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Archive for the ‘Roberto Bolaño’ Category

Roberto Bolaño–“Meeting with Enrique Lihn” (New Yorker, December 22 & 29, 2008)

Posted in Books about writers, Chris Andrews, Christmas Album, Dreams, New Yorker, Roberto Bolaño, Sufjan Stevens, Supernatural, Translation, Unreliable narrator on January 7, 2009| 1 Comment »

TNY 12.22&29.08 cvr.inddSOUNDTRACK: SUFJAN STEVENS–Joy! Songs for Christmas Vol. IV (2006).

joyThis disc has only one guest on it: Bridgit DeCook.  And she adds some very nice harmonies to some of the songs.  It also contains only one short (less than a minute) instrumental: “The First Noel” (which is a lot of la las and is really nice)The rest of the disc stays around the 3-4 minute mark, with no long songs.

There are two full-length traditional Christmas songs: “Away in a Manger” in a a beautiful simple folk rendition.  And there’s also the best rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” I’ve ever heard: it’s understated and moving with beautiful harmonies (and virtually no drums).

There are three Sufjan originals on this EP.  “Hey Guys! It’s Christmas Time” has that distinctive Sufjan original sound.  Even though the instrumentation is simple guitar (really fuzzy out in the opening notes), it is clearly an original and a good one.  “Did I Make You Cry on Christmas? (Well, You Deserved It!)” is one of those songs that is stark and negative and yet it is so catchy.  It’s something that Sufjan does very well.  The third original is “The Incarnation.”  It’s a brief instrumental, which sounds rather mournful.

The final song, “Joy to the World” is a bit more subdued than I prefer this song to be, but it’s still pleasant, and the unexpected guitar riff between verses is unusual but very cool.

[READ: January 5, 2009] “Meeting with Enrique Lihn”

I had been hearing a lot about how Bolaño had died while finishing up his latest and last novel 2666.  And since the book was just released here, I had it in my head that he had just recently died.  However, as most anyone knows, this U.S. edition is a translation; the book was actually published a few years ago.  And Bolaño died in 2003.  This doesn’t really make a big difference to anything, it just somehow means I didn’t “just miss” reading him while he was alive.  But regardless, that has little impact on this story.

I just had to look up to see if Enrique Lihn was a real person (which shows my unsurprising dearth of knowledge about Chilean poets).  (more…)

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Roberto Bolaño–“Clara” (New Yorker, August 4, 2008)

Posted in Cancer as plot device, Chris Andrews, King's X, Marriage Trouble, New Yorker, Roberto Bolaño, Translation on September 22, 2008|

SOUNDTRACK: KING’S X-King’s X (1992).

I was rather disappointed by this album when it came out.  After the glories of Faith Hope Love, this was a return to some pretty straight ahead metal.  And, boy is it heavy–well, the first song is anyway, and it does rather set the tone.  Nevertheless, the rest of the songs have subtleties that I have grown to appreciate.

“Black Flag” was the single from the album.  There has always been something about it that I don’t quite like.  I can’t put my finger on it.  However, the should-have-been single “Lost in Germany” returns stylistically to the sounds of Out of the Silent Planet, and contains a great sing-along chorus and harmonies.  In fact, the bulk of the middle of the disc keeps up those mildly progressive traits.

Overall, however, the disc is quite a bit darker than Faith Hope Love.  It comes as a shock after the previous record, but then King’s X are a much heavier band than I remember.

[READ: September 6, 2008] “Clara”

This is the first story I’ve read by Bolaño (although I have been planning to tread The Savage Detectives).

I know that this story was translated from Spanish, and I can’t help but wonder if I would have guessed it was translated while I was reading it.  There was something just slightly off abut the use of language…not that the translator did a bad job, just something that made me think the author was not writing in the same language that I use. (more…)

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