Roberto Bolaño adopted a very unique writing style in his novel Savage Detectives. The book starts with a dark quote setting the tone for the book. “Do you want Mexico to be saved? Do you want Christ to be our King?” “No” - Malcolm Lowry. From this we can almost predict a dark cynical and corrupting book. I was pleasantly surprised. Enlaced with those aspects you could find humor. The book is divided in three parts: Mexicans Lost in Mexico, The Savage Detectives and The Deserts of Sonora. In the first and last parts, which only seem to comprise one third of the book, we explore the intrepid life of Garcia Madero. We as an audience are able to jump into a first person view of a 1970’s Mexico through his intensely personal journal entries. The
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In it we find a variety of characters from several locations all of whom have come into contact with Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, the leaders of visceral realism. Both are portrayed as drifters wondering around the world without purpose. This point of view may have been bias in some cases but overall is an accurate description. If it were written any other way we wouldn’t get the opportunity to see what the people truly thought of them. By reading and gathering information from several different sources, you not only get to see what type of people they really where but you see them develop and evolve as you compare early accounts with later ones. Their behavior often leaves those whom they met with a negative impression. The stories are never told from the protagonists (Belano, Lima) perspectives. Rather they are told by a multitude of people, some normal, some troubled and some bizarre. This section is confusingly brilliant and completely original. I have never read a book that used this method. A normal biography of these two men however exciting would have been boring and pretentious. If it wasn’t for this writing style, it would have proven impossible to include such a multitude of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I never thought I would read about a female bodybuilder, a stowaway, a bisexual a hippie and more in the same book. Despite it getting off track (if there even is one) several times, it would constantly lose and re -capture my attention. Presenting all characters effectively with a relatively deep background is astonishing. Roberto Bolano gave all these people a unique voice that shed light on a different aspect of each poet’s life and on poetry itself. For me that was very special
Until I read the book I had little to no interest in poetry not because I didn’t appreciate but because I didn’t get it. I loked at a poem the same way I would look at
In it we find a variety of characters from several locations all of whom have come into contact with Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, the leaders of visceral realism. Both are portrayed as drifters wondering around the world without purpose. This point of view may have been bias in some cases but overall is an accurate description. If it were written any other way we wouldn’t get the opportunity to see what the people truly thought of them. By reading and gathering information from several different sources, you not only get to see what type of people they really where but you see them develop and evolve as you compare early accounts with later ones. Their behavior often leaves those whom they met with a negative impression. The stories are never told from the protagonists (Belano, Lima) perspectives. Rather they are told by a multitude of people, some normal, some troubled and some bizarre. This section is confusingly brilliant and completely original. I have never read a book that used this method. A normal biography of these two men however exciting would have been boring and pretentious. If it wasn’t for this writing style, it would have proven impossible to include such a multitude of people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. I never thought I would read about a female bodybuilder, a stowaway, a bisexual a hippie and more in the same book. Despite it getting off track (if there even is one) several times, it would constantly lose and re -capture my attention. Presenting all characters effectively with a relatively deep background is astonishing. Roberto Bolano gave all these people a unique voice that shed light on a different aspect of each poet’s life and on poetry itself. For me that was very special
Until I read the book I had little to no interest in poetry not because I didn’t appreciate but because I didn’t get it. I loked at a poem the same way I would look at