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Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño

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spenkevich's review

5.0

Is there a limit of ethics in creating art, and when has it gone too far? Distant Star, the 1996 novella by the late, great Roberto Bolaño addresses this question and more as art and violent politics intertwine under Pinochet’s cruel dictatorship. This little novella is a powerhouse and depending on the day and what I’ve been drinking I might even say it is my favorite of his books (By Night In Chile on other nights). Told from narrator Arturo B., Bolaño’s literary stand-in that appears in several of his novels, Distant Star pieces together the life of Alberto Ruiz-Tagle, a little-known poet who would later re-emerge as airforce pilot Carlos Wieder writing poetry in the sky from his plane. The romantic image of patriotism and poetry give way to a horrific truth of the murder and mayhem of Pinochet’s Chile and Arturo must watch from exile and contemplate the horrors of his country. While this is the story of Arturo B. and Wieder, it is also ‘partly the story of the Chilean nation. A story of terror.’ Devastating, dark, and full of Bolaño’s signature blend of noir and gallows humor, Distant Star is a miniature masterpiece and brilliant reflection on the inherent political nature of art.

In an essay by [a:Enrique Vila-Matas|25591|Enrique Vila-Matas|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1420293419p2/25591.jpg] it is claimed that Bolaño was asked by publisher Jorge Herralde is he had any manuscripts ready for publication, to which Bolaño assured him he did and would get it right over to him. No such manuscript existed, but Bolaño quickly expanded upon the Ramírez Hoffman story that concluded his earlier book [b:Nazi Literature in the Americas|1178230|Nazi Literature in the Americas|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348627738l/1178230._SX50_.jpg|1166037]--a collective theme on literature under authoritarianism made up of brief biographies influentially indebted to [a:Juan Rodolfo Wilcock|528592|Juan Rodolfo Wilcock|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1301427723p2/528592.jpg]. While there are varying accounts to the validity of this--Bolaño’s entire life is shrouded by incongruous biographical accounts only enhanced by the way the author self-mythologized and secured his immortality as a sort of a legendary literary figure more so than flesh-and-blood man--Distant Star was completely quickly using the chapter from the previous book as its groundworks and went on to become his breakout success. The duality of the story version and novella version fit perfectly into Bolaño’s whole mythos, with the technique of expanding previous popping up in different works appearing through his short stories or the way [b:Amulet|6744132|Amulet|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1445445841l/6744132._SY75_.jpg|61220] is a life-story of a minor character in [b:The Savage Detectives|63033|The Savage Detectives|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342651149l/63033._SX50_.jpg|2503920] and includes a retelling of the same event that appeared in the latter novel. The variants on stories self-create an effect similar to classical myths and fairy tales and their numerous versions.

As the book opens after a brief preface asserting that this book does indeed take place in the same literary universe as Nazi Literature and is being dictated by Arturo as an updated version of the earlier story because he ‘was not satisfied’, we find Arturo a young college student eager for poetry and the affections of the Garmendia sisters. The sisters, however, have their eyes on Alberto Ruiz-Tagle. A self-proclaimed autodidact, Arturo thinks he is too much of a rich dandy and a certain jealousy is born. The innocence of youthful poet rivalry is quickly shattered a few pages in as the disappearances under Pinochet begin and the Garmendia sister’s are brutally murdered. Some time later, while in prison, Arturo will see a poem written in the sky and so launches the story of who and what Ruiz-Tagle became as military poet persona Carlos Wieder.

Something that I particularly adore about Bolaño is the way that he makes literature seem like the most important aspect of life while simultaneously showing it as fleeting and meaningless. Around the time I read this during a good drunk evening with friends, I took a marker and wrote above my kitchen door “Literature is what matters because it doesn’t,” very much inspired by Bolaño himself. I have since painted over it and moved but I would be willing to bet at the right angle in the right lighting the line may appear like the ghost of a former resident still wallowing in the self-imposed agonies of youth. In Bolaño we often visit the horrors of Pinochet but in a way that still keeps literature central to the tales. While this is a story of murder, as Wieder is definitely a sadistic killer, the focus is on the way it influences his art more so than anything. The image of a plane writing poetry in the sky--curiously often writing lines from disappeared female poets--is romantic but also weirdly tied up with the violence and political atmosphere that comes with the military aspects of the plane.

Where does art and propaganda collide? Wieder, now famous for his aerial art, hosts an art exhibit in his own home expecting his further experiments of the political to further make him an avant-garde legend. What is revealed is nothing less than pure evil and terror as, in a powerful scene, his crimes are fully on display quite literally as if to make an artistic statement. The braggadocio of presenting photos of all the women he has executed in the name of Pinochet and thinking it is art might be one of Bolaño’s most amazing moments. Wieder’s father stands there, unable to see beyond his pride for his son to understand why everyone is escaping in horror, having been confronted with their complicity in these murders by serving in the same government or military. This image of the father is so moving, as if trying to still love his son, or his country in the wake of all that has gone wrong and all the sins committed and blood spilled and lives forever destroyed in the name of power.

What is important here is that the monsters often do not see themselves as monsters, but as great artists or leaders who only did what they felt others were too weak to achieve. This sense of simply being “better” than others is similar to the ethical questions Raskolnikov is trying to understand when he commits his murder in [b:Crime and Punishment|7144|Crime and Punishment|Fyodor Dostoevsky|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1382846449l/7144._SY75_.jpg|3393917]. While Raskolnikov is tortured internally for not being able to live up to this, here we find being able to murder and make light of it is not the hallmark of strength but the essence of evil.

’What you have to understand is that Carlitos Wieder looked down on the world as if he were standing on top of a volcano; he saw you and me and himself from a great height, and, in his eyes, we were all, to be quite frank, pathetic insects. This is how he was.’

Wieder honestly believed actual murder could be made into art, and Bolaño reminds us that there are some lines we cannot cross. Better to fade away into oblivion, as Arturo decides to do than ‘immerse myself in literature’s bottomless cesspools,’ if being an artist means denying your own humanity as Wieder has attempted.

There is an impressive control of time, as this novella spans several decades in 90 pages while managing to make the characters age authentically and events only a few dozen pages prior seem like aged photographs in the mind near the end. Characteristic of Bolaño, the novel launches into a noir-like plotline when Arturo is tracked down by a detective to see if he can identify Wieder as the writer of neo-fascist articles that appear in right wing magazines around the world. The final 20 pages of this book are extraordinary, with Bolaño pushing us to the precipice of terror using a tone that seems straight out of a horror novel instead of a poet drama. In the end in the pursuit of justice we only find more violence piled onto violence in the name of justice. While one feels better than the political violence, Arturo asks us to consider what violence we can accept and what does that say about us.

Distant Star is simply amazing and one of my favorite books by an author who is most likely my all-time favorite. As is his style, this is a meditation on Bolaño’s whole generation of youth brought to the butchery of political violence and oppression, looking back with smoldering anger at the world that snuffed out the beauty he believed in so strongly. This would make an excellent entry point for any readers who have yet to read this Chilean genius and those who have already read his most notable, larger works will find that he is just as satisfying in his smaller works.

5/5

‘When asked to clarify what she meant by “the music of the Spanish”, she replied: “rage, sir, sheer, futile rage.”’