Confession

16.  By Night in Chile

Here is the thing about Bolano, as I read it if I think about it too much I will confuse myself and think that I am not getting it.  But that disjointed feeling is kind of the important part.  I think part of his writing style is to make you feel like that.  So you don’t stop to try to figure it out you just keep on going and at the end you can finally take a breath.   

This book is one long paragraph that covers the last night of a man’s life.  A man who was a father yet is not religious; a man who loved literature and believed in its power yet made him living as a critic.  A man who needs to get some things off his chest before he dies, and you are there as it all comes spilling out.  And that is how it comes, sometimes it is coherent and sometimes not, but he is obviously searching for meaning.