Roberto Bolaño’s Fiction: An Expanding Universe by Chris Andrews (review)

Chris Andrews’s study of Roberto Bolaño’s fiction is the first English-language monograph dedicated to the Chilean-born author, and it is a significant accomplishment. Readers of Bolaño in English will recognize Andrews as the translator of several novels and short story collections, including Distant Star (2004), Amulet (2008), and The Return (2010). Andrews draws on his intimate knowledge of the texts he has translated, his careful reading of those he has not, and his skills as a scholar and a writer to craft a clear, comprehensive analysis of Bolaño’s fiction that promises to become an essential resource for scholars and a useful companion for students. Especially valuable for its readership is the way in which Andrews’s book presents an overview of Bolaño’s fiction, explaining how different works relate to one another in various ways, such as incorporating the same or similar characters, retelling and expanding the same stories, and sharing motifs, themes, and narrative strategies. An Expanding Universe also maps out the reception of Bolaño’s fiction in the North American context, with special emphasis on the market conditions that help determine which books gets translated for publication and the ways in which different US periodicals have contributed to the mythology that continues to shape Bolaño’s legacy.

An Expanding Universe balances ambition with concision. In approximately 200 pages it analyzes almost all of Bolaño’s published fiction, including eight novels and three short story collections. Strangely absent are any references to Una novelita lumpen (2009) or Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce (1984). Andrews’s book also considers several interviews and non-fiction works, including the scathing assessment of contemporary Spanish-language literature titled “Los mitos de Cthulhu,” which appears in El gaucho insufrible (2003). Logically, Andrews pays special attention to Bolaño’s better-known and more extensive works, namely La literatura Nazi en América (1996), Estrella distante (1996), Los detectives salvajes (1998), Amuleto (1999), Nocturno de chile (2000), and 2666 (2004). Short stories that receive lengthy readings include “Fotos,” from Putas asesinas (2001) and “Laberinto,” from El secreto del mal (2007).

The book consists of seven chapters. The first three focus on reception, form, and narrative strategy, while the four remaining chapters explore characterization, motifs, and theme. Andrews organizes much of his analysis around the argument that Bolaño’s works of fiction comprise a system defined by four primary traits, two of which I have already mentioned (interrelated characters and expansion of stories), and two others: metarepresentation and overinterpretation. Examples of interrelated characters include Óscar and Rosa Amalfitano, Ernesto San Epifanio, and Bolaño’s alter-ego, Arturo Belano; examples of expansion include Amuleto and Estrella distante, which originated as shorter episodes in, respectively, Detectives and La literatura Nazi; metarepresentation refers to Bolaño’s sustained development of characters who are also writers, such as the poets in Detectives and Benno von Archimboldi in 2666; and overinterpretation refers to episodes within Bolaño’s fiction which portray processes of interpretation that go beyond plausible inferences from the evidence at hand, such as the fantastically elaborate stories drawn from a photograph in “Laberinto.” In the chapter about narrative strategy, Andrews explicates particularly well how Bolaño develops narrative tension by employing several tactics: mixing genres (primarily realism, crime fiction, and horror), layering multiple levels of narrative and meaning, developing open-ended plot lines, and knowing when to conceal, and reveal, surprises and secrets.

Among the topics that stand out in the chapters Andrews dedicates principally to content are Bolaño’s propensity to portray characters who wander and who have relationships to time that do not correspond with linearity or teleology, such as Auxilio Lacouture in Amuleto; duels and brawls, including the famous author versus literary critic bout on the beach in Detectives; and the questions of evil and bravery, which pertain, for example, to the femicides in 2666 and the...