Review of 'The Savage Detectives' by Roberto Bolaño

I was doing really well at keeping up to date on posting on this blog last month, and then I read this massive tome. So, sorry for my absence, but this novel took a while to work through. I was meant to read it two and a half years ago as part of my lit course, but it was big and heavy with small font so I avoided it at all costs and Wiki'd it for the seminar. I've read quite a few nice, speedy novels recently so I thought it was time to tackle it.

The Savage Detectives is one of Bolaño's longest works. Initially a poet, he turned to, in his opinion, an inferior form of literature: fiction. Bolaño was a traveller, and spent most of his life poor, finally turning to fiction as a way to secure income. 

Usually I wouldn't do a little author bio for you, but as one of the main characters, Arturo Belano is a loosely autobiographical figure, I felt as though it was important.

The novel is very much a South American novel. Not all of the text, or possibly not even the majority of the text, takes place in South America, and yet it remains an intangible zone throughout the entirety of the novel. It's there in the conversation between narrators, and there in the discussion of literature, which features heavily in the book. 

The Savage Detectives is written in three parts. The first is a story from the viewpoint of a 17 year old poet named Garcia Madero. He becomes entangled with a group of poets who name themselves the visceral realists. Even if you search this term, all you get are mentions of Bolaño and this novel. It's a form of poetry that is discussed at length in the text, but as with any avant-garde form of art, it's true form is never pinpointed. It's un-pinpoint-ability is part of what it is.

The second part features over 40 narrators. It's confusing, and at some times mindless. Some narrators only feature once, and some come in waves of repetition. It took me a while to link this mass of scenes, but the one thing they all have in common is that these people have met Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, the founders of visceral realism. These people tell stories that span twenty years as well as multiple continents. Movement between chapters and narratives is harsh and abrupt. It constantly keeps you questioning and leads you off into different realms of thought. Again, I feel as though this is part of the idea of visceral realism.

If you define 'visceral' you come across the idea of something relating to ones feelings rather than to ones intellect. This features throughout The Savage Detectives. We're met with  crude sexual scenes, scenes of abject poverty, alcoholism and the desire to learn. Belano and Lima do not do what they need to do in life, they do what they feel like doing. 

The final section picks up exactly where the first section leaves off. Belano, Lima and Garcia Madero are travelling across the desert with a prostitute they saved from her pimp. The pimp is hot on their tails, but they're also in search of a visceral realist poetess, who has only ever published one piece of work. This final section follows them in their journey to the heart of visceral realism. 

Have you read this? What did you think?

Review of 'Forbidden Colours' by Yukio Mishima

I'm feeling really good about the number of non-English/American novels that I've read recently, and here's another that I've been wanting to read for so long. Forbidden Colours is an avant-garde Japanese novel that I was supposed to read on my uni course, but it was one that I only managed to get half-way through before we had to move on. I was gutted, but I finally found time to finish it off, although I did have to start from the beginning again to remind me of all the plot intricacies of the first half. 

Forbidden Colours is initially narrated by protagonist and author within the novel, Shunsuke. He has written a myriad of books, largely about relationships and happy marriages, but he hides his secret of hating women behind them. He detests them, and considers the vagina abhorrent. As such, he is on his third wife by time the novel starts. 

When Shunsuke goes away on a brief holiday, he sees a beautiful young woman, who is in love with an equally beautiful young man named Yuichi. Shunsuke feels a connection to this young man, and they grow close. He discovers a misogyny within Yuichi akin to his own, and they make a sordid agreement: Shunsuke will pay Yuichi 500 000 yen to marry the young woman and make her life completely miserable. 

Shunsuke has realised that Yuichi is a young homosexual, and becomes attracted to the beauty in him. Soon the narrative switches to be based around Yuichi. His beauty is a magnet that attracts men and women wherever he goes. He soon begins to frequent a cafe for homosexuals, and becomes entangled with many men there. He will only pick the most beautiful, and will never agree to sleep with a foreigner. 

Whilst this is happening, he still beds his wife at home and gets her pregnant. He is terrified about the birth, about her having a son who lives his lief like Yuichi does. This drives a wedge even further between them. His mother and wife assume he visits prostitutes, and he allows them to be kept in this deceit. 

'Forbidden Colours' is the English translation of the Japanese title, but the original title is also a euphemism for homosexuality. The story reminds me a little of a more explicit Dorian Gray. Yuichi struggles with the morality behind his actions, but is obsessed by his own beauty and cannot stop. 

Have you read it? What did you think?

Review of 'Talismano' by Abdelwahab Meddeb

Starting this novel really made me think about just how Westernised my literary sphere is. I've read a couple of Japanese and Chinese texts (translated into English of course), but aside from that I almost exclusively read English and American texts. I rarely even branch out to European ones.

So, I ventured off into this avant-garde text written by a Tunisian author living in France with no idea what to expect in terms of tropes or themes or setting. I've read a few avant-garde texts before, the most memorable of which were definitely A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle (a poem by Hugh MacDiarmid) and the poetry of Gertrude Stein. Seriously though Stein, you just endlessly elude me. I was basically prepared for this to be a little intangible as a result of this, and it definitely felt that way once I started the book.

I would probably describe Talismano as a sensory exploration of the clashing cultures of France and Tunisia. It is almost a recollection of the author's experiences in both places that are brought back through the haze of memory. As such, there are very few moments of dialogue, and it is hard to find one clear plot strand that continues coherently throughout the text.

The main message you receive amidst all the decadent sensual journeys of the text is that fundamentalist Islam needs to be altered to bring Tunisia into modernity. Meddeb himself is a strong believer in this ideal, and believes that Western influences may in fact nurture Tunisian Islam to a point of peace and prosperity. 

The book is separated into three sections: 'Return Prostitution', 'Idol Ghetto' and 'Otherworld Procession'. The first section discusses the narrator's return to Tunis, and with this return comes a flood of memories of the brothels he has visited and still visits. The second section moves away from this bodily lust to a feverish mob atmosphere. The third is somewhat self-reflective, and moves between France and Tunisia, discussing writing and politics amidst a once more heady descriptive monologue.

I absolutely loved reading this text - it's like nothing I've ever read before, and was genuinely provocative. It made me pause to consider my surroundings: gather up the sounds, the smells, the sights, the tastes and my own sensations. It made me consider our Western world in an entirely new light. Most importantly perhaps, it opened up to me a whole new text that was like nothing I've ever read before. 

I definitely feel much more encouraged to move away from Westernised texts and see what the rest of the world has to offer. So hopefully my reviews are about to get a whole lot more varied!

Have you read this? What did you think?