di questo compendio di biografie immaginarie, di questa opera di prosa enciclopedica, sono dichiaratamente le “Vite immaginarie” di Schwob, “Storia universale dell'infamia” e “Finzioni” di Borges, “La sinagoga degli iconoclasti” di Wilcock. Usando l'immaginazione di Schwob, l'erudizione e la fantasia demiurgica di Borges e la sagacia e l'ironia caustica di Wilcock, Bolaño crea un'opera con una sua cifra distintiva, se vogliamo più pop, sicuramente più cinica, più cattiva, più dissacrante, dunque unica, nonostante i debiti verso tutti questi nobili predecessori (con sentita modestia, Bolaño definiva queste opere come “gli zii, i genitori e i padrini del mio libro che senza dubbio è il peggiore di tutti”). Già nel 1993, si legge in una lettera, Bolaño desiderava comporre “una Enciclopedia abbreviata della letteratura nazista in America, qualcosa nello spirito di Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius, le immagini di noi stessi negli specchi concavi e convessi, ma specchi a conti fatti”. Dunque, un mondo immaginario, ma che è speculare al nostro e che necessariamente ad esso rimanda. Come in Borges e nella tradizione della biografia immaginaria, pertanto, anche in Bolaño la creazione di un mondo parallelo e l'utilizzo di riferimenti biobibliografici fittizi sono espedienti per rimandare alla nostra realtà. E questo libro, questa enciclopedia che non esiste ed esiste al tempo stesso, che si potrebbe leggere sia come un romanzo sia come un manuale (in pochi giorni mi è già capitato di leggerlo in entrambi i modi), fornisce una chiave di lettura del reale, di ciò che si nasconde in esso, che sa essere originale, inedita ed alternativa. “La letteratura nazista in America” e l'opera di Bolaño in generale sono, dunque, un'interpretazione iperreale, surreale (o infrareale, per citare il movimento poetico infrarealista, cui Bolaño aderì nei suoi anni messicani) della realtà.
  
  Inizialmente, al lettore sembra che tale catalogo sia stato redatto in modo oggettivo da più studiosi con l’obiettivo di consentire a chiunque, esperto o profano, di verificare una data o un'informazione, conoscere meglio un autore, soddisfare una curiosità letteraria. Il nobile intento di tali compilatori parrebbe quello di non far dimenticare questi scrittori emarginati dalla Storia, erigendo un ipotetico controcanone. Procedendo nella lettura, tuttavia, la voce fredda e impersonale di questi scrittori invisibili e passivi, esterni alle vicende narrate, lascia gradualmente il posto a quella che è testimonianza diretta e coinvolta, narrazione dall'interno. E così, nell'ultima biografia, che è un vero e proprio racconto, la voce narrante (che è lo stesso Roberto Bolaño) è testimone diretto, benché distante, della vicenda di Carlos Ramirez Hoffman, l'infame poeta, aviatore, latitante e pluriomicida, ricercato per anni dalla polizia cilena. Quest'ultima storia verrà poi riscritta e ampliata da Bolaño nel romanzo breve “Stella Distante”, pubblicato immediatamente dopo “La letteratura nazista in America”, addirittura nello stesso anno (il protagonista Carlos Ramirez Hoffman diventerà Carlos Wieder).
  
  Poeti, romanzieri, filosofi, giornalisti, editori, critici: tutti gli scrittori citati in questa raccolta sono accomunati dall'ideologia di estrema destra e dalle simpatie naziste, fasciste, falangiste, reazionarie. Tutti hanno l'ambizione di lasciare il segno nel mondo delle lettere, ma i sogni di gloria si rivelano spesso delle chimere, e nulla salverebbe dall'oblio artisti di così bassa lega. A rendere tristemente memorabili tali personaggi è piuttosto la follia, la pazzia, la paranoia, l'eccentricità; a caratterizzarli l'eccesso sistematico, la smania di grandezza, l'ingordigia di vita, la consacrazione del gesto estetico, la stupida istintività, l'esaltata irrazionalità, l'azione avventata, la condanna del meticciato, della promiscuità e della contaminazione della razza, la fuga dalla mediocrità, la volontà di farsi artefici del proprio destino e di deridere la minaccia della morte. Questi personaggi vivono di provocazione, esercitano il culto della violenza, sono fastidiosi, irritanti e miserabili nel difendere ideologie infami, ma si rendono anche ridicoli nell'aspirare all'eternità, fallimentari nei loro progetti politici e letterari.
  
  In questo repertorio di scrittori apocrifi si può trovare, dunque, il peggio che non soltanto la letteratura, ma il genere umano in toto può offrire: compaiono esaltati e fanatici; plagiari, truffatori e bugiardi; militari crudeli, violenti squadristi ed ultras calcistici; assassini spregiudicati, delinquenti e criminali, traditori e latitanti; idolatri e ferventi predicatori; ossessi e paranoici, alcolisti e cocainomani; razzisti, antisemiti e xenofobi; ultraconservatori, revisionisti storici e fondamentalisti religiosi. Membri dell'alta società o dei ceti popolari, ricchi da far schifo o poveri in canna, in ogni caso parodie di se stessi, una schietta di esseri repellenti e abominevoli nel loro essere astiosi e rancorosi, fomentatori di odio e seminatori di violenza. Personaggi ossessionati dall'apparenza e dal desiderio di riconoscimento, e che nonostante facciano di tutto per realizzare le loro ambizioni falliscono miseramente. Sono personaggi tutto sommato senz'arte né parte, almeno la stragrande maggioranza di essi (a pochissimi viene riconosciuto un certo talento e un potenziale contributo al mondo delle lettere), in ogni caso relegati ai margini del mondo culturale, pertanto destinati a non essere ricordati, se non in questo fantomatico manuale. Sono solitari, disperati, frustrati e falliti. Alcuni cercano di cambiare identità, creano eteronimi, emigrano, scompaiono. Le loro esistenze finiscono spesso tragicamente, se non squallidamente.
  
  Figure necessariamente ambigue, controverse, anche per questo seducenti, apparentemente innocue, ma in ogni caso fautori, attivi o passivi non importa, del Male. Figure dunque tragiche, perché in molti casi inconsapevoli meccanismi, macchiette che, pur non essendo padroni del proprio destino, annebbiati e avvelenati dall'ideologia e dall'odio, non riescono a non macchiarsi di colpevolezza, di stupida complicità. A volte sono involontariamente comici, e il lettore, grazie all'umorismo nero di Bolaño, ride a denti stretti, di una risata amara, sentendosi quasi in colpa per il proprio divertimento nel leggere le storie di questi criminali, tenendo sempre a mente la loro infamia. Presa in giro, dunque, che si avvale di molti elementi satirici e canzonatori, ma anche presa di posizione, accusa spietata e sfrontata verso certi ambienti culturali, schierati dalla parte più conveniente. La risata lascia gradualmente sempre più campo libero all'amarezza ed alla più seria disperazione, quando si giunge alla lucida consapevolezza, insieme alla presa di coscienza dello stesso autore, che il Male è inestricabile dagli uomini, che tutti noi possiamo commetterlo. Bolaño, dunque, mette anche in dubbio l'idea generalmente accettata che la cultura, l'arte e la letteratura siano sempre e unicamente al servizio del bene: l'innocenza, la mancanza di colpevolezza, non è mai stata una qualità intrinseca dei libri, e in ogni caso il loro valore artistico è indipendente da quello morale. Su questo tema Bolaño si avvicina all'opera di Danilo Kis “Enciclopedia dei morti”: sia quest'ultima opera, che ho letto recentemente, sia “La letteratura nazista in America” sono pervase da un'atmosfera lugubre, sinistra e malinconica, da una tristezza di fondo che è la tristezza di chi si ferma a ragionare sulla malvagità di cui è capace l'essere umano.
  
  Pochi sono gli scrittori che cambiano il modo di pensare in chi li legge, e Bolaño è senza dubbio uno di questi. Ho trovato un grandissimo scrittore, la cui opera è molto più proiettata al futuro che al passato (piuttosto che ultimo grande scrittore del Novecento, calza meglio la definizione di primo grande scrittore del Terzo Millennio, anche se l'ha vissuto per soli tre anni). Io arrivo a scoprirlo ora, dopo un lungo periodo di indecisioni riguardo un primo approccio alla sua opera. La domanda che mi faccio è: perché ho aspettato così tanto? È certamente uno scrittore impegnativo, uno scrittore che divide critica e pubblico, ma leggerlo mi ha dato un piacere intellettuale raro. Mi sono sentito da subito affine al suo pensiero, e cercherò di non temporeggiare ulteriormente nella scoperta di altre sue fatiche letterarie. Già in questa prima lettura ho percepito una di quelle opere di ampio respiro, un oggetto letterario capace di entusiasmare e di inquietare, di stimolare la mente, di suscitare una curiosità quasi morbosa, talmente potente e senza tempo che sembra provenire dal futuro, da un altro mondo, da un universo parallelo. Uno straordinario gioco intellettuale, un esercizio di stile geniale e visionario: la prima pietra angolare di quel vasto universo letterario creato da Bolaño nei suoi pochi, ultimi anni di vita. La prima lettura di questo autore formidabile, e già mi ha conquistato per sempre.
• 
  Jason Pettus

  (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)
  
  So have you heard yet about the strange saga of Chilean author Roberto Bolaño? Born in the 1950s, a globetrotting vagabond and revolutionary activist most of his youth, one who just barely escaped the Pinochet coup of the '70s, Bolaño ended up settling down for the first time in the '80s and cranking out serious literature for the first time as well; and almost immediately his works started getting hailed by his fellow South and Central American intellectuals, with him for example by the late '90s being called by many down there the most important writer of his generation, and with his masterpiece The Savage Detectives being called by critic Ignacio Echevarria in those years "the novel that Borges would have written." Sadly, though, Bolaño died of a liver disorder in 2003, just a few years before his work started getting widely published in English for the first time; and thus it is that we here in the English-speaking world are just now going through a big literary crush on Bolaño for the first time these days, after he has already died and has left behind a definitively finite amount of work.
  
  Take, for example, today's book under review, the slim and experimental Nazi Literature in the Americas; it was actually originally published in its native Spanish in 1996, but not in English until just a few months ago, making it actually being considered a "new" book here at CCLaP today and eligible for the "best of 2008" list at the end of the year. And it's an odd book too, more of a clever artistic game than a full-fledged novel, its concept being just what you would imagine with such a title; it is a fictional reference guide to several dozen supposed fascism-friendly authors and other right-wing intellectuals, all of whom supposedly lived in either North, Central or South America at one time or another in history. And not only that, but it's set in the future, making this not only a fake history that references real events (the Nazi flight to South America after WWII, the various revolutions that took place there in the '70s), but also partly science-fiction as well, detailing a completely fictional moment in future history when a neo-fascist movement apparently catches on in North America quite intensely. (And let's not forget, this was written in 1996, long before 9/11 and the neocon Bush administration.)
  
  It's a fascinating and frustrating book, one you can tell comes from the very beginning of Bolaño's career; and that's because the stuff that's there is just so clever and so fascinating, but ultimately there's simply not enough there to make it a truly great novel. In fact, the entire manuscript is only a padded-out 200 pages, and actually written in the style of a reference guide, thumbnail sketches of each writer with very few connective threads between them; like I said, it feels more like spending an afternoon at Wikipedia than it does reading a full and mature novel. That said, though, what's there is fantastic; it is a complicated, realistic look at how various right-wing theories about the world have been justified and rationalized over the decades by well-meaning but deluded intellectuals and philosophers, how it's not just dogma alone that has inspired such people but also personal loss, love lives, a certain affinity for certain geographical locations at certain moments in history, and all kinds of other complicated factors.
  
  Now, granted, let's just admit, the more of a well-read academe you are, the more you're going to enjoy Nazi Literature in the Americas; as mentioned, for example, I've read online many times now that this book takes on the structure of a typical Borges project, but I'm completely and utterly unfamiliar with Borges myself so couldn't even begin to tell you if that's true. There are a lot of moments in this manuscript that feel like this, to tell you the truth; moments where you can just feel the story going over your head, feel the actual wind as it whips by you, steeped so deeply as it is in the history of obscure left-wing radical South American political groups, barely-known performance artists of the early Modernist age, and other topics you usually only hear discussed among a group of MFA weenies at some museum cocktail fundraiser. And in fact, you could almost see this book as a Bolaño dig at the very people who started embracing him and his work when he himself reached middle age; because frankly, of the dozens of fictional writers and playwrights and artists who Bolaño "covers" in this book, not a one of them ever rise above relative obscurity during their own careers, mostly only known among a handful of college professors who have devoted their entire adult lives to studying only this subject. Given how explosive he could've made the lives of these fictional fascists, I think it says something that he made them barely-known academes instead; I have a feeling that Bolaño had a deliberate point to make by doing so.
  
  But like I said, Bolaño ultimately pulls this book out of the academic mudhole, precisely by adding the fascinating science-fictiony elements that he does; this whole idea that about twenty years after the novel's original publication, there would be this underground neo-fascist movement in the US and Canada that would bubble up into perhaps the most infamous collection of this entire fake history, a group calling itself "The Fourth Reich" that at least got its crap together enough to found a publishing company, to start sponsoring artists, to start getting work actually disseminated. It opens up the mind, opens up the story too, makes it much more of an interesting general-interest tale than specifically a reference-heavy literary exercise just for creative-writing students (although make no mistake, it's that too). It's a flawed work, one that belies Bolaño's relative inexperience as a writer at that point; but Nazi Literature in the Americas is also a fascinating book as well, one that easily makes me want to rush out and read the rest of his ouevre now too. It is generally recommended today, and especially for all you grad students and professors out there.
  
  Out of 10:
  Story: 7.9
  Characters: 9.5
  Style: 8.0
  Overall: 8.6
• 
  Eternauta

  Πόσοι συγγραφείς μπορούν να μετατρέψουν ένα ευφυές λογοτεχνικό παιχνίδι σε μακροσκελές "μυθιστόρημα" που σε κάνει να θέλεις να το διαβάσεις φωναχτά στους φίλους σου για να μοιραστείς το γέλιο μέχρι δακρύων που σου προξενεί;!
  
  Και πόσες εγκυκλοπαίδειες βίου και πολιτείας λογοτεχνών - πλήρης με αλφαβητικό index και ευρετήριο ονομάτων στο τέλος - έχετε υπόψιν που αναφέρονται λεπτομερώς στον περίφημο Ραμίρες Χόφμαν, σαδιστή βασανιστή της χούντας του Πινοσέτ και ποιητή αιθέριων και στιγμιαίων στίχων τους οποίους σκάλιζε με καπνό στον ουρανό καθως εκτελούσε τις περίπλοκες αεροπλοϊκές φιγούρες του σε ένα σαραβαλιασμένο γερμανικό σκάφος; Ή σκιαγραφούν τον ηγέτη των ultras της Μπόκα, βίαιο και τρυφερό νεαρό που μοίραζε στην είσοδο των γηπέδων τα πολυγραφημένα - και σήμερα δυσεύρετα - αντίτυπα των ποιητικών συλλοογων με ευφάνταστους τίτλους όπως "Χεστείτε Λαγοί";
  
  Ο μακροσκελής κατάλογος επινοημένων, κακομοιρηδων μετρίων (ή οχι και τόσο μετρίων) ποιητών της άκρας δεξιάς δεν είναι απλώς ένα φλύαρο παιχνίδι που συνέλαβε ο ιδιοφυής εγκέφαλος του Bolaño για να σκοτώνει την ώρα του.
  Πρόκειται για την πιο εξυπνη, πικρόχολη, (αυτό)σαρκαστική, και κάποτε ανοιχτά μνησίκακη, ειρωνεία που έχει ποτέ εκτοξευθεί εναντίον της σοβαροφανούς και εξαιρετικά φαντασμένης συντεχνίας των συγγραφέων - ναζιστών ή μη!
  
  Αριστούργημα που γίνεται ακόμα πιο απολαυστικό εάν στη θέση των εκκεντρικών χαρακτήρων που περνούν μπροστά από τα μάτια μας αρχίζεις να βάζεις υπαρκτές φιγούρες της σύγχρονης (Λατίνο)αμερικανικής λογοτεχνικής ελίτ, από ιερά τέρατα της προοδευτικής ιντελιγκέντσια έως ξεμωραμένους υπερσυντηρητικούς γέροντες στυλοβάτες της παγκόσμιας λογοτεχνίας!
  
  Απλά τέλειο
• 
  Cody

  Bolaño’s exquisite work here is underappreciated in a lot of circles for one virtue: it’s a whole mess a goddamn fun. Sure he’s working out of a Latin-American tradition of fictions-within-fictions; he calls bullshit on himself for it slyly throughout the book. I think any read benefits from having a running knowledge of at least some of the real authors that he peppers throughout. But even if you have zero context, there's such glee on these pages (I wore gloves) that it is hard to resist getting caught up in the excitement.
  
  Special mention must go out to the ‘Speculative Fiction’ chapter, as Bolaño’s clearly having way too much fun coming up with sci-fi storylines and titles. His enthusiasm is infectious and surprisingly sweet, even as it lampoons the hell out of that most ridiculed of genres. More than a few made me chortle, three made me guffaw. I glee'd once, prematurely.
  
  Bolaño’s is a mordant sense of humor than never bubbles anywhere near demonstrative. Assuming the pose of ‘history’ to satirize some institutional sacred cows expose them to be the paper tigers that they really are. The previous sentence is an absolutely stellar example of idiom abuse. I, robot, digress.
  
  In my opinion, his brio should be respected and celebrated. Poor sonofabitch had to go and die at 50, robbing the world of a man who knew the back roads to a good piss-take and wrote flawlessly. But I see that Rupert Murdoch is still alive, so, you know, I guess life’s fair after all. Touché, Beelzebub.
  
• 
  Maria Thomarey

  Ενα πολυ διαδκεδαστικο βιβλιο ; Οχι ακριβως . Φεύγει σα νερό και γελάς .πολυ . Αλλα το γέλιο ειναι σαρκαστικό , σαν τις παρατηρήσεις του Μπολανιο .
• 
  Sentimental Surrealist

  A tricky book to pin down tonally, in that it's at once the funniest and one of the most eglaic of Bolano's books. I say "book" and not "novel" because it doesn't really read like a novel; it seems more like a collection of short stories, a superior version of Borges'
  A Universal History of Iniquity. See, Bolano understands that his Nazi writers (mostly poets, although there are some playwrights and prose writers as well) are pretty close to talentless and not anywhere near as good as their ambitions would suggest. As such, the funniest moments come from when Bolano breaks the academic tone and blatantly insults one of his subjects.
  
  Yet, despite Bolano's disgust for their right-wing ideologies and his pity for their lack of talent, there's an odd admiration on display. Nobody would compile this sort of project without having a certain fondness for these fascinating and reprehensible creations of Bolano's, and while they're displayed as pretentious, petty, and hateful, they still receive subtle salutes for their ambition anyway. I, for one, have been forced to retrospectively contemplate which moments in this collection were Bolano being sarcastic and which were him conferring sincere praise on subjects that might be thought indefensible.
  
  It's also astounding how much mileage Bolano gets out of such a simple concept. Every fictional writer has their own distinctive personality and a body of work that is definitely theirs; furthermore, they were all drawn towards the far right for different reasons. These aren't just interchangeable Nazis: there are terrifying serial killers (see "The Infamous Ramírez Hoffman," later remade into
  Distant Star, but I prefer it as a short piece), there are aristocrats, paranoids and pendants to be found among Bolano's writers. What it amounts to is an insightful satire, as well as a revealing glimpse into the psychology of the right. Underrated.
• 
  Olethros

  -Un juego inofensivo, pero escrito con pulso.-
  
  Género. Ensayo (por ficticio que sea y por mucho que se la clasifique como novela por lo general, aunque me tienta englobarlo dentro de Biografía, por irreales también que sean las ofrecidas).
  
  Lo que nos cuenta. El libro La literatura nazi en América (publicación original: 1996) ofrece las ficticias biografías, por momentos con estilo de crónica, de autores con ideas (personales, sociales y/o políticas, o todas o, incluso, hasta ninguna de ellas) y producción literaria que van de lo reaccionario puntual a lo estrictamente nazi, pasando por lo conservador y la extrema derecha en según qué asuntos, la gran mayoría de ellos de Suramérica pero con espacio para escritores norteamericanos, que trabajaron distintos subgéneros de la narrativa y también la poesía.
  
  ¿Quiere saber más de este libro, sin spoilers? Visite:
  
  
  http://librosdeolethros.blogspot.com/...
• 
  Lucas Sierra

  Otra reseña pendiente. Por ahora: siempre es grato reencontrarse con Bolaño, tenía miedo que mi vejez entorpeciera la lectura, pero el cariz borgeano del texto salva en asombro lo que el deslumbramiento juvenil ya no ofrece.
  
  De todos los relatos, se comprende que Ramírez Hoffman sea el elegido para convertirse en novela corta. Es estremecedor, da pánico.
  
  Salgo motivado a releer lo ya leído y darle el chance a lo que me falta de la obra del chileno.