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Nov 19, 2011

Daniel rated it:

What I have come to appreciate reading Bolaño's book is the fact that he takes you on several small journeys getting you from plot-point to plot-point. You almost don't realize that he is doing it until you finish one of these tangents and get led carefully back to the main storyline. That Bolaño trusts his talents enough to introduce characters that are only there to make a single point, that they exist in the novel just to die or to cease to exist just so some small nuance of Chile, the Church More...

2 comments like (9 people liked it)

Jan 24, 2011

Abailart rated it:

I thought this very good. It's my first encounter with this writer, and although I have seen reviews suggesting his 'difficulty', I have no hesitation in recommending this to anybody. (I thank Mike Puma for suggesting it as probably the most suitable introduction to the author).

It's very rich and dense, with startling images and cross-cutting motifs; many extratextual references too, but I hardly think they matter at this stage. Later, I will return to read the book again, as one will More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Mar 24, 2009

L.S. rated it:

Preotul Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix rememoreaza intr-o singura noapte momentele importante ale vietii pe care se pregateste sa o incheie. Ca preot aflam foarte putin despre el, avem unele indicii ca credinta lui s-ar fi racit. Insa preotul este si un poet (apreciat spre sfarsitul vietii) cat si un renumit critic literar. Urrutia povesteste cum a fost introdus in cercurile inalte de catre Farewell, cum l-a intalnit pe Pablo Neruda (poet chilian); aminteste un pictor, scriitori si alti artisti – tot More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 26, 2009

Julie rated it:

A very memorable, powerful book that asks the very difficult but important question: what is the relevance (if any) of literature to Real Life, especially when said Real Life involves political turmoil? (Specifically a military coup when people are being tortured and killed in basements while literary parties are taking place upstairs.) Is it brave and wise to read Thucycides and Plato when a democratically elected president is being overthrown, or just stupid and detached? With this novella, na More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 31, 2011

Matt rated it:

A failed poet gone Jesuit priest is introduced to Chile's literary elite and, from there, is swept into Opus Dei and the collaborative persecutions of the church and the Pinochet regime. Bolano's criticism of aesthetic intelligensia unfolds at first gradually, then in a torrent of disturbing fury as the plot rapidly darkens. The deep pit yawns before the protagonist as he tells the wife of a torturer to pray while running his fingers along the spines of his favorite books on her shelf. This s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Jacob rated it:

This deathbed confession/justification/apology of a Jesuit priest and literary critic, Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, is as described by others here already, an indictment of the Chilean literary establishment for its complicities and silences before, during, and after the rise of the Pinochet junta. Appropriately, then, three of the European poets who haunt Fr. Urrutia's recollections are Sordello, Dante Alighieri, and Ezra Pound, poets who were maybe too much a part of their times. Pablo Neruda More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Dec 17, 2009

Chris rated it:

My friend Jessie has been telling me about Bolano for years, but until recently none of his work has been available in English. I found this at the Strand, so I thought I'd give him a try.

The book was good, but never really gripped me. A somewhat stream-of-consciousness death-bed confession by a Chilean priest, the narrative wanders forward and backward in time but roughly tells the narrator's life in chronological order and charts his slow, indifferent decent into complacency with More...

4 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

julieta rated it:

Este es el segundo libro que leo de Bolaño, el primero fue Detectives Salvajes, que es de mis libros favoritos. Este es completamente distinto en estilo, casi como si fuera escrito por otra persona, pero igual me encanto. Es el viaje en la memoria de un personaje que no sabes si te cae bien o mal, un sacerdote entusiasta de la literatura, la poesia. Es un viaje hacia todo tipo de recuerdos, pasan por ahi Neruda, Pinochet, analiza constantemente todo tipo de traumas chilenos, de caracter y de his More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 18, 2011

Nancy rated it:

this story was like a dream transposed onto pages to look like and read as a book. and I'm not referring to dreams as opposite to nightmares and i'm not referring to the allusions we aspire to...i'm referring to this nebulous and residual feeling that dreams become when we wake up. we sometimes remember the details of what we dream, yet we can't entirely trust the fading images lingering in our mind, but the sensations they leave are oftentimes heavy and hard to shake off...anyway, Nocturno d More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 06, 2012

Ben rated it:

Published in Spanish in 2000, Chris Andrew’s translation of By Night in Chile appeared in 2003. Following Bolaño’s death and the success of 2666, Vintage has been publishing Bolaño’s back catalogue, of which this is the most recent. It is a short novella, just 130 pages long. Despite its brevity, By Night in Chile contains as much force as his longer works and speaks more truth than many other novels.

We are, of course, in Chile. Through one night, Father Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, a pr More...

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Jan 01, 2012

Marcos rated it:

By Night in Chile, Mr. Bolano’s first work translated into English is one of those works that is both maddeningly annoying, yet brilliant and sharp as nails at the same time. It’s a great precursor to those great works that I’ve read, long published after this small masterpiece had been.

The novella basically is about Father Urrutia, a Conservative priest who once upon a time, wanted to be both a critic and poet. Instead, circumstances in his life forced him into the priesthood. The b More...

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Aug 12, 2011

Sean rated it:

God, why is there not more time in the day, more days in our lives.

That's not at all what this book is about but man that was my take away. How am I ever going to read all the books I want to read and still have enough time to read this one again. It's that good.

This might get to be a worn out simile by the time I review all my favorite books, but the language here (even in translation) elicits a dream-like state where the only colors not desaturated by a never-ending fog a More...

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Jul 23, 2011

Andrej rated it:

a great, compact short novel. i read it in serbian translation, a superb job done by a local writer igor marojević. only two bolaño's books have been published in serbia. after this one, i'll certainly have to find some english editions. although composed as a stream of thought where narrative fragments intertwine seamlessly and written to be read in one sitting, without chapters or other places for readers to take a breath, by night in chile reads easily, even if you stop and go. we even briefl More...

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Mar 15, 2011

Valeria rated it:

I think I would have appreciated this book more if I was more into Chilean literature. Some characters, like Pablo Neruda, I could recognize right away, but most were unknown to me. Still I could follow the story, but I might not have understood all the nuances. If you aren't informed about Chile and have the will to look stuff up, this book could be a good starting point about Chile without being deliberate like a travel guide.

The novel also captures other aspects of Chilean history More...

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Feb 15, 2011

Michael rated it:

One of four books I've read or tried to read in the past three months that eschews paragraph breaks. Is it fair to dock this one star because of that?

A novella at most, probably a long short story. The first half is uneven, the second half is great. Surviving the first half would be no problem if not for the stupid lack of paragraph breaks. It's not like they don't belong there. He moves from anecdote to anecdote, episode to episode. The other no-white-space writers I'm reading at l More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 27, 2010

Andrew rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Aug 15, 2010

Eugene rated it:

i keep thinking maybe this next bolaño that i pick up will be somehow minor or irrelevant or merely clever. but it never is! it's always consistently great and consistently surprising with thin yet deep connecting seams of evil and loss, tiny to large explosions of sex and examples of worldly power... structurally so genius and yet so natural, hopeless wisdom, sad beauty, perfect jokes...

and parts to remember (spoiler alert if you believe in such) : the first visit to Far More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 20, 2010

Rowland rated it:

Roberto Bolano's "By Night in Chile" is considered one of the great contemporary classics from South America. It is the story of Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest who, on his deathbed, confesses to his collusion and association with the brutal Pinochet dictatorship which was responsible for the killings of thousands of people.

The novel is unique in that it is composed of one long paragraph. Bolano often uses page-long sentences to describe in detail the literary a More...

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Nov 01, 2009

Andy rated it:

Continuing my tour of Roberto Bolaño’s tiny novellas, I’ve arrived at By Night in Chile, the story of Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest, poet, and ascendant literary critic. Urrutia is approached by Mr. Raef and Mr. Etah, two shadowy figures who commission him to travel across Europe, reporting back on the preservation of ancient churches. When Urrutia performs admirably at this task, Raef and Etah dispatch him on a second, more serious mission: tutoring the new President of Chile, Aug More...

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May 05, 2009

Mike rated it:

Dying priest looks back on his life which as it turns out is full of metaphors. Written like a tornado or maybe a pack of rabid wolves, it comes across fast and hard — probably best read in one sitting (you can do it).

Before I get carried away and start nailing Bolaño's corpse to the sky so he can luminate with other dead heroes, I should instead tell you about a film I saw last night. In it a mutant submits to a special process in which ultra-strong metal is bonded to his bones (inc More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 30, 2012

Noce rated it:

Ci siamo mancati per un soffio

Caldeggiato vivamente da un amico anobiano, ho scoperto Roberto Bolaño.

È vero che se un amico al bar ci chiedesse di raccontar-ci, cioè di raccontar-gli la nostra vita dalla nascita, una volta iniziato, dopo l’esitazione dei primi anni in cui dobbiamo affidarci alla memoria dei nostri genitori, saremmo un fiume in piena.

Nessuna meraviglia quindi nello scoprire che Notturno cileno, è un flusso costante di passato e presente perpetuo.
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0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Nov 28, 2011

Paul rated it:

Father Sebastian Urrutia is dying. Or believes that he is dying. In a single night - with sometimes querulous voice and not entirely reliable memory - he revisits scenes from his life as a failed poet but eminent literary critic. And through the character of Urrutia, the Chilean-born novelist Roberto Bolaño produces a brilliant analysis of Chilean literature and the contaminated soil out of which it has emerged.

Urrutia is a member of Opus Dei, repelled by everyday humanity, twisted by More...

8 comments like

Jun 13, 2009

Jasmine rated it:

I decided in order to review this book I would read other reviews to help me understand the book I read one sentence of one review which said something like Bolano spends a lot of time making diversion while he takes you from plot point to plot point. I stopped here because I don't believe that this book has any plot. I mean I think the only way that you could assume that this book has a plot is if you forced one on it because you require books to have one. This is not an eco book where he is si More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Jun 30, 2010

Jennifer (JC-S) rated it:

‘But only I know the story, the real story.’

This novel is narrated in the first person by the ill and ageing Father Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix over the course of a single evening. Father Urrutia believes that he is dying, and in a feverish monologue, with a not entirely reliable memory, he revisits some of the crucial events of his life as a Chilean priest, member of Opus Dei, a literary critic and a mediocre poet.

‘Words emerging from one dream and entering another.’
More...

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Feb 04, 2011

Friederike rated it:

Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, Jesuit priest and well-known Chilean literary critic, feeling himself close to death, "rummages" through his memories in a night-long monolog about his life, his friends and achievements. "... One has a moral obligation to take responsibility for one's actions, and that includes one's words and silences..." he muses early on. But what follows in his "confession" should put the reader immediately on their guard. Is this an overlong self-eul More...

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Feb 02, 2011

Jeff rated it:

By night in Chile is a short but powerful book that fits all the frustration and rage against the artist and government of Bolano's day. This story's main character, Father Lacroix, is writing his deathbed confession, a rambling wild ride that takes you through nightmare dreams that characterize the futility of his situation. Lacroix is put to the moral test. Allegories and stories weave in and out to emphasize his dire situation. In the end this was Bolano's protest against artists who would se More...

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Dec 28, 2009

matt rated it:

Really caught on for me in the last half of the book. Bolano gives his character an added depth, rather than keeping him as a cipher and more passive observer of the unsettling, surreal, rather morbid circumstances in which he is surrounded.

Once the horrific core of what he's been a part of (and privy to) becomes more and more apparent, his ethical and spiritual weakness becomes more pronounced and all the more human and (it must be said) pathetic.

Is there a conclusi More...

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Jul 11, 2010

Jana rated it:

Now I want to read his other books. I don't know what to really say about Bolano. His language is rich, that is a fact. He was this turbo smart writer, that is a fact. He writes like a South American writer, that is a fact. I had ups and downs with it. On one hand I had to use Wikipedia and juggle with his 'smartness', on the other he was just enough and great. Overall, he is still overlooked as a writer, but I think, he is outstanding.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2011

Lisa added it

Have no idea how to talk about this book in terms of stars. I admired 2666 so much and picked up both this book and The Savage Detectives (which I plan to read soon). By Night in Chile is a monologue (no paragraphs breaks at all) -- the jacket says it is a deathbed confession, but I didn't see how that mattered. The narrator is a Jesuit priest who has dinner with a lot of famous poets including Neruda and then leaves Chile at the behest of Opus Dei to travel around Europe watching falcons kill More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Oct 07, 2011

Julia rated it:

O primeiro livro que li de Bolaño, e foi uma boa escolha, Bolaño é sempre fascinante quando é apocalíptico.
Nesse livro ele pergunta o valor de uma obra literária na vida prática, no Chile noturno da ditadura de Pinochet. O protagonista, Sebastián Urrutia Lacroix, sacerdote da Opus Dei, poeta medíocre, relembra sua vida em um momento de febre, e pensa nas aulas de marxismo que deu ao próprio ditador.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)