Authors: Roberto Bolano
MM:
Madness, death and love. Which of these three things have you had more of in your life?
RB:
I hope with all of my heart that it was love.
MM:
What makes your jaw hurt laughing?
RB:
The misfortunes of myself and others.
MM:
What things make you cry?
RB:
The same: the misfortunes of myself and others.
MM:
Do you like music?
RB:
Very much.
MM:
Do you see your work the way your critics and readers see it:
The Savage Detectives
above all, then all the rest?
RB:
The only novel that doesn’t embarrass me is
Amberes
, maybe because it continues to be unintelligible. The bad reviews it has received are badges of honor from actual combat, not skirmishes with simulated fire. The rest of my “work” is not bad. They’re entertaining novels. Time will tell if they’re anything more. For now, they earn money, get translated and help me make very generous and kind friends. I can live, and live well, off literature, so complaining would be gratuitous and unfounded. The truth is I concede very little importance to my books. I am much more interested in the books of others.
MM:
Would you not cut a few pages out of
The Savage Detectives?
RB:
No. In order to cut pages, I would have to reread it and my religion prohibits me that.
MM:
Does it scare you that someone might want to make a film version of the novel?
RB:
Oh, Mónica, I fear other things—much more terrifying things, infinitely more terrifying.
MM:
Is “Silva the Eye” a tribute to Julio Cortázar?
RB:
In no way.
MM:
When you finished writing “Silva the Eye,” didn’t you feel you had probably written a story on the level of, say, “A House Taken Over”?
RB:
When I finished writing “Silva the Eye” I stopped crying or something like it. What more could I want than for it to resemble a Cortázar story? Although “A House Taken Over” is not one of my favorites.
MM:
Which five books have marked your life?
RB:
In reality the five books are more like 5,000. I’ll mention these only as the tip of the spear:
Don Quixote
by Cervantes,
Moby-Dick
by Melville. The complete works of Borges,
Hopscotch
by Cortázar,
A Confederacy of Dunces
by Toole. I should also cite
Nadja
by Breton, the letters of
Jacques Vaché
.
Anything Ubu
by Jarry,
Life: A User’s Manual
by Perec.
The Castle
and
The Trial
by Kafka.
Aphorisms
by
Lichtenberg
.
The Tractatus
by Wittgenstein.
The Invention of Morel
by Bioy Casares.
The Satyricon
by Petronius.
The History of Rome
by Tito Livio.
Pensées
by Pascal.
A French surrealist writer, Jacques Vaché (1895–1919) worked closely with André Breton in the foundation of surrealism. A collection of his works,
Jacques Vaché and the Roots of Surrealism
, is available in English.
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799) was a German scientist and satirist. A collection of his aphorisms is available in English as
The Waste Books
, 2000.
MM:
Do you get on well with your editor?
RB:
Very well. Herralde is a very intelligent person and very often quite charming. Perhaps for me it would be more convenient if he weren’t so charming. The truth is I’ve known him for eight years now and, at least for my part, the affection does nothing if not grow, as one bolero puts it. Even though it might perhaps be better for me if I didn’t care for him so.
MM:
What do you say to those who believe
The Savage Detectives
is the great contemporary Mexican novel?
RB:
That they say it out of pity. They see that I’m down or fainting in public plazas and they can think of nothing better to say than a merciful lie, which, by the way, is the most appropriate thing in these cases, and it’s not even a venial sin.
MM:
Is it true that it was Juan Villoro who convinced you not to name your novel
By Night In Chile
“Shit Storms”?
RB:
It was between Villoro and Herralde.
MM:
From whom else do you take advice about your work?
RB:
I don’t listen to advice from anybody, not even my doctor. I wildly dole out advice, but I don’t heed any.
MM:
How is Blanes?
RB:
It’s a nice little town. Or a very small city of 30,000 inhabitants. Quite nice. It was founded 2,000 years ago by the Romans, then people from all over started passing through. It’s not a rich person’s resort but a proletariat’s. Workers from the north and the east. Some stay to live forever. The bay is most beautiful.
MM:
Do you miss anything about your life in Mexico?
RB:
My youth, and endless walks with Mario Santiago.
MM:
Which Mexican writer do you admire profoundly?
RB:
Many. From my generation I admire Sada, whose writing project I find the most bold, Villoro and
Carmen Boullosa
. Among the young writers, I am very interested in what
Álvaro Enrique
and
Mauricio Montiel
are doing, as well as Volpi and
Ignacio Padilla
. I continue to read
Sergio Pitol
, who
writes better every day. And
Carlos Monsiváis
, who, according to Villoro, gave
Taibo II
or III (or IV) the nickname Pol Pit, which seems to me a real poetic find. Pol Pit. It’s perfect, isn’t it? Monsiváis keeps his nails sharp. I also like what
Sergio González Rodríguez
is doing.
Mexican poet, novelist, playwright, and essayist Carmen Boullosa (b. 1954) was highly regarded by Bolaño. An essay he wrote about her, entitled “Biena y la sombra de una mujer,” appears in
Entre parentesis
, forthcoming in English from New Directions. She is also the co-host of a respected Spanish language television program,
Nueva York
.
Writer and editor Álvaro Enrigue (b. 1969) is a postmodernist Mexican writer. None of his major works have been translated into English, but a short story, “On the Author’s Death” is collected in the
Best of Contemporary Mexican Fiction
.
Mexican fiction writer, editor, and essayist Mauricio Montiel Figueroa (b. 1968) is one of the most lauded Mexican writers under forty. He has written several collections of short stories and a number of critical essays for various periodicals. See
Points of Departure: New Stories from Mexico
, 2001.
Along with Jorge Volpi and others, Mexican novelist and short story writer Ignacio Padilla (b. 1968) was a member of the “Crack Generation” that attempted to break the production of magical realism.
Shadow Without a Name
(2003),
Antipodes
(2004).
Mexican novelist and short story writer Sergio Pitol (b. 1933) was awarded the Cervantes Prize in 2005 for his work
El mago de Viena
(2005).
MM:
Is the world without remedy?
RB:
The world is alive and no living thing has any remedy. That’s our fortune.
MM:
Do you have hope? For what and for whom?
RB:
My dear Maristain, again you push me toward the land of bad taste, which is not my native land. I have hope for children. For children and warriors. For children who fuck like children and warriors who fight like brave men. Why? I defer to the headstone of Borges, as the illustrious
Gervasio Montenegro
of the Academy (like Pérez-Reverte, do take notice) would say, and let us not speak of this matter further.
MM:
What kinds of feelings do posthumous works awaken in you?
RB:
Posthumous: It sounds like the name of a Roman gladiator, an unconquered gladiator. At least that’s what poor Posthumous would like to believe. It gives him courage.
Mexican historian and cultural critic Carlos Monsiváis (b. 1938) is considered one of the foremost authorities on Mexican history and politics. See
Mexican Postcards
, 1997.
Mexican novelist Paco Ignacio Taibo II (b. 1949) is a best-selling author. His major works include the “Hector Balascoran Shayne” detective series, available in English, along with other works.
Mexican journalist Sergio Gonzáles Rodríguez (b. 1950) wrote
Huesos en el desierto
(2002), a penetrating look at the femicides plaguing Cuidad Juarez.
Gervasio Montenegro was a member of the Argentine Academy of Letters. It is also the name of a fictitious character created by Borges and Bioy Casares.
MM:
What is your opinion about those who opine that you will win the Nobel Prize?
RB:
I am sure, dear Maristain, that I will not win it, as I am sure that some lazy person from my generation will win it and not even in passing mention me during his or her Stockholm speech.
MM:
When were you the happiest?
RB:
I have been happy almost every day of my life, except for short periods, including during the most adverse circumstances.
MM:
If you hadn’t been a writer, what would you have been?
RB:
I should like to have been a homicide detective much better than being a writer. I am absolutely sure of that. A string of homicides. I’d have been someone who could come back to the scene of the crime alone, by night, and not be afraid of ghosts. Perhaps then I might really have become crazy. But being a detective, that could easily be resolved with a bullet to the mouth.
MM:
Do you confess to having lived?
RB:
Well, I continue to live, to read, to write and to watch films, and as
Arturo Prat
said to the suicides of Esmeralda, “While I am still alive, this flag will not come down.”
A Chilean naval officer, Arturo Prat (1848-1879) is a national hero in Chile.
ROBERTO BOLAÑO
(1950–2003) was a Chilean poet, novelist, and essayist. His translated work includes
Amulet, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Nazi Literature in the Americas, The Savage Detectives, 2666, Last Evenings on Earth, The Romantic Dogs
, and
The Skating Rink
. His last years were spent in Blanes, on Spain’s Mediterranean coast.
Interviewers
HÉCTOR SOTO
and
MATÍAS BRAVO
interviewed Bolaño for the Chilean magazine
Capital
. Both were writers for the magazine; Soto was also a co-owner.
Interviewer
CARMEN BOULLOSA
’s 2002 interview with Bolaño appeared in
Bomb
, a Brooklyn-based arts and culture magazine. Boullosa is a highly regarded Mexican novelist, poet, essayist, and television personality. She is the co-host of the respected Spanish-language television program
Nueva York
. An essay Bolaño wrote about Boullosa, entitled “Biena y la sombra de una mujer,” appears in
Entre parentesis
, forthcoming in English from New Directions.
ELISEO ÁLVAREZ
interviewed Bolaño shortly before his death. The interview was published posthumously in 2005 by the Barcelona literary journal
Turia
.
The final interview given by Bolaño appeared in the Mexican edition of
Playboy
magazine in July 2003. It was conducted via e-mail by
MÓNICA MARISTAIN
who, at the time, was the magazine’s
editor-in-chief. Maristain is an Argentine editor, journalist, and writer. In 1992 she was named journalist of the year in Argentina for her coverage of the Barcelona Olympics. She has written for various national and international media outlets and published two books of poetry,
Transfusiones al óleo
and
Drinking Thelonious
. She lives in Mexico.
MARCELA VALDES
is a contributing editor at
Publishers Weekly
and the books editor for
The Washington Examiner
. In 2000, she co-founded
Críticas
, a U.S. magazine devoted to the coverage of Spanish-language books, and in 2009 she was awarded a Nieman Fellowship in Arts & Culture Journalism at Harvard University. Her writing appears regularly
in The Washington Post
and
The Nation
, among other publications.
Translator
SYBIL PEREZ
, a native of Chicago, is an editor at
Stop Smiling
magazine, a post she has held for over ten years.