Nazi Literature in the Americas, a wicked, invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As if he were Borges's wisecracking, sardonic son, Bolaño has meticulously created a tightly woven network of far-right litterateurs and purveyors of belles lettres for whom Hitler was beauty, truth and great lost hope. Cross-referenced, complete with bibliography and a biographical list of secondary figures, Nazi Literature is composed of a series of sketches, the compressed life stories of writers in North and South America who never existed, but all too easily could have. Goose-stepping caricatures a la "The Producers" they are not; instead, they are frighteningly subtle, poignant and plausible.
—The New York Times
Nazi Literature in the Americas
Narrated by Jonathan Davis
Roberto BolañoUnabridged — 6 hours, 43 minutes
Nazi Literature in the Americas
Narrated by Jonathan Davis
Roberto BolañoUnabridged — 6 hours, 43 minutes
Overview
A tour de force of black humor and imaginary erudition, Nazi Literature in the Americas presents itself as a biographical dictionary of writers who espoused extreme right-wing ideologies in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Comprising short biographies about imaginary writers from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Columbia, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela, and the United States, Nazi Literature in the Americas includes descriptions of the writers' works, cross-references, a bibliography, and also an “Epilogue for Monsters.” All the writers are carefully and credibly situated in real literary worlds. There are fourteen thematic sections with titles such as “Forerunners and Figures of the Anti-Enlightenment,” “Magicians, Mercenaries, and Miserable Individuals,” and “North American Poets.”
Brisk and pseudoacademic, Nazi Literature in the Americas delicately balances irony and pathos. Bolaño does not simply use his writers for target practice: in the space of a few pages he manages to sketch character portraits that are often pathetically funny, sometimes surprisingly moving, and, on occasion, authentically chilling. A remarkably inventive, funny, and disquieting sui generis novel, Nazi Literature in the Americas offers a clear view into the workings of one of the most extraordinarily fecund literary imaginations of our time.
Editorial Reviews
…imaginative, full of a love for literature, and, unlikely as it may seem, exceptionally entertaining…playing a tricky game, carefully balancing mockery and black humor against our natural sense of revulsion…Roberto Bolano is worth discovering, worth reading—and even worth all the trouble of having to explain why it is that you are toting around a book called Nazi Literature in the Americas.
—The Washington Post
The title chosen by Bolaño (1953-2003) for this slim, fake encyclopedia is not wholly tongue-in-cheek: given the very real presence of former (and not-so-former) Nazis in Latin America following WWII, this book, despite being fiction, still had j'accuse-like power when first published in 1996. The poets described herein, though invented, seem-even at their most absurd-plausible, which is the secret to this sly book's devastating effect. And as one proceeds from an entry on Edelmira Thompson de Mendiluce ("In high spirits, Edelmira asked for the Führer's advice: which would be the most appropriate school for her sons?") to one on Carlos Ramírez Hoffman ("His passage through literature left a trail of blood and several questions posed by a mute"), it becomes clear that there is a single witness to all of these terrible figures, one who has spent time in one of Pinochet's prisons and is bent on coolly totting up the crimes of fascism's literary perpetrators. Some readers will recognize figures and episodes from Bolaño's other books (including The Savage Detectivesand Distant Star). The wild inventiveness of Bolaño's evocations places them squarely in the realm of Borges-another writer who draws enormous power from the movement between the fictive and the real. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information"This book, brilliantly and rambunctiously written, is a denunciation of homegrown fascism."
"It is imaginative, full of a love for literature, and, unlikely as it may seem, exceptionally entertaining."
"Nazi Literature in the Americas, a wicked invented encyclopedia of imaginary fascist writers and literary tastemakers, is Bolaño playing with sharp, twisting knives. As if he were Borges’s wisecracking, sardonic son, Bolaño has meticulously created a tightly woven network of far-right litterateurs and purveyors of belles lettres for whom Hitler was beauty, truth, and the great lost hope. "
"With his meticulous, expertly crafted idiosyncrasies Bolaño has created another universe here, a breathing, thriving world."
"Award-winning translator Chris Andrews gives us ...proof that Bolano is ...one of the most important literary figures of 25 years."
"Masterfully executed…the book is wildly funny… [a] wickedly entertaining and evocative masterwork."
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940169911145 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Blackstone Audio, Inc. |
| Publication date: | 07/13/2017 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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