By Kunal S.
Nazi Literature in the Americas by Roberto Bolaño consists of several short humorous biographies of made-up writers, all who were fascists (or were in some way connected to fascism). What each of the characters had in common was that they all led bizarre lives that typically came to rather unfortunate ends.
I instantly became bored with the novel after reading the first one or two biographies. It was not until later that I realized the stories were meant to be humorous. This realization changed my perspective on the novel, and allowed me to enjoy it more and laugh at the occasional jokes. However, I still became more and more bored with the stories as I continued to read, and was often tempted to put down the book.
The two main factors in the novel that I found uninteresting were the lives of the writers in general, and the numerous references to historic literature and writers from South America. I would often find myself skipping over lists of names that I did not recognize, and sometimes skipping over boring details about the characters.
While the lives of the characters themselves did not exactly catch my interest, and the humor did not quite entertain my teenage self, I thought that the descriptions of the characters were all very well done. If I had not read a short summary of the novel before reading, I would not have even been able to tell that the stories were purely fictional. They each seemed extremely realistic, despite their bizarreness.
I would recommend this novel to anyone with a more “mature” sense of humor (perhaps a little older than myself), and a “darker” sense of humor as well (given the tragic and sometimes grotesque stories). Of course, knowledge of or interest in the historic figures in South American literature would make this a much more pleasant read as well.
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