The Skating Rink

Anyone who has enjoyed the roman durs works of George Simenon will be entranced by this early Bolano "mystery" novel. Filled with atmosphere, subtlety, and thoroughly worked out characters, this well plotted work weaves three separate narratives together into a complex tale of modern-day alienation, unfulfilled sexual yearning, political corruption, and murder. There is no question of Bolano's literary stature as he uses language to wide effect, creating settings that shock and intrigue and characters that irritate and fascinate all at once. The three narratives skate around one another and come together remarkably, reminding me in structure of Mario Vargas Llosa's "Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter," among others that use this technique well. Although this work is just 182 pages in the New Directions translation of 2009, its cinematic cuts and speed make maximum use of every word and give the reader a dose of human malice and reality not soon forgotten. I highly recommend this work as a first read of Bolano or as an "entertainment," as Graham Greene called his novels, for seasoned Bolano veterans.

Another amazing piece of work by Bolano, and unlike 2666 this one didn't take a month and leave behind feelings of despair that lasted almost as long, this can be read easily in one afternoon and will mostly disturb you for even less. Like many poets that write novels Bolano sentences and paragraphs can become small stories of their own, forcing the reader to revisit the lines a couple times before re-embarcing on the rest of read. The Skating Rink is interesting in the way it looks at corruption that becomes a scandal, the motives are often desperate and indicative of human failings, moral hazards that we are waist deep into before we feel the current that pulls us with no hope of return to normalcy. Even though we know that the situation is out of control and will not end well our irrational mind will convince us that we are OK. The "discovery" of Bolano with "The Savage Detectives" and the breakout 2666 published after his death is providing the means to translate more or Bolano's work, this is good news for readers every where.

The structure of The Skating Rink is yet another example of Bolano's use of form to enhance or elevate the substance of the story. Earlier examples include By Night in Chile, The Savage Detectives, and 2666. The alternating dialogs of the various protagonists in The Skating Rink occasionally fold the narrative back on itself but never interfere with or retard the advancement of the tale. The structure and interrelating stories of 2666 were mind-blowing and so impressively knit together as to totally obviate the length of the volume. Although The Skating Rink on initial reading seems a much more modest undertaking, it is, nevertheless, another fine addition to the catalog of a protean wordsmith and master story teller.

I will admit that I am not a reader of crime fiction or detective novels. They're intriguing, but it was just never my scene. Not to say The Skating Rink is that much of a detective novel in the first place. As suggested by Giles Harvey of the New York Review of Books (in an excellent piece in The National), the short novel leaves the reader with more questions than answers. But that's to be expected by now, right? The story revolves around a mysterious Spanish seaside town Z (close to Y and just a drive away from Z, as it turns out). It is told through the eyes of three men - Remo Morán, an artist and business owner; Enric Rosquelles, a fat, wary and arrogant employee of the town's first socialist mayor Pilar; and Gaspar Heredia, a vagabond and poet who gets a job at a campground thanks to his old friend, Remo Morán - and culminates with, what else?, murder! That it is also a love story and one of the first pieces of prose from Bolaño (published in 1993 as La piesta de hielo) adds layers to an already fascinating character study and mystery. Like anyone who had fallen (or been tricked) to love Roberto Bolaño over the years (I myself discovered him in translation, in 2006, three years after his death, reading By Night In Chile, Distant Star and Last Evenings on Earth back to back) will recognize the early contributions that he would perfect in his two masterpieces, The Savage Detectives and 2666. His mixture of the innane and mercurial and violent is mesmerizing. The way Z unfolds as Gaspar chased Caridad, his descriptions of the Palacio Benvingut ("labyrintine, chaotic, indecisive...") where the murder takes places, or his creation of the beautiful figure skater, Nuria Martí. While others will talk about the plot, the motifs (the dense, rolling fog...), I was intrigued because I couldn't pinpoint Bolaño himself in the story. This may seem odd, but even without his doppleganger Arturo Belano (of Savage Detective fame), Roberto is always present in his often deeply personal stories based upon reflections on his own life. Most will compare Bolaño immediately to Heredia. Both came from Mexico to Spain and Bolaño spent years working the overnight shift at a campground. The case is also strong in Remo Morán's favor. Rosquelles, when musing about Remo's ex-wife, comments that she named their son some god awful Indian name (his name was Iñaki in the novel, but Bolaño's real son's name is Lautaro). Bolaño (just read 2666) also had a desire to be a detective, which he echoes through Moran: "Sometimes in the mornings, when I'm having breakfast on my own, I think I would have loved to be a detective. I'm pretty observant, and I can reason deductively, and I'm a keen reader of crime fiction. If that's any use... which it isn't... Anyway, as Hans Henny Jahn, I think, once wrote: if you find a murder victim, better brace yourself, because the bodies will soon be coming thick and fast..." Also, when thinking about the first time he'd seen a corpse, he

This publisher is really milking out this Bolano saga for all it's money. Too bad he's not around to spend some of his hard earned money and write more novels. At any rate, reading Bolano is always something to look forward to. This new publication in no exception. It was just simply a good read, and with all the laughs one comes to expect from Bolano. One gets a glimpse of what his life may have been like when he worked at the campground as a security guard. If only there more writers as talented as Bolano writing today!