Roberto Bolaño’s Amulet is the journey of a narrator who is originally from Uruguay but later shifted to Mexico with influences from other Latin American countries as well. The narrator and the author reflect on Latin America while living in another Spanish country. To start, I enjoyed reading this novel as, based on the migration of the main character through Latin America, it allows me to relate to the novel in a way I have yet to do. I found it interesting how the narrator described their journey as occurring due to “a lack of love that impelled me to travel,” as though the narrator needed some motivation to travel in the first place (Bolaño, 3). What is even more interesting to me are the words that follow that the narrator’s urge to travel came from “madness” of all the reasons to travel (Bolaño, 3). The narrator is almost self-diagnosing their situation and needs to travel through Latin America during their lifetime. The self-diagnosis is a factor that shows that, as stated in the lecture, the novel is a reflection and memory of Latin America and the narrator’s time in Latin America (Beasley-Murray).

Additionally, as the novel is a journey of memories, as stated in the lecture, Bolaño was able to redefine Latin America and its culture through the novel (Beasley-Murray). However, what I dislike about the novel is how it starts as “this is going to be a horror story,” which sents a predetermined notion in my head of the events that will occur in the novel (Bolaño, 1). Then the narrator either contradicts or changes what they are saying by stating that there is a drawback that the narrator is telling the story and the story is “the story of a terrible crime (Bolaño, 1).

Another part of the novel that was interesting to me was how the narrator had deemed herself as the “mother of all the poets” (Bolaño, 58). While the narrator does call themself the “mother of all the poets,” it seems as though her actions are only to observe the poets rather than take a direct role in their life (Bolaño, 58). There is also the mention of the birth of history, birthing being something that mothers do to become mothers, and has stated, “we’re just taking you to attend the birth of History” (Bolaño,152). I found the mentions of motherhood and how there is also the “birth of History,” to be fascinating and different compared to the over novels that I have read for the course so far (Bolaño,152).

A question that I would ask is: do you believe that the way that Latin America is presented is different than your previous notions of Latin America?