Last Evenings on Earth

What we know about the tremendous gifts of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño (April 28, 1953 - July 15, 2003) is in many ways due to the excellent translations by Chris Andrews. Andrews began translating Bolaño into English before the word understood the importance of this much mourned novelist and poet. This particular work LAST EVENINGS ON EARTH is a series of short stories that are delivered in conversational style (the narrator is always in the first person), a technique that enhances the common line of dealing with exile - from country, from hopes, from dreams, from immortality - that is the common thread throughout these fourteen stories. Though each of the stories is well written, capturing our attention and concern for each of the characters, each one of the stories seem to be insights into the man we now recognize as a master writer and political activist. For this reader the most disturbing story is 'Dance Card', a story in numbered sentences that closes the collection. Some background as described in Wikipedia: 'He was dyslexic, and was often bullied at school, where he felt an outsider. In 1968 he moved with his family to Mexico City, dropped out of school, worked as a journalist and became active in left-wing political causes. A key episode in Bolaño's life, mentioned in different forms in several of his works, occurred in 1973, when he left Mexico for Chile to "help build the revolution" by supporting the socialist regime of Salvador Allende. After Augusto Pinochet's coup against Allende, Bolaño was arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist and spent eight days in custody. He was rescued by two former classmates who had become prison guards.' Translate these realities into a short story format and the reader is treated to 'Dance Card'. In another story 'Mauricio ("The Eye") Silva' the author reveals much of the turmoil of his life in the opening sentences: 'Mauricio Silva, also known as "the Eye', always tried to avoid violence, even at the risk of being considered a coward, but violence, real violence, is unavoidable, at least for those of us who ere born in Latin America during the fifties and were about twenty years old at the time of Salvador Allende's death. That's just the way it goes.' For those readers involved in reading '2666' or even 'The Savage Detectives' this collection may not have the power of these novels. But as for getting to know Roberto Bolaño and understanding his too brief career, these fourteen stories are excellent windows. Grady Harp, March 10

The title of this review sums it up fairly succinctly. There are no two ways about it; Roberto Bolano wrote really compelling short stories. Familiar elements crop up in each story: poor, unsuccessful, mostly exiled writers, looking for something--sometimes old friends, other writers, family--generally being haunted by the violence which defined their lives. Despite the seeming homogeneity of subject matter, each story manages to compel. I suppose one must credit Bolano's poetic sensibility as well as Chris Andrews's translations which have helped us to experience the poetry in English.

nobody writes likes this guy. the prose is delicious, hypnotic. Bolano makes you glad you can read. check out his work, including the two presently translated novels (they're both incredible); savor the language; be thankful for Chris Andrews, his amazing translator.

When Chilean writer Roberto Bolano prematurely died at the age of 50 a few years ago it was a loss to world literature. By many considered as one of the most interesting of new latin american writers, Bolano in his lifetime published several novels and collections of short stories. Very little has, so far, been translated into english. For those interested in getting to know Bolanos work, Last Evenings on Earth offers an ideal starting point. These enigmatic, haunted stories will stay in your mind long after you've read them. So, while waiting for translations of Bolano masterpieces Los detectives salvajes, and 2666, allow yourself to be seduced by these magnificent short stories. Bolano novels distant Star and By Night in Chile are also available in english and are highly recommended.

Fourteen stories are included in this collection, by the author who died at age 50. He considered himself a poet primarily, and wrote fiction to support his family. The characters in "Last Evenings" invariably suffer early death by illness or suicide. Few, if any, of his characters achieve what Bolano calls the three highest goals of a man of letters: "fame, wealth and a large readership." Yet they toil away regardless, because they have no other choice. Bolano has a prose style utterly distinct from Gabriel Garcia Marquez and the other Latin American masters of the sixties, seventies and eighties. Bolano's style, in contrast, is flat and unornamented, like a police report; one can sense the influence of Jorge Luis Borges in Bolano's precision and clarity, and also an amalgamation of genre fiction writers of North America, like Phillip K. Dick and James Ellroy. Bolano melds these influences into something all his own, a sort of pan-Latin American voice, without any distinct national identity.