RMST 495/520: Long Books

The Part About Fate is the third part out of five for 2666 yet page-wise, we’re not even halfway done (not for another ~100 pages at least). Something I want to mention first is that originally I had thought The Part About Fate referred to “fate” in the literal sense (like destiny) but several weeks ago when I was talking with Professor Beasley-Murray who’s reading the Spanish version it’s titled as “La parte de Fate.” “Fate” is actually the last name of this part’s central character… well, technically not, Oscar Fate’s real name is Quincy Williams but for some reason everybody at his work calls him Oscar Fate and that’s how he’s referred to in this part. Anyways, I found it interesting that in the Spanish version it’s clear the title isn’t referring to destiny, but not so much in the English version (upon writing this maybe I’m realizing it’s not so interesting, hey it’s my blog though). This made me wonder why Bolaño decided to name his character “Fate” because I’m guessing he knew it was an English word (though maybe not). Speaking of Bolaño’s character names, last week the professor mentioned a name resembling Amalfitano in The Savage Detectives, but in 2666 the name Ulises is also mentioned (page 259 for reference) and García as well (page 274 for reference). So maybe Bolaño just likes certain names and will use it multiple times across works? Heck, Óscar is actually the name of this part and the previous part’s central character (albeit only one of them with an accent on the O)! There are also two characters named Rosa in this part (one of whom we’ve already met in The Part about Amalfitano), and sometimes I wonder why authors would ever choose to have two separate characters share the same name? It sometimes adds confusion in real life, but there’s nothing to be done about that, no shame to our Davids Authors can actively choose their characters’ names though, so why would they name them the same? If I were an author I’d probably just name my characters after people I know in real life, how would you guys name your characters (no, this is not my official discussion question this week, I haven’t even gotten into the reading)? I digress…

Okay, back to The Part About Fate, which I quite enjoyed. To give a very brief summary (or at least my best try for very brief), this part follows Oscar Fate, an American journalist who normally covers politics but is sent to Santa Teresa to cover a boxing match (there’s a part a bit before about Oscar Fate interviewing a former Black Panther but I didn’t find it of much importance or interest). And that’s right, he’s going to Santa Tersa, the same Santa Teresa where all our parts converge and hundreds of women are killed mysteriously. Anyways, once in Mexico, he ends up meeting a Mexican journalist (Chucho Flores), a film fanatic (Charly Cruz), Rosa Amalfitano from the second part whom Oscar Fate develops some romantic attraction towards (I don’t recall exactly how old she is from the second part, but I recall her being a teenager, which raised some eyebrows), Rosa Mendez, a friend of the aforementioned characters, and Guadalupe Roncal, another journalist who is covering the mysterious murders (he meets other characters but these are the ones of most relevance). Initially focused on the task at hand of covering the boxing match, Oscar Fate notices several mentions of the murders in Santa Teresa throughout this part and believes them to be much more worthwhile to report on than the silly boxing match. Sadly, his request to stay longer to cover the murders is rejected. However, he arranges with Guadalupe to meet one of the main suspects for the murders in prison after the boxing match. The actual boxing match is laughably short and uneventful, but the following night eventually leads Oscar Fate giving a savage uppercut to another character and kind of going on the run with Rosa Amalfitano. Oscar Fate meets Óscar Amalfitano, who asks him to send his daughter back to Spain. This part concludes with sort of fractured snippets of Oscar Fate and Rosa having crossed the border, and of Oscar Fate, Rosa, and Guadalupe just meeting the very tall, intimidating, murder suspect (who speaks German… curious).

What I really liked about this part in particular is that we finally seem to be “going somewhere.” In part I, the murders seem like a background detail, no more than a brief mention or a news report. In part II, we get more mentions of the murders and we can sort of see how it affects one of our characters, Amalfitano. Now in part III though, it finally seems like things are about to come to fruition, with everything finally building up to the legendary part IV, The Part About the Crimes. Although, it’s not just the fact that we’re building up, it’s also how we built up that I really enjoyed. All throughout part III, the mentions are littered everywhere, not in secret, I mean, they’re very clearly explicitly talked about, but the way they keep getting repeatedly mentioned feels like a balloon being pumped up more and more, about to burst. Here are the several mentions of the murders that I noted down in order:

“While Fate was sleeping, there was a report on an American who had disappeared in Santa Teresa…long list of women killed in Santa Teresa, many of whom ended up in the common grave at the cemetery because no one claimed their bodies.” (258)

“‘I’m a reporter,’ he said. ‘You’re going to write about the crimes,’ said the cook. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about…'” (268)

“The customs officer asked if he was coming to write about the killings. ‘No,’ said Fate, ‘I’m going to cover the fight on Saturday.’ ‘What fight?'” (271)

“‘What the hell were they talking about?’…’About the women who’ve been killed…Every so often the numbers go up and it’s news again and the reporters talk about it. People talk about it too, and the story grows like a snowball until the sun comes out and the whole damn ball melts and everybody forgets about it and goes back to work.” (285-286)

“‘Fear of everything. When you work on something that involves the killings of women in Santa Teresa, you end up scared of everything. Scared you’ll be beaten up. Scared of being kidnapped. Scared of torture…'” (296)

After that basically the elephant’s been addressed and I’m assuming in part IV we’ll really get to learn about the details of these mysterious murders. The ending really piqued my interest because the sequence of weaving together Oscar Fate and Rosa’s departure from Santa Teresa and their visit to the prison created some kind of harrowing atmosphere. In my mind, I could imagine the scenes cutting back and forth as if they were shown in a movie. The abrupt ending, with the reveal of the enormous, very blond suspect made me want to immediately jump into the next part to learn more (hold on though this blog post is just about The Part about Fate)! Speaking of learning more, even with all the buildup, we still haven’t really gotten much info about these murders beyond the fact that several hundred women have been killed over the span of multiple years, nothing about how they were killed or if there’s one murderer or several.

Anyhow, as for my official discussion question this week, going back to this part’s title, The Part About Fate, I wanted to ask “Does the title of your book influence your reading? How about titles of specific chapters? How much trust should we even put in titles to tell us what the book is actually about?” To be completely honest, I haven’t really made much sense of either the title of The Savage Detectives or 2666, but I believe that could change by the end, as seen in Amulet. What are we, some kind of savage detective? (Get it? It’s like the meme of “what are we, some kind of suicide squad?” Never mind then…) I’ll see myself out now…

P.S. I mentioned earlier that the actual boxing match was laughably short and I really meant it. Here it is in its entirety: “The fight was short. First Count Pickett came out. Polite applause, some boos. Then Merolino Fernandez came out. Thundering applause. In the first round, they sized each other up. In the second, Pickett went on the offensive and knocked his opponent out in less than a minute. Merolino Fernandez’s body didn’t even move where it lay on the canvas. His seconds hauled him into his corner and when he didn’t recover the medics came in and took him off to the hospital. Count Pickett raised an arm, without much enthusiasm, and left surrounded by his people. The fans began to empty out of the arena.” (312) I find it especially funny because Bolaño will spend countless time on crafting these shorter stories within his books (including the buildup to the boxing match), yet for the actual boxing match, the reason for Oscar Fate came down to Santa Teresa, he only writes one measly paragraph. I understand that the reason why Oscar Fate initially goes down to Santa Teresa isn’t meant to be important or of any relevance, but I find it funny nonetheless.

Hello everybody!!

And now i am back to one of my favourite characters.. Don Quixote. I missed him , i am not gonnna lie!
During these chapters , delusion is a big theme as our protagonist is so involved in being a honorable knight and help others who need him. Even confuses normal objects with legendary helmets in a scene where he thinkgs he accomplished a victory but in the end , he was just fighting with a barber.

Don quixote believes that his values ( justice , gratitude) should be practiced on a daily basis thats why he frees random people from chains because he doesnt feel anybody should live like this. He gets betrayed and hit by rocks in the end…

These momments make me wonder that if we all were a bit delusional like him .. will we create a better world than the one we live in? what would be different? what values would we cherish the most? His delusion is based on the ideology of bravery ,honorable actions , helping others… thats not bad at all. Maybe the author is telling us that even though people mock you for your values , you should not change them because the problem is not you… ITS THEM.
Maybe this is one of the moral points of the novel … the people around us have no discipline / values ( Sancho is kind of a coward sometimes and also lazy) and the people with a psychological delusion carry a better vision of themselves and what they want to project in society.

Now i also came to realize for the first time , that our protagonist is a performer more than just a crazy guy.He is trully commited to the books that he read before. He admitted that his madness is intentional ( and if you call him crazy , its ok with him )because he has a goal to accomplish ( dulcinea) and this imitation of brave knights is necessary to imppress her. So , if Dulcinea responds to him .. will the madness end? He might have fooled everyone all this time. I feel like Sancho ( a guy who is not a good fit to be his protector) represents what we think Don Quixote or reactions to his “madness”.

One good line is ” The actions that i do are not joke , They are truthful”.. good for him and the world he wants to live in.

Discussion question :

Can the power of imagination give meaning to your life?

Part 3. Les guerriers de l’hiver. After two weeks of writing blog posts about Bolaño, as well as the mid-term break that took place between those two weeks, I was very much looking forward to continuing reading this novel. I had been wanting to resume reading it for the past month! As of the moment when I finished writing my blog post about it on February 4^th, I just wanted to keep going. As expected, I held back because I had more immediate reading and schoolwork to attend to. I waited patiently until this past week. But to tell you the truth, I was somewhat underwhelmed by the portion of the novel that I read this week. One of the reasons for this disappointment is because certain characters that we were following, such as Azarov, haven’t reappeared since the first part that I read. I was hoping that the narrative would continue to follow the stories of the various characters that were introduced in the first 100 pages. Several of them have reappeared, but others haven’t. Out of all the characters introduced in the first part, Leena’s story had been the most captivating for me. She appeared to be bold, defiant and fearless. I was inspired by her courage. I even started searching online to learn more about the history of the Lotta Svärd (the Finnish women’s paramilitary organization), as I expected the narrative to shift its focus back to Leena’s perspective soon. However, she has only reappeared twice, and in both of those instances, I got the impression that she had been reduced to a minor character, even though she appeared to be one of the more central characters at the start of the novel. When she finally appeared for the second time, it was at an outdoor party, where Finnish servicemen and members of the Lotta Svärd were gathered together to have the opportunity to meet each other and dance together. However, her appearance was rather brief, as the narrative focused more on the perspectives and experiences of the Finnish servicemen. One of Simo Häyhä’s best friends, Toivo, danced with Leena that night. They both started having feelings for each other. A cute love story. However, I wanted to read more from Leena’s perspective and she didn’t reappear until over 100 pages later. At this point, I’m starting to worry that her character simply serves the purpose of being the love interest of one of the male characters, Toivo, whose story we actually continue to follow throughout the novel. When she finally appears again, over 100 pages later, it is when Toivo visits her. But as soon as he leaves, we are back to following the perspectives of the men in the novel. Now I understand that war is typically a man’s game. And for this reason, I’d expect male characters to be the main focus of the novel. The book was also written by a man, and so I wasn’t expecting it to have a feminist theme, but I was hoping it would feature at least one strong female character. One who isn’t just a love interest. One who isn’t just an accessory. One whose role goes beyond being a part of the side story of a male character. I was hoping for something more. After this compelling young woman is introduced to us, I was excited to be able to read about a woman’s experience in the war. She was assigned to the infirmary, but up until now, I’ve only had the opportunity to read a page or two about her experience in that position. And even though I’m still hoping that it’ll happen eventually, I’m not counting on it anymore.

I know this blog post has been so narrowly focused on this one aspect of the novel that I found disappointing, but it does sum up how I felt while reading this third part, as well as after I put the book down. It made me even more appreciative of the diverse perspectives featured in Roberto Bolaño’s two novels, especially since he doesn’t shy away from strong female characters (Auxilio has by far been my favourite). I often find myself comparing Bolaño’s novels to Les guerriers de l’hiver, which is natural, since I’m reading these books for the same class and writing blog posts on them. But I can’t expect Norek to be Bolaño, or vice versa. With all that being said, when I resume my reading of Les guerriers de l’hiver in a week from now, I will have to shift my expectations.

Here are my questions for the class: Up until now, has the novel that you chose to read for this class met or exceeded your expectations? Is there any aspect of your book that has been disappointing?

Chalk Circles, the fourth chapter of Our Share of Night, is the story in which one of the characters from the first chapter reappears as the main character: Rosario Reyes Bradford “[…] the first Argentine woman to recive a doctorate in anthropology from the University of Cambridge […]”* (201), who in the opening chapter of the book is presented through the memory of a tragic death: “Do you want to know? My wife died three months ago when she was hit by a bus that dragged her three blocks”* (18), is Juan’s response to a waitress who asks Gaspar about his mother; a mother who, in the third chapter, appears through the objects that Gaspar keeps of her: “[…] he took out of the drawer the booklet from the collection of indigenous and popular art history that his mother had written and that had her photo”* (199).  

Then, in chapter four, Chalk Circles, the memories take shape as stories told and experienced by Rosario, and it is through her narration that the origin of the Juan and Gaspar’s universe is revealed, a universe, the Order, built by Rosario’s family, by her grandfather William Bradford (357). Thus, through Rosario, the gaps left in the previous chapters are filled and enriched, and what surprised me most was discovering Rosario’s character, her experiences, and the strong bonds of friendship she built in order to survive within a closed circle covered in darkness. Another event was learning how Adela lost one of her arms. “The girl had been chosen […] a black light […] had taken her daughter, although that had not happened, it had only cut off her arm […]”* (476-77).  Adela is one of Gaspar’s friends and plays an important role in the previous chapter, especially at the end.

In my reading of Our Share of Night, I feel that this chapter, embodied in the character of Rosario Reyes Bradford, gives me a more complex view of the context in which the story of Juan, Gaspar, and, of course, Rosario unfolds, as well as the characters that make up this order of Darkness. En definitiva, in Circles of Chalk, in addition to finding the genealogy of the order, it is also the narration of how this universe affects the decisions that each of its members must make, how it directs the actions that must be carried out, a deber ser that the protagonist of this chapter admits and at the same time questions.

On the other hand, this chapter narrated and lived  by Rosario has led me to think that the parts of the book I have read so far, especially chapters one, three, and four, can also function as independent and complete stories; however, when brought together under the same novel, Our Share of Night, they maximize the world and events that are narrated, as well as the conditions that shape each character.

Finally, regarding my experience reading this chapter, I can say that I am still surprised to find elements that connect the characters, in a circle that seems to be getting smaller.

______

*My translate version

Whew! Even though it is my first time reading both books, after the polyphony of The Savage Detectives, returning to Les Misérables felt like sliding back into a favourite armchair after a long day. Here, there is one narrator, one clear protagonist, and one clear antagonist. What a comfy seat.

I started a section, called “Cosette,” after a character I will discuss below. The section begins at the end of the Battle of Waterloo – which brought me back to Grade 9 Social Studies (shoutout Ms. Chen!), as well as ABBA and Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. Funny how historical moments become pop-culture phenomena, and funny too how this chapter begins at one of the most famous “endings” in history.

Hugo takes time to describe the scene at the end of battle, describing bodies, blood, and nature ravaged or untouched. A few lines that made me think of Auxilio’s story were, “The moon was an evil genius on the plain…what mattered it that the earth was red, the moon retained her whiteness. Such is the indifference of heaven” (p. 121), how the moon and its light marked the passing of time. Auxilio and the Battle of Waterloo had the same moon!

Here, we see a man, unnamed, (a tendency of Hugo is to have a chapter about a character and only reveal their name at the end – usually we are meant to guess who it is, but in cases like this I was not sure who this homme could be!) pilfering medals from fallen soldiers. Who could it be? Surely not Jean Valjean, our convict turned beloved pious mayor turned man on the lam hunted by tenacious Inspector Javert? It couldn’t be! And aha, the pilferer is revealed to be Thérnardier! Oh rats, who was that again? I shuffled back through the book…Thérnardier is the tavern keeper who took Cosette, a seven-year-old orphan, into his and his wife’s “care” after her mother can no longer care for her.

And so, we return to the life of orphan Cosette, who lives a Cinderella-like existence at the mercy of Thénardier, his wife, Thénardiess, and their two pampered daughters. While Eponine and Azelma play with beautiful dolls, Cosette knits stockings for them under the table so as to take up less space and avoid abuse; “These three little girls could not count twenty-four years between them all, yet they already represented all human society: on one side envy, on the other, disdain” (144).

One night, when poor Cosette is forced to fetch a pail of water, she imagines all sorts of terrors waiting for her, beasts and ghosts prowling the trees, though nothing scares her more than the Thérnardiers. As she struggles with the bucket, she rescued by another unnamed man – this time it is revealed to be Jean Valjean, freshly escaped from jail. Seeing her state of despair, Jean buys her the most beautiful doll in the village, and rescues Cosette from the tavern. Yes! I thought. Stories like this are common, especially in fairy and folk tales, but reading about Cosette now had me reflecting on the vulnerability of children who don’t have anyone able to defend them. I suspect this is on all of our minds these days.

Luckily, Cosette and her surrogate grandfather Jean are able to take up residence in the Gorbeau House, where a “maternal” sort of love occurs, where Cosette is allowed to play and learn. The narrator adds that the teachings of the bishop in the first chapter and the family created with Cosette fully brought Jean back from the brink of criminality.

But the happy times don’t last for long: the indefatigable Inspector Javert, who represents black and white authority, like a hound on the trail, sniffs out Jean! On the run once again, Jean now has to navigate a flight with a young girl – after close calls and clambers up walls, the two take refuge in a nunnery, where a man Jean had once helped welcomes them. The section ends.

In this section, we see the idea that our past can haunt us no matter how we atone for it, the redemption of love, and how authority views “crime” – that Javert pursues Jean for helping Cosette’s mother (in a chapter past), yet no one pays any mind to the abuse suffered by Cosette. I really enjoyed reading this section.

I am ready to be finished this book. I know at the beginning of the semester, I commented on the fact that The Shadow of the Wind is the first book in the series and that I was optimistic about being able to continue with the following books. Maybe one day I’ll love picking them up, but I will first need a healthy break from this plot line. It isn’t even a bad book, I think it’s just so drawn out (too long?) that I don’t care what happens anymore.

The characterization has never been particularly deep, but it’s easy to look past that for the first quarter of a book (especially as the main character spent time growing into adulthood). At close to 300 pages in, over the halfway point, I just wish there was some sort of spark (something worth reading about the main character or the plot). The “mystery” of Carax (the author of the books that “chose the main character) hasn’t really developed. I don’t feel further along in the story now than I did at the end of the last section. Everything new that we have learned about Carax, about the protagonist, and about his friends/family/love interests has been more of the same. We’re wandering around the city talking to people and linking together repetitive bits of info (practically chasing wild geese at this point).

As I’m writing this, any tone of frustration (that I’m not allowed to DNF this book and have to slog through it) present is probably just me being dramatic and I very well might turn around in two weeks time and give this book a five star review. There’s a lot of book left (200ish pages?) and we could just be at the lull in the middle of the story (at which point I would say we could have maybe done without some of this repetitive middle fluff and had a shorter novel).

Again, to reiterate my disclaimer from previous weeks, I’m sure the reading experience would be different if I was reading the book in one go over a few days instead of over several weeks. I’ve mentioned before that I wonder if I’m missing things by forgetting them as we read our other class material in between, but also I feel like there’s something to be said about momentum. Riding a bike is not fun if you only pedal once every 100m and just wobble and inch along; maybe I would be more forgiving (in terms of waiting for the story to get to the point) and enjoying the reading more if I wasn’t putting the book down every 100 pages.

In The Shadows of the Wind, the part where Daniel and his father help Fermin and offer him a job and a place to stay honestly felt really slow to me. Up until this point, I was very invested in the book because of the mystery surrounding Carax and the faceless man burning his books. The suspense and the tension around the plot had kept me invested because I felt eager to figure out the mystery and the reasoning behind it. Therefore, the sudden shift felt boring because it did not even feel like it was a part of the same book. There was no mention of Clara or Carax or even the book. Instead, we got to read about Daniel’s day to day life. It is not that the scenes weren’t important because it gives a glimpse into Daniel’s life outside of the Carax situation. However, compared to the mystery you felt before they felt like Garcia Madero’s journal entries where a bunch of things are just happening but there’s no single plot. We get to see Daniel at home, at the book store, and he is interacting more with the people around him but because of the slow pace it makes the reader want to go back to Carax. 

At the same time, it gives the readers a different perspective into Daniel’s life, which feels more realistic for a kid. We see Daniel’s father showing generosity to Fermin because even though they are not wealthy he gives Fermin a job at his bookstore. Even when Fermin caused a scene Daniel’s dad asked the landlady not to call the police and still looked after Fermin. He even made sure to take him to the cafe on Sunday’s so he is not left alone at home. These scenes show Daniel as a normal teenage boy rather than the detective he seemed like earlier. This is also when there are scenes shown with Daniel’s best friend Tomas who was only previously talked about. Daniel introduces Tomas to Fermin and this is where it feels like he is combining both lives together because before we only knew of Tomas’s friendship and Carax but now he was introducing Tomas to this new person who feels like he has nothing to do with Carax.

Although I wasn’t a huge fan of these few chapters I still do think they serve a purpose and add depth to the characters. Maybe these slow and more calm scenes were so the mystery does not feel rushed but I do hope the book picks up again.

Discussion Question: Why do you think authors often slow down the plot and how does this affect your interest?

I left my last blog post uncertain as to whether Zeno would marry Ada or not. I thought there was a chance, but really given the nature of the book it was also fair to assume that something would go wrong, and Zeno would not be able to marry Ada, the one he has been pining for. However, in true Zeno fashion, he proposes to Ada, who rejected him, then he proposed to Alberta who also refused, and then finally proposed to Augusta who accepts the proposal. I guess third times the charm. However, she is in fact his third choice, and in the start of this section of the book, he described her as “unattractive and dull” and wondered how anyone could be attracted to her, a great way to start a marriage. Despite the dissapointment, Zeno also references the stability that Augusta provides him in their marriage, which he is fond of. Yet again, Zeno’s recollection seems to be very misinformed and blind to what is actually happening in real life.

Then he goes on to write about the balance of his marriage with Augusta, and his affair with Carla, who is described as a shrill voiced aspiring singer. The tone in this part of the book is slightly different than the first few parts. In this part, Zeno writes much more passively about these events, compared to when he wrote about his pursuit of Ada, or when he was trying to quit smoking. Yes, he was making excuses and finding ways to avoid facing his addiction, but his language describing the details of his affair really emphasize the lack of agency Zeno has convinced himself he had in this time. That’s the most important part; that he has convinced himself, not that the events actually transpired like that. He is just as unreliable as ever in terms of explaining what has happened, because reality is being reconstructed to his liking. It is very interesting and also frustrating to read because you as the reader know this is not true, or it doesn’t make sense, yet this is what you are left with. His description of Carla as fresh and healthy shows this obsession with sickness he has, that has carried from the illnesses he has experienced in the past and his smoking addiction as well. It poses a question of whether he saw his affair as a cure to something, because he is rather bleak about his own outcomes. I found it quite ironic, because Zeno also notes that Augusta’s health is stable as well, and moreover she is his wife, yet he chooses to lean into the unstable affair as if that will be a cure all to his troubles. It is very selective morality that always seems to pardon him. Again, very frustrating to read, but also made me reflect on the fact that morality is moldable and very personal to everyone. At some point, everyone has probably bent their own morality and values to justify something, and so really the question may be how often we do this, or how serious the consequences are of this. Zeno is unapologetic of the affair that eventually ends and then he states he has been cured, quite similar to his self-proclaimed status of “cured” with his smoking habit. One of my blog posts is titled “Nothing Comes Easy for Zeno… According to Him” but I am revisiting this idea because really he seems to have a simple method of refusing any other perspective, which lets him do immoral or bad things so comfortably. I wondered then, why don’t more people live like this. Is it because we are socialized in a way that refrains us from being so self motivated, or do many people live like this and just do a better job of hiding the deeply self-centred motivations that dictate what we do.