The Return by Roberto Bolaño
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A series of person tragedies punctuated by a book I was looking forward to but ended up hating led me to take a sabbatical from reading. Its been difficult, the long road back to myself. Luckily, Bolano was there waiting. I don't know what will happen when I finish all his works. I try to save and sprinkle them throughout my reading stack. Maybe the world will end. It feels like that sometimes.
I read but didn't review The Romantic Dogs because I am not comfortable enough to have any specific views on poetry. Though I also try to stay away from short story collections, I owe it to Bolano to speak up. So, without beating around the bush anymore, here are my thoughts on The Return.
Snow - A story is told by a man whose family fled Chile due to them being Communist. They end up in Russia and he becomes a procurer for a Russian Mobster. One of the girls that the mobster wants is a gymnast who ends up in a side relationship with the narrator. Its kept hidden until one day the girl reveals the truth to the mobster who ends up beating the narrator but lets him live. It turns out to be a bad decision because our speaker then kills the mobster and leaves Russia. This isn't a favorite of mine from this collection but I've noticed other people refer to it among theirs. It IS a very easily identifiable Bolano story.
Another Russian Tale - A quick little story about a WW2 Soldier in a Spanish Division who is wounded, discharged, and accidentally sent to the wrong division. While it's being sorted out, the German division he is with gets captured and he is discovered by Russians. They torture him but the language barrier is proving difficult to confess his innocence. Eventually, they try to pull his tongue with pliers and he shouts the word "Cunt" but to their ears, it is "Kunst" which means Artist. Thinking he is an Artist, they end up letting him live, and eventually when the war ends he goes on with his life.
William Burns - An American is hired to look after two women who insist they are being stalked by a serial killer. He believes he found the guy per the instructions given to him by the women and ends up kidnapping the man's dog. The guy comes to the house and is murdered by the American. Later on, the American is killed. It's unclear, at least to me, if the man was a stalker, to begin with. The American doesn't seem to believe so at the end. He thinks it was a case of mistaken identity. I had the feeling that maybe the women intentionally misled him. Maybe the man was an ex-lover. They were very quick to start disposing of the body. I don't think a man looking for his dog would break into a house the way he does. Maybe this is all obvious to everybody else.
Detectives- A conversation between two detectives which ends with one of them recounting a story about Arturo Belano in jail. We've seen the other side of this story in another form, in another work. The back and forth between the detectives take a while to get us to the actual story here.
Cell Mates - The story of a man who begins an open relationship with a woman who is crazy. Both of them are former prisoners. I didn't take notes but I believe in this one the woman and one of her boyfriends try to murder a friend of the narrator.
Clara - Another relationship story. The girl develops cancer. In the end, she disappears.
Joanna Sivestri - A Porn Star does a shoot in Los Angelos. She visits an old friend, a former porn star, who is dying. It's clear he has AIDS but Joanna sleeps with him anyway which, knowing how the crisis was responded to in the early '90s, pulls me out of the story for lack of believability. Unless the point was she just doesn't care.
Prefiguration of Lalo Cura – Lalo Cura makes many appearances in Bolano's work. This story is about his mother being a porn star while pregnant with him.
Murdering Whores - A whore narrates. She kidnaps a man she's seen on TV and is about to murder him. If you notice at this point the stories tend to have a narrative running through them all.
The Return – The best story in the collection and one of the strangest and funniest Bolano ever wrote. A man has a heart attack while out dancing and dies. He recounts how he hated the movie Ghosts, especially the scene when Swayze first leaves his body, but that is exactly what happens to him. He follows his body to the morgue and is hanging around without direction until two workers take his body with them. The body is sent to the home of a famous Fashion Designer who doesn't sodomize it but gets off on it. Then our Ghost speaks and the Designer hears. After proving that he is the ghost of the deceased and not a hidden speaker, he decides to stick around with the designer even when his body is retrieved by the workers. An unlikely friendship has developed.
Buba - The story of a Soccer Team with bad luck. The narrator is a player who is injured in or before his first game. He ends up rooming with Buba who is an African. One night, Buba tells our narrator and another man on the team if they give blood to him he can guarantee a win. This starts a cycle that lasts all season and beyond. Buba always scores two goals, with the remaining going to them. Eventually, Buba is traded to another team and they end up beating the team the narrator was on. The book ends with the team, sans Buba, reuniting for a documentary. Buba had died in a car crash earlier on.
Photos - Arturo Belano looks at photos of poets and thinks about who he wants to have sex with.
Meeting with Enrique Lihn - Bolano, as himself and not Belano, has a dream he meets the very much dead Enrique Lihn who tells Bolano he admires him. There's also a case of double mistaken identity on the steps of Lihn's building which is an amusing step away from the main story.
How Bolano writes humans is what makes his work special. I can't think of one American author who captures our essence in quite the same way. How Bolano tells stories, and how he has his characters tell each other stories, is so distinct. There is a deeper emotional richness. Even lighthearted conversations have heavy undertones and that's what sticks out to me. Bolano is like an English Teacher's wet dream in that regard.
What did I think of The Return?
As with any Short Story collection, I like some more than others. My favorites would have to be The Return and Buba. The other stories were more commonly fitting with Bolano's style and that worked against them here. The Return and Buba were uniquely different and showed a side of the author I wish we got to explore more of. I have a mental block of Cell Mates and Clara beyond them being two very similar stories. The non-romantic in me could be the catalyst behind that one. Bolano is at his best when he writes these lost or broken people. As a collection, I like how the themes flow from one story to the next but the stories about porn stars and whores disengaged me. I'm not a prude. Trust me on that one. The first porn-related story was ok. I'm not interested in these people but moving past the sex there's a poignant story. Then the Lalo Cura story came. I think out of all Bolano's characters, Lalo Cura is someone I'm never big on. The Murderous Whores story was better, in a different sort of way, but if it had been a touch longer I think it would have been more interesting. So there are a few misses for me here. Is it enough to pull me out of my reading slump? Absolutely. Check it out for the title story.
View all my reviews
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
A series of person tragedies punctuated by a book I was looking forward to but ended up hating led me to take a sabbatical from reading. Its been difficult, the long road back to myself. Luckily, Bolano was there waiting. I don't know what will happen when I finish all his works. I try to save and sprinkle them throughout my reading stack. Maybe the world will end. It feels like that sometimes.
I read but didn't review The Romantic Dogs because I am not comfortable enough to have any specific views on poetry. Though I also try to stay away from short story collections, I owe it to Bolano to speak up. So, without beating around the bush anymore, here are my thoughts on The Return.
Snow - A story is told by a man whose family fled Chile due to them being Communist. They end up in Russia and he becomes a procurer for a Russian Mobster. One of the girls that the mobster wants is a gymnast who ends up in a side relationship with the narrator. Its kept hidden until one day the girl reveals the truth to the mobster who ends up beating the narrator but lets him live. It turns out to be a bad decision because our speaker then kills the mobster and leaves Russia. This isn't a favorite of mine from this collection but I've noticed other people refer to it among theirs. It IS a very easily identifiable Bolano story.
Another Russian Tale - A quick little story about a WW2 Soldier in a Spanish Division who is wounded, discharged, and accidentally sent to the wrong division. While it's being sorted out, the German division he is with gets captured and he is discovered by Russians. They torture him but the language barrier is proving difficult to confess his innocence. Eventually, they try to pull his tongue with pliers and he shouts the word "Cunt" but to their ears, it is "Kunst" which means Artist. Thinking he is an Artist, they end up letting him live, and eventually when the war ends he goes on with his life.
William Burns - An American is hired to look after two women who insist they are being stalked by a serial killer. He believes he found the guy per the instructions given to him by the women and ends up kidnapping the man's dog. The guy comes to the house and is murdered by the American. Later on, the American is killed. It's unclear, at least to me, if the man was a stalker, to begin with. The American doesn't seem to believe so at the end. He thinks it was a case of mistaken identity. I had the feeling that maybe the women intentionally misled him. Maybe the man was an ex-lover. They were very quick to start disposing of the body. I don't think a man looking for his dog would break into a house the way he does. Maybe this is all obvious to everybody else.
Detectives- A conversation between two detectives which ends with one of them recounting a story about Arturo Belano in jail. We've seen the other side of this story in another form, in another work. The back and forth between the detectives take a while to get us to the actual story here.
Cell Mates - The story of a man who begins an open relationship with a woman who is crazy. Both of them are former prisoners. I didn't take notes but I believe in this one the woman and one of her boyfriends try to murder a friend of the narrator.
Clara - Another relationship story. The girl develops cancer. In the end, she disappears.
Joanna Sivestri - A Porn Star does a shoot in Los Angelos. She visits an old friend, a former porn star, who is dying. It's clear he has AIDS but Joanna sleeps with him anyway which, knowing how the crisis was responded to in the early '90s, pulls me out of the story for lack of believability. Unless the point was she just doesn't care.
Prefiguration of Lalo Cura – Lalo Cura makes many appearances in Bolano's work. This story is about his mother being a porn star while pregnant with him.
Murdering Whores - A whore narrates. She kidnaps a man she's seen on TV and is about to murder him. If you notice at this point the stories tend to have a narrative running through them all.
The Return – The best story in the collection and one of the strangest and funniest Bolano ever wrote. A man has a heart attack while out dancing and dies. He recounts how he hated the movie Ghosts, especially the scene when Swayze first leaves his body, but that is exactly what happens to him. He follows his body to the morgue and is hanging around without direction until two workers take his body with them. The body is sent to the home of a famous Fashion Designer who doesn't sodomize it but gets off on it. Then our Ghost speaks and the Designer hears. After proving that he is the ghost of the deceased and not a hidden speaker, he decides to stick around with the designer even when his body is retrieved by the workers. An unlikely friendship has developed.
Buba - The story of a Soccer Team with bad luck. The narrator is a player who is injured in or before his first game. He ends up rooming with Buba who is an African. One night, Buba tells our narrator and another man on the team if they give blood to him he can guarantee a win. This starts a cycle that lasts all season and beyond. Buba always scores two goals, with the remaining going to them. Eventually, Buba is traded to another team and they end up beating the team the narrator was on. The book ends with the team, sans Buba, reuniting for a documentary. Buba had died in a car crash earlier on.
Photos - Arturo Belano looks at photos of poets and thinks about who he wants to have sex with.
Meeting with Enrique Lihn - Bolano, as himself and not Belano, has a dream he meets the very much dead Enrique Lihn who tells Bolano he admires him. There's also a case of double mistaken identity on the steps of Lihn's building which is an amusing step away from the main story.
How Bolano writes humans is what makes his work special. I can't think of one American author who captures our essence in quite the same way. How Bolano tells stories, and how he has his characters tell each other stories, is so distinct. There is a deeper emotional richness. Even lighthearted conversations have heavy undertones and that's what sticks out to me. Bolano is like an English Teacher's wet dream in that regard.
What did I think of The Return?
As with any Short Story collection, I like some more than others. My favorites would have to be The Return and Buba. The other stories were more commonly fitting with Bolano's style and that worked against them here. The Return and Buba were uniquely different and showed a side of the author I wish we got to explore more of. I have a mental block of Cell Mates and Clara beyond them being two very similar stories. The non-romantic in me could be the catalyst behind that one. Bolano is at his best when he writes these lost or broken people. As a collection, I like how the themes flow from one story to the next but the stories about porn stars and whores disengaged me. I'm not a prude. Trust me on that one. The first porn-related story was ok. I'm not interested in these people but moving past the sex there's a poignant story. Then the Lalo Cura story came. I think out of all Bolano's characters, Lalo Cura is someone I'm never big on. The Murderous Whores story was better, in a different sort of way, but if it had been a touch longer I think it would have been more interesting. So there are a few misses for me here. Is it enough to pull me out of my reading slump? Absolutely. Check it out for the title story.
View all my reviews
