Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003

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Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003

by Roberto Bolaño, Ignacio Echevarría (Editor), Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

4.17 of 5 stars 4.17 · rating details · 334 ratings · 38 reviews

Between Parentheses collects most of the newspaper columns and articles
Bolaño wrote during the last five years of his life, as well as the texts of some of
his speeches and talks and a few scattered prologues. “Taken together,” as the
editor Ignacio Echevarría remarks in his introduction, they provide “a personal
cartography of the writer: the closest thing, among all his wri...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published May 30th 2011 by New Directions (first published June 2004)

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Aug 29, 2012 Ben Winch rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: latin-american, chilean

For fans of 2666 or The Savage Detectives still searching for clues to unlock the mystery, skip the shorter novels (go back to them later, there's plenty of time) and try this. Defiantly not the cash-in it could have been, Between Parentheses is in some ways more personal than anything in Bolano's fiction, and proves the late Chilean master to be as big-hearted as he is sardonic, as in love with literature as he is critical of it. Funny, candid, illuminating... I missed him when I finished this....more For fans of 2666 or The Savage Detectives still searching for clues to unlock the mystery, skip the shorter novels (go back to them later, there's plenty of time) and try this. Defiantly not the cash-in it could have been, Between Parentheses is in some ways more personal than anything in Bolano's fiction, and proves the late Chilean master to be as big-hearted as he is sardonic, as in love with literature as he is critical of it. Funny, candid, illuminating... I missed him when I finished this. Here he is in 'Translation is an Anvil':

How to recognize a work of art? How to separate it, even if just for a moment, from its critical apparatus, its exegetes, its tireless plagiarizers, its belittlers, its final lonely fate? Easy. Let it be translated. Let its translator be far from brilliant. Rip pages from it at random. Leave it lying in an attic. If after all this a kid comes along and reads it, and after reading makes it his own, and is faithful to it (or unfaithful, whichever) and reinterprets it and accompanies it on its voyage to the edge, and both are enriched and the kid adds an ounce of value to its original value, then we have something before us, a machine or a book, capable of speaking to all human beings: not a plowed field but a mountain, not the image of a dark forest but the dark forest, not a flock of birds but the Nightingale.

Maybe it's kind of specialised, but my favourite is the penultimate piece, 'Advice on the Art of Writing Short Stories'. After first recommending that you never tackle short stories one by one ('Really, if you tackle them one by one you could be writing the same story until the day you die'), he goes on to list the writers that you must read (Quiroga, Felisberto Hernandez, Borges, Monterosso, never Cela or Umbral, Cortazar, Bioy Casares, some French symbolists) and eventually comes to the following:

9) The honest truth is that if we read Edgar Allan Poe that would be more than enough. 10) Consider that ninth point. Consider and reflect. It's not too late. You must consider point number nine. If possible: on your knees.

Legend. Rest in peace, Roberto.(less)

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Jun 27, 2011 Lee rated it 4 of 5 stars

Remove the dust jacket of the The Portable Beat Reader and you'll see the same solid semi-glossy black boards -- both this one by Bolano and that one by the Beats are top-notch reading-list reads. A laugh riot at times. Always bold. Every author is the best of a country or generation. Abyss and adventure! As a slant portrait of Bolano, it's a portrait of the author as a compendium of books, like the painting by Arcimboldo, who most likely inspired Archimboldi, the master writer in 2666.

Highly re...more

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Mar 16, 2012 Stas added it

Shelves: books-i-started-and-might-yet-finis

In the newly translated collection of short non-fiction by Bolano, there is a piece on Argentinian literature, "The Vagaries of the Literature of Doom". In it he writes:
'regrettably, Argentine literature today has three reference points. Two are public. The third is secret. All three are in some sense reactions against Borges. All three ultimately represent a step backward and are conservative, not revolutionary, although all three, or at least two of them, have set themselves up as leftist al...more

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Oct 07, 2012 Ben Dutton rated it 5 of 5 stars

Between Parentheses is a collection of Roberto Bolaño’s essays, articles and speeches from 1998-2003. They are gathered from a number of disparate sources – regular newspaper columns, from speeches for the opening of the holiday celebrations in his adopted hometown of Blanes. The compiler of this book, Ignacio Echeverría, has access to Bolaño’s computer, and so the original source documents for these pieces, and as he admits in his introduction it is difficult to know exactly how many of these p...more Between Parentheses is a collection of Roberto Bolaño’s essays, articles and speeches from 1998-2003. They are gathered from a number of disparate sources – regular newspaper columns, from speeches for the opening of the holiday celebrations in his adopted hometown of Blanes. The compiler of this book, Ignacio Echeverría, has access to Bolaño’s computer, and so the original source documents for these pieces, and as he admits in his introduction it is difficult to know exactly how many of these pieces were actually published and where. Bolaño kept little record, and often recycled pieces between newspapers, magazines and various other sources.

Collections such as these are often hit-and-miss affairs. For every piece of brilliance, there will be something undercooked, a few thoughts written on the page and then discarded. Sometimes there is repetition – as thoughts expressed for one piece are recycled in another. Such problems make it necessary to read such collections slowly, a piece at a time, spread across a number of days. It is to Bolaño’s credit – and to Ignacio Echeverría’s diligence in compiling these pieces – that the repetition is slight, and that each piece (though sometimes slight) at least has something in it to enjoy: a turn of phrase, an image, a way of thinking. The best of these pieces educate and entertain. Quite often it is as if Bolaño is in the room with you – his voice is so clear.

Sometimes, it has to be said, Bolaño can be maddening in his obscurities (at least to the English-speaker, whose interest in Spanish-language fiction is stalled by the lack of translation of many of those people Bolaño references – though you will want to learn Spanish just to read many of them!), and just sometimes his point isn’t entirely clear, but you go with him anyway, because he’s entertaining, a rambunctious writer of great skill. And sometimes he isn’t making the point you thought he was making, but is actually leading you towards some other conclusion entirely. These points, that sound like criticism, are what make it worth your time to read him. He will show you something in a new light; he will make you reconsider.

For those interested in the life of this writer, Between Parentheses elucidates some of the novels, and provides insight into the passions that drove the man. A fascinating, entertaining collection, worth reading.(less)

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May 25, 2012 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

I realized when I started reading this, why I love his writing. Maybe you have to be a certain age and to have come from a certain life to appreciate it but this is what he says:
"... everything I've written is a love letter or a farewell letter to my generation, those of us who were born in the 1950s... ". --That would include me.

What he goes on to say is that they were fighting for certain causes and here he's really talking about the political turmoil of South America in the second half of the...more I realized when I started reading this, why I love his writing. Maybe you have to be a certain age and to have come from a certain life to appreciate it but this is what he says:
"... everything I've written is a love letter or a farewell letter to my generation, those of us who were born in the 1950s... ". --That would include me.

What he goes on to say is that they were fighting for certain causes and here he's really talking about the political turmoil of South America in the second half of the 20th century: Chile, Argentina, Nicaragua, Colombia, El Salvador. It made me think of the current Arab Spring movements.

Bolano talks about being imprisoned after the coup in Chile and what it was like to live through that, imprisoned for 5 months as a political prisoner. I would imagine that no matter what or where you are, those experiences will affect your art, your poetry, your view of the world.

He writes about exile, a term he uses in a very general way, saying that all writers are exiles. By that, I think he means disconnected. The whole concept of political exile only became real to me in the past fifteen years, first with a Spanish teacher I had who had fled Chile during the coup, went to Argentina, then to the United States. One thing I remember that he talked about was having to be careful about what he did, said, or who he associated with in his host country or he could be thrown out. Such uncertainty and constant vigilance. I now know more people who are political exiles from all over the world. Makes me wonder about the the role of government and power and what it can do to its citizens. It also makes me think about the concept of nationalism and borders and how some people wander this world for the rest of their life. Love of country when no longer living there, maybe never again to live there, maybe it goes back generations. Thinking Palestine, thinking Armenia, wondering about many countries.

And exile is not always political and, as Bolano writes, not always viewed negatively by the exiled person.

Not all of the book is about exile. He also gives brief reviews of books and authors. These were originally written and published in a Spanish newspaper. I haven't yet read all of them but look forward to it.

I read Bolano from/with my heart. His writing thrill me. (less)

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Feb 28, 2011 jeremy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: translation, essays

that nearly all of bolaño's non-fictional and autobiographical writings fit into a single volume is bittersweet. lucky we are that these works were collected and published (let alone translated by the fabulous natasha wimmer), so that neophyte and devotee alike may espy a glimpse of the author beyond his often apocryphal mystique. unfortunate it remains, however, that these pages make up the sum of what otherwise could have been a much more voluminous collection (had a liver transplant come read...more that nearly all of bolaño's non-fictional and autobiographical writings fit into a single volume is bittersweet. lucky we are that these works were collected and published (let alone translated by the fabulous natasha wimmer), so that neophyte and devotee alike may espy a glimpse of the author beyond his often apocryphal mystique. unfortunate it remains, however, that these pages make up the sum of what otherwise could have been a much more voluminous collection (had a liver transplant come ready before that fateful 2003 summer).

between parentheses, edited by bolaño's friend and literary executor, ignacio echevarria, is divided into six mostly distinct parts. the third and largest of these, from which the book takes its name, is comprised of weekly columns bolaño wrote for las últimas noticias, a chilean newspaper. these writings concern themselves almost entirely with forgotten books, neglected and/or underappreciated authors, and the writerly lifestyle. the five other parts feature short pieces, essays (some left unfinished), speeches, and brief vignettes dealing mostly with literature, place, and the personal. also present is a reprinting of the last interview he gave, to the mexican edition of playboy, shortly before his death.

between parentheses, above all, demonstrates bolaño's love of books, seemingly more so as a reader of them than as their writer. he was known to have read widely, and this work offers his opinions (mostly favorable, yet sometimes acerbically critical) on a wide array of books, poets, and authors well-known and obscure. as from some of his other titles, one could cull quite the impressive reading last (spanning continents and centuries) from amongst its pages. omnipresent is bolaño's trademark prose style, as his non-fiction reads with the same unique voice that brought so many ardent fans to his fiction. bolaño seldom strays into the realm of the political, but his few forays are terse and powerful. amidst his wide knowledge of all things bibliophilic is a singular sense of humor, one that is familiar to readers of both his novels and short stories.

while bolaño presumably never intended these writings to stand in lieu of a more cohesive autobiographical work (which, given the sentiments contained within the book, is not something he was ever likely to have penned in any proper way), it is nonetheless all we as readers are left with to make sense of him as an individual and lover of great fiction. it seems the late chilean writer was more than content to let his books stand upon their own merits, as he seemed to have a general disregard for awards, critics, and the like. between parentheses is an indispensable collection for those who count bolaño as a remarkable and important literary figure (one, too, perhaps even more essential for his naysayers, detractors, and other assorted maligners).

behind this crowd, however, hides the one true patron. if you have patience enough to search, maybe you'll catch a glimpse of what you're looking for. and when you find it, you'll probably be disappointed. it isn't the devil. it isn't the state. it isn't a magical child. it's the void.(less)

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Jul 01, 2012 Mark rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: essays, literary, literature-spanish

Reading Bolaño, the English-speaker has to be overwhelmed by the vast ocean of Latin American literature that is virtually invisible in the United States. But, as Bolaño points out, that's hardly a problem unique to North Amerrica: "which brings us to a problem even worse than being forgotten: the provincialism of the book market, which corrals and locks away Spanish-language literature, which, simply put, means that Chilean authors are only of interest in Chile, Mexican authors in Mexico, and...more
Reading Bolaño, the English-speaker has to be overwhelmed by the vast ocean of Latin American literature that is virtually invisible in the United States. But, as Bolaño points out, that's hardly a problem unique to North Amerrica: "which brings us to a problem even worse than being forgotten: the provincialism of the book market, which corrals and locks away Spanish-language literature, which, simply put, means that Chilean authors are only of interest in Chile, Mexican authors in Mexico, and Colombians in Colombia, as if each Latin American country spoke a different language or as if the aesthetic taste of each Latin American reader were determined first and foremost by national — that is, provincial — imperatives, which wasn’t the case in the 1960s, for example, when the Boom exploded, or in the 1950s or 1940s, despite poor distribution." Bolaño's text could easily be used as an introduction to modern Spanish literature. He's incredibly widely read, and he covers a lot of authors in these mostly throw-away pieces he wrote for Spanish papers. Bolaño's enthusiasm is infectious--of the many books he mentions, I added to my reading list practically all of them that I could find in English translation (which was unfortunaely not many). So typical, his exhortation to read, as in this commentary:

"Thus it was that The Temple of Iconoclasts came into my hands, during a cold, wet winter, and I still remember the enormous pleasure it brought me, and the consolation, too, at a time when almost everything was full of sadness. Wilcock’s book restored happiness to me, as is only the case with those masterpieces of literature that are also masterpieces of black humor, like Lichtenberg’s Aphorisms or Sterne’s Tristram Shandy. Of course, Wilcock’s book tiptoed out of bookstores. Today, seventeen years later, it has just been reprinted. If you want to have a good time, if you want to cure what ails you, buy it, steal it, borrow it, but most importantly, read it."

These essays are an endless pleasure to read: always invigorating, clever, opinionated, and sharp. Impossible to take everything in one reading: without question a book that will reward repeated readings.
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Jul 19, 2011 Juan rated it 3 of 5 stars

The latest book, released by the Bolaño estate, Between Parentheses, named after the title of a his column, collects the many non-fictional writings of the Chilean poet, famed novelist. I have not read all of his works, only his most popular ones; Nazi Literature in the Americas, Savage Defectives, and 2666. Wait. I lied. By Night in Chile. A Distant Star. And the novel, Bolaño may have not wish to be published, The Third Reich, which surely will not be the last. The latest book in the US, publi...more

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Jul 19, 2011 Natalie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

Late birthday gift from Margaret. I'm so excited I could just twitch.

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Feb 20, 2012 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

Always been a huge fan of Bolano.

This is a collection of some speeches he gave on exile and literature and a bunch of random book reviews.

I didn't like it as much as actual work. One of things that draws me to Bolano is the way literature seems to fit so well into his life. He genuinely draws real joy out of the things he reads, and that carries over the people he meets. He's continuously throwing out these references that don't even exist... there's this fascination he has with the world aroun...more

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Aug 05, 2012 Arlo rated it 4 of 5 stars

Bolano's best books and best literature in my opinion is when he is writing about what has affected him most. Poetry/poets, Dictators(Pinochet)/living in exile, and reading/literature. I'm sure I missed something but so be it. This book brings the reader closer to knowing him and his thoughts on various subjects.
It's a bit schizophrenic at times. In the beginning of the book he essentially gives Aira a backhanded compliment but then praises him throughout most of the book. He also insults(I real...more

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Jun 18, 2011 Brian added it

This is a great collection of some of Bolano's thoughts, musings, views, and ideas. The one problem I have of it is that he speaks of South American authors who have never been translated to English, nor have many of them ended up on the bookshelves in the United States. He explains his various views on a lot of authors or pieces of work that he either loves or hates. The one thing i love about this book is that you get to experience the humorous wit and wisdom of Bolano who was in a class of hi...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Allan MacDonell rated it 3 of 5 stars

The obvious caveat is that Roberto Bolano intended for very little of the material collected in Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles and Speeches, 1998-2003 to be published as a book. The obvious extenuating circumstance is that Bolano died while he seemed to still have much more to say. So those of us who feel cheated at being deprived of what Bolano would be saying today can console ourselves with a few hundred pages of how this master stylist said things. So it's hard to hold onto turbid bit...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Roy Kenagy marked it as to-read

Guardian review: http://bitly.com/AmmN1f

"These pieces include sketches from a return visit to Bolaño's native Chile, short newspaper columns largely about books and authors, and glimpses of life with his family in Blanes, a Catalan seaside town. Tentatively compared to "a kind of fragmented autobiography" in Echevarría's introduction, the collection has obvious omissions as a memoir but does reflect Bolaño's multi-faceted, contradictory personality, by turns engaging and cantankerous, shy and ou...more

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Feb 28, 2012 Eric rated it 3 of 5 stars

My familiarity with Latin American and Spanish writers, especially contemporary ones, is pretty limited, and the bulk of this book is Bolano's opinions on and reviews of Spanish language authors, many of whom have yet to be translated into English. So while I like his style enough to enjoy almost anything he writes, this collection wasn't quite as enjoyable because most of these reviews were originally written for a Spanish newspaper, where the cultural context is much different and many readers...more

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Feb 28, 2013 Angelo Ricci added it · review of another edition

Domande si affacciano spesso alla memoria di chi legge. Memoria del lettore che conserva e rifiuta, analizza e ritiene, soffre e si entusiasma. Memoria che è software di un’unità carbonio senziente, database organico, luogo razionale che contiene tutta l’irrazionalità ragionevole delle parole lette, condivise, amate, odiate, a volte addirittura rifiutate. Scansione randomizzata di narrazioni, di storie, di trasfigurazioni spaziotemporali. Perché leggiamo Roberto Bolaňo? Perché desideriamo perder...more Domande si affacciano spesso alla memoria di chi legge. Memoria del lettore che conserva e rifiuta, analizza e ritiene, soffre e si entusiasma. Memoria che è software di un’unità carbonio senziente, database organico, luogo razionale che contiene tutta l’irrazionalità ragionevole delle parole lette, condivise, amate, odiate, a volte addirittura rifiutate. Scansione randomizzata di narrazioni, di storie, di trasfigurazioni spaziotemporali. Perché leggiamo Roberto Bolaňo? Perché desideriamo perderci in quel deserto acido e urbanizzato, in quelle ramblas assassine, in quel mantra letterario che cita autori e opere in un gioco di specchi borgesiano dove la realtà e la finzione convergono simbioticamente verso un’architettura affascinante che, come una Sagrada Familia letteraria, affastella sanguinanti golpe cileni, afflizioni estreme messicane, agghiaccianti scenari ispanici che fondono il terrore della tragicità umana con le profondità verticalizzate e senza fondo di una pop art alla Tijuana Bible che raccoglie oscure leggende metropolitane e abissi poetici? Roberto Bolaňo. Anche i nomi degli autori convergono nel database organico che è la memoria del lettore e, così come i nomi degli scrittori, così i titoli dei romanzi iniziano a vivere di vita propria, affrancandosi dal loro stesso contenuto sino a diventare realtà nominalistica che nel nome vive. Roberto Bolaňo. Don DeLillo conosce la potenza estrema dei nomi (travasata nel suo romanzo che così si intitola: I nomi), il loro iconico potere, la loro consanguineità con la vita e anche con la morte. Spesso si affiancano Bolaňo e DeLillo scrivendo di postmodernità, testimoniando così che, al di là poi di una verifica che fine non può mai avere, i nomi sono la realtà e i nomi degli autori sono (diventano) le loro storie e le loro stesse vite. Consanguineità con la vita e con la morte. Ecco perché leggiamo Bolaňo. Testimone, creatore, narratore, fiera e domatore, vittima e carnefice. Bolaňo è stato tutto questo, è tutto questo. Mappatura estrema e di confine (confine stilistico, di genere, ma anche confine lucidamente invalicabile tra ciò che è e ciò che non sarà più), territorio prodromico e al contempo definitivo, Tra parentesi è l’interzona burroughsiana in cui possiamo osservare tutto ciò che Roberto Bolaňo ha costruito nel suo edificio narrativo. Saggio, raccolta, testo in cui si fondono le ossessioni, i miraggi, le fonti, i bilanci senza speranza, Tra parentesi non può mancare nel database organico dei lettori del grande scrittore cileno.
http://nottedinebbiainpianura.blogspo...(less)

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Oct 13, 2011 Mike Puma rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: they know who they are

Shelves: bolaño, new-directions-publishing, lit-crit, chilean-author, 2011

4.5 well-deserved stars!

I started this book back in June before setting it aside, disappointed, and wondering: WTF is going on here? I found it confused and confusing. Did he think exile was real or didn’t he? (He does, or he doesn’t, depending on how he defines exile—writers, on the other hand, seem to be immune to exile as writers can write anywhere they happen to be.)

The speeches which begin this volume were frantic, taking off on tangents, leaving me to wonder what the attendees must have th

...more 4.5 well-deserved stars!

The speeches which begin this volume were frantic, taking off on tangents, leaving me to wonder what the attendees must have thought as he proceeded through them. The reviews which followed seemed equally frantic: this is the book, this is what I’ll speak to instead (like so many of us GR reviewers often do). I was reminded of Roberto Benigni when he won the Academy Award in 1998. video
description (Benigni) (Bolaño) Tell me those two aren’t related. Tell me.

In any case, I waited, restarted the collection and loved it. In addition to the speeches and reviews, there are numerous articles/essays—his thoughts on Melville and Twain, the two authors who tower over American fiction (all American fiction—for Bolaño American fiction is the fiction of the Americas, North, South, Latin, the whole shebang); what amounts to an annotated bibliography of Latin American authors (many of whom he knew); autobiographical information snatched piecemeal from the various volume entries; the Latin American authors who tower over the rest (or should).

Want to know what aspect of DFW Bolaño discussed with Rodrigo Fresán? his prolixity

Want to know what he thought of Chabon and Palahniuk? didn’t care for them

Want to know what he thought about Grombowicz? Aira? Neruda? Whitman? Marías? read the book.

Originally, I thought this volume would be of only archival interest; something for those who wanted to read absolutely everything Bolaño wrote. It’s more than that—it’s a celebration—presented in what I’ve come to consider Bolaño’s fevered, passionate, hectic, all too brief way. One for Bolaño’s fans and those who have an interest in Latin American literature. If I have a complaint, and I guess I do, is that the Preface makes it clear that the volume isn’t complete. My question remains: why the hell not? At least, it’s not something I can blame on the author.

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Jan 10, 2012 Jeff Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: about-writing, about-reading, memoir, biography, own, non-fiction, essays

I originally came across this book from an article in The New York Review of Books. It provided one of his essays about exile. It starts off with:

“To be exiled is not to disappear but to shrink, to slowly or quickly get smaller and smaller until we reach our real height, the true height of the self. Swift, master of exile, knew this. For him exile was the secret word for journey. Many of the exiled, freighted with more suffering than reasons to leave, would reject this statement.

All literature...more I originally came across this book from an article in The New York Review of Books. It provided one of his essays about exile. It starts off with:

“To be exiled is not to disappear but to shrink, to slowly or quickly get smaller and smaller until we reach our real height, the true height of the self. Swift, master of exile, knew this. For him exile was the secret word for journey. Many of the exiled, freighted with more suffering than reasons to leave, would reject this statement.

All literature carries exile within it, whether the writer has had to pick up and go at the age of twenty or has never left home.”

I have been pining for this book ever since.

One of the many things I love about reading Bolano is where he takes a story. If he is given enough time with a vague topic, he can reveal a part of his soul. There is something in this collected non-fiction that comes forward more than his collection of short stories. Here he reveals many of his secrets, the rich stories of his own life, and the works that inspired him that were weaved in to the fictions of By Night in Chile, The Savage Detectives, 2666 and others. The pieces are taken from book prefaces, speeches, and mostly from his column Between Parentheses that ran after his success with The Savage Detectives.

I loved his perspective on literature, writers, and readers. When you read his fiction, especially 2666, it’s a swirl of ideas. That’s part of the fun of reading his fiction, this swirl of a million ideas passing through with no time to catch or contemplate unless you read slowly and carefully, but not too slow as to miss the rhythm. It’s much easier to find the source of many of these ideas in his non-fiction works. I think my favorite section was his column Between Parentheses. There are so many short punches and insights that you have to stop after each one and re-read it. There is also a long list of authors to find in which he recommends which can keep one busy for quite some time (many of which are translated, but some are not). It was fantastic and my best Christmas gift from my wife!
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Dec 29, 2011 Donato rated it 4 of 5 stars

If you love literature, and if you love the hypnotic Bolaño style, but really most of all if you love literature, you'll love this.

Not only a treasure trove of what to read, but a distillation of why to read (i.e. what literature does for us, or even better, what literature does _to_ us).

The typical Bolaño themes repeat, reiterate, redound: the abyss, the dark, ticking time bombs, courage, humor, survival, survivors, and of course literature, which is all of the above.

Here's a taste, from the se...more

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Jul 28, 2011 julieta rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ajualatinos, favorites, non-fiction

Siempre se cuela en todo lo que escribe Bolaño su amor por la literatura. Sus libros muestran un entusiasmo insaciable. Por eso este libro es tan especial, y tan importante para cualquier fan suyo, o de la Literatura en general. Se ve todo lo que piensa sobre otros escritores, se ve su visión sobre la literatura latinoamericana, y sobre la literatura en general. Se te pega el entusiasmo inevitablemente, ahora tengo una gran necesidad de leer a muchos de los escritores de los que habla, como Vila...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Xavier rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favoritos, ensayo

Me gustan los libros que se asemejan a viejos amigos, libros que los puedes abrir por cualquier parte y tener una conversación interesantísima con ellos. Entre Paréntesis es uno de esos pocos y afortunados libros. Bolaño hablando de la literatura, del valor y del abismo. De los paisajes de Blanes, de los escritores que aprecia, de los libros que le han conmovido. Pero también encontramos un Bolaño al cual no le tiembla la mano para defender lo que piensa del oficio de escribir y acribillar de pa...more

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Feb 05, 2013 Arnoldas rated it 4 of 5 stars

Few things already included in other books, but overall it was new to me. Some of his writings for newspapers feel a little rushed, but nevertheless I learned a great deal about his views on literature, his favorite (and least favorite authors), some biographical sketches, etc. I wouldn't recommended it for someone who haven't read much of Bolano, but if you did, it is definitely worthwhile.

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Oct 13, 2012 Sam Orndorff rated it 5 of 5 stars

Jonathan Lethem says Bolano 'proves literature can do anything.' John hit the mark.
I can't imagine why these selected essays are important. Neither can I imagine a world in which they aren't critical. Between the haplessly determined and the gloriously obscure. Bolano. Viva Bolano.

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May 16, 2012 Jocelyn added it

I haven't read anything else by Bolano, and I probably won't, but I really enjoyed his perspective on Latin American/Spanish language literature.

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Sep 04, 2011 M. Sarki rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to M. by: new yorker magazine, sort of

Really fine piece of work. I wrote a little bit of a stinger of a review, and if you are interested you can read it here.

http://mewlhouse.hubpages.com/hub/BET...

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Dec 26, 2012 Víctor rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Este libro me lo leí despacio, sus fragmentos como pequeños tragos de un buen vino, que quise dejar para el final de la obra de Bolaño, porque me parecía triste llegar hasta este punto, pero quizas esta actitud sea producto de que "Entre paréntesis" es un encuentro íntimo con el autor, aquí se aglomeran desde sus críticas literarias, columnas culturales, notas de libros, anécdotas de viaje, discursos y borradores, aquí habla el Bolaño más allá del escritor, aunque este nunca parece dejar de serl...more

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Aug 21, 2011 Votec23 rated it 4 of 5 stars

A wonderful collection of essays and reviews that brings us into the world and mind of Roberto Bolaño.

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Jun 03, 2011 Mauro Javier rated it 5 of 5 stars

I read this one in Spanish a few years ago and used it to build up a library of Latin American authors.

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Jun 30, 2012 matthew rated it 4 of 5 stars

count how many times bolano pretends to brush the sand off his shorts (about four times) and how many authors are the greatest authors of their generation (a lot)

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Dec 31, 2011 Jeff Jackson rated it 4 of 5 stars

This chatty collection of short essays probably deserves an extra star for Bolano's invaluable fiction and poetry recommendations, which serve as a virtual roadmap of interesting Latin American and Spanish literature over the past 30 years. Other highlights: His keen essay on the weirdness of "Huck Finn," his Chilean travelogues, and his insights into Borges - "Arlt, Gombrowicz: he might have been friends with them and wasn't. This lack of dialogue left a great void that is also part of our lite...more

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About Roberto Bolaño

For most of his early adulthood, Bolaño was a vagabond, living at one time or another in Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, France and Spain.

Bolaño moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, working as a dishwasher, a campground custodian, bellhop and garbage collector — working during the day and writing at night.

H...more For most of his early adulthood, Bolaño was a vagabond, living at one time or another in Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, France and Spain.

Bolaño moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, working as a dishwasher, a campground custodian, bellhop and garbage collector — working during the day and writing at night.

He continued with poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolaño stated that he made this decision because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he could never secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolaño "abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" because the birth of his son in 1990 made him "decide that he was responsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." However, he continued to think of himself primarily as a poet, and a collection of his verse, spanning 20 years, was published in 2000 under the title The Romantic Dogs.

Regarding his native country Chile, which he visited just once after going into voluntary exile, Bolaño had conflicted feelings. He was notorious in Chile for his fierce attacks on Isabel Allende and other members of the literary establishment.

In 2003, after a long period of declining health, Bolaño died. It has been suggested that he was at one time a heroin addict and that the cause of his death was a liver illness resulting from Hepatitis C, with which he was infected as a result of sharing needles during his "mainlining" days. However, the accuracy of this has been called into question. It is true that he suffered from liver failure and was close to the top of a transplant list at the time of his death.

Bolaño was survived by his Spanish wife and their two children, whom he once called "my only motherland."

Although deep down he always felt like a poet, his reputation ultimately rests on his novels, novellas and short story collections. Although Bolaño espoused the lifestyle of a bohemian poet and literary enfant terrible for all his adult life, he only began to produce substantial works of fiction in the 1990s. He almost immediately became a highly regarded figure in Spanish and Latin American letters.

In rapid succession, he published a series of critically acclaimed works, the most important of which are the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), the novella Nocturno de Chile (By Night In Chile), and, posthumously, the novel 2666. His two collections of short stories Llamadas telefónicas and Putas asesinas were awarded literary prizes.

In 2009 a number of unpublished novels were discovered among the author's papers.(less)

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Quotes from Between Parentheses: E...

“Probably all of us, writers and readers alike, set out into exile, or at least into a certain kind of exile, when we leave childhood behind...The immigrant, the nomad, the traveler, the sleepwalker all exist, but not the exile, since every writer becomes an exile simply by venturing into literature, and every reader becomes an exile simply by opening a book.” — 7 people liked it

“...the borders he respected were the borders of dreams, the misty borders of love and indifference, the borders of courage and fear, the golden borders of ethics.” — 3 people liked it

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title link	preview: Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9550623-between-parentheses?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328008358l/9550623.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9550623-between-parentheses?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003 by Roberto Bolaño[/url]

Between Parentheses: Essays, Articles, and Speeches, 1998-2003

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