Reviews

Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño

emmmaaaaa's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

err_emma's review

funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.25

I would say stuff but it's nearly midnight so I will not. Love this though and I won't explain more.

kimwhims's review

dark fast-paced

4.0

This was my introduction to Bolaño, and it’s accessible, vivid and dynamic; definitely pulling me into the rest of his works. There is a sense of simmering intertextuality below the surface of this novella, but on first read I fear many of these references were missed.

lori85's review against another edition

3.0

This is a story of leftist revolutionaries and right-wing counterrevolutionaries circulating across the globe and through an international literary underworld of amateur poetry workshops, avant-garde posturing, obscure 'zines, and self-published books that quickly vanish. Hiding in there somewhere, lurking behind various pseudonyms, is the menacing Carlos Wieder, a Chilean Air Force officer who had gained some recognition for his sky poetry, only to be banished from the public eye after a macabre exhibit links him to the atrocities of Pinochet's government. Unfortunately, from the enigmatic author no one can find to the Chilean diaspora, fascist literary weirdos, and the protagonist's vagabond life in Europe, there's really nothing here that wasn't better developed in [b:2666|63032|2666|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1412644327i/63032._SY75_.jpg|3294830], [b:The Savage Detectives|63033|The Savage Detectives|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1342651149i/63033._SX50_.jpg|2503920], and [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/1348627738i/1178230._SX50_.jpg|1166037].

pixley's review

3.0

"He didn't look like a poet. He didn't look as if he had been an officer in the Chilean Air Force. He didn't look like an infamous killer. He didn't look like a man who had flown to Antarctica to write a poem in the sky. Not at all."

solter's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

daja57's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The narrator met fellow poet Alberto Ruiz-Tagle at University in Chile just before the military coup that topples the Allende government. Later, Alberto becomes Carlos Wieder, a lieutenant in the Chilean airforce whose extra-curricular career as a serial killer is facilitated by the murders and disappearances of political opponents to the new regime of General Pinochet. Later still, Wieder goes to ground and is hunted through his contributions to underground poetry magazines in Europe. 

This novel is a curious mixture of politics and literary criticism; it seems to be predicated on the idea that poetry is important. It references inter alia Borges, Georges Perec, Vathek by William Beckford and Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. There's an intense flavour of the typical cocktail of South America and students, of youth and disillusion. There are times when the story seems to wander down a sidetrack; there are echoes of the prose and narrative structure of Jorge Luis Borges (such as when the narrator considers the precise translation of the Bible that Wieder might have used for an early performance poem). But mostly, I suppose, it is about evil and our typically inadequate response to it.

mariemaudite's review against another edition

5.0

Pequeña, pero matona. Ya había leído "Llamadas telefónicas" de Bolaño, y como cuentista, lo considero uno de los mejores. Esta novelita la abordé con altas expectativas y no me ha defraudado.

Estructura bien planteada en la que las historias de los distintos personajes se imbrican formando una red de interconexiones increíbles que acaban revelando, bajo el marbete del género negro o policial, tensiones y situaciones políticas propias del Chile de Pinochet, así como del fenómeno del exilio, tan acusado en el pasado siglo XX.

Pero Bolaño no solo se contenta con eso, sino que, además, nos sumerge de forma magistral en un texto de crítica socio-literaria sobre las relaciones entre la nueva y la antigua literatura, entre los padres y los hijos del panorama literario hispanoamericano. Y no faltan, tampoco, las referencias a una Europa decadente y que ha perdido el monopolio no solo en el espacio cultural, sino en los demás.

Siempre es un placer leerte, Bolaño.

yjb1778's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

There’s this pervasive, hypnotic haze that I feel when reading bolaño. It was extremely apparent  in the part about the women in 2666, but, due to its structure, the hypnotism was much more obvious. This story, short and potent, made me as sad as I am whenever I see fog in San Francisco. 

sentient_meat's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

A gem of a novel from Bolaño. If you enjoyed his Nazi Literature in The Americas you'll enjoy this.