Bolaño! Anyone who’s read his twisty, tricky writing must admit that his translator has her work cut out for her. And not only in terms of word choice and style. In order to best translate the late Chilean’s new book of speeches and essays, Natasha sifted through his contradictory words, reading lists and historical background. Lucky for us, she provided some choice conclusions at McNally Jackson last night.

A notoriously complex character, Bolaño didn’t reach international acclaim until late in life, when his liver problems made his last books a race against time. He was a life-long poet (considering fiction to be a lesser art), and started the “infrarealist” group in Mexico (which he renamed the “visceral realist” gang in The Savage Detectives).

Last night when flipping through SD I realized the fantastic intro/bio was written by Natasha herself. I urge you to read it, not just to learn about Bolaño’s crazy life (seriously, it is crazy), but also about the fascinating role that literature has played in Latin American—completely entangled with politics and injected with a sense of revolution (i.e. “rebel” poets shouting down governmental-sponsored poets at their readings, and even writer-assassinations).

Alright. Back to the reading. I should also mention here that I got the chance to meet lit-blogger Elka, who has the coolest red specs of all time. I imagine she’ll soon have a write-up available as well on her blog Elka Reads as well. 

Natasha spoke about Bolaño in both a casual and academic way—she mentioned writing things like “B is totally crazy” next to passages where he ranted about other authors (“He really works himself up”), but also shared deeper  insights, like that his manic energy stems from his idea that “Real writers are on the edge of an abyss, but instead of this depressing him it filled him with glee.”

She spoke of how strange it was to get to know Bolaño not through writings about his personal life or family, but rather through writings about what literature affected him at different points of his life (for example, while impoverished in Barcelona, he apparently read up on the Napoleonic wars). From this she had to take “biographical clues,” some of which were misleading.

“Misdirection was Bolaño’s fundamental style,” Natasha said. He would mention “liking” some writers, but, Natasha said with an eyeroll, you could tell that he liked some much more than others. He was also apt to switch up his opinions: in one essay he starts out arguing that literature matters, but eventually ends at the stance that lit doesn’t really matter.

“That’s his style—he gives you something and then takes it away,” she said. “It’s a deflationary humor.”

Bolaño had an incredibly diverse reading range, which caused Natasha to pick up some classics she’d previously missed—including Huckleberry Finn, which Bolaño has said inspired The Savage Detectives. She ended up enjoying it, finding it “wilder and looser” than she’d expected, and was able to see the similarities, including an episodic storyline.

Natasha spoke a lot about the Latin American Boom movement in the sixties (which included, most famously, Gabriel García Márquez) and the resulting aftermath of “optimistic and revolutionary” imitators, most of whom Bolaño despised. He came of age at the tail end of this movement, when everything was falling apart, leading to the theme of disillusionment and failure seen in his work. Briefly jailed in a return to Chile in his twenties, Bolaño went back to Mexico. He essentially remained in exile for the rest of his life, though he hated to call it that.

“He got fed up with the narrative of exile,” Natasha said. “He thought it was the natural state of the writer, and really the state of being human.”

Natasha shared some personal experiences as well. Pregnant while translating 2666’s “The Part About the Crimes” (which basically is a book-length section that details numerous murders), she worried it would affect her. Instead, she enjoyed it. ”You forget about the content, and just focus on words and details,” she explained.

Similarly, her intimate connection with his work has caused an “eye of the storm” situation per Bolaño’s enormous popularity. But when asked if she’s seen anyone try to follow the school of Bolaño (meaning imitators of his work), she said no, adding, “It would be difficult.”

NOTE: For any interested parties, the infrarealism movement still exists, although it’s no longer associated with Bolaño. “They say that he basically wasn’t that great,” Natasha said with a smile, “and that he sold out.”