Week 11: A Distant Star (Bolaño)

 Hi everyone! I hope you all had a nice weekend and are having a good sunny start to the week! This week I chose to read A Distant Star written by Roberto Bolaño. I have to say this may be the book I enjoyed the most so far. The majority of the book felt like a really long episode of Criminal Minds, which is one of my favourite shows. I just felt kinda hooked from the beginning with all the talk about the arts, the poet society, and the obsession with the twins. I really enjoyed how this book used descriptive language, as I felt like I have been looking for that in the past couple of books as I need it to make a real clear image in my head of the events. I have to say the first killing of the aunt of the Garmendia sisters kind of took me by surprise. I was expecting a mystery murder type book but not so quick off the bat. However, I probably should have expected that it would be the character who seemed like an outcast from the rest of the poets, and had a particular liking towards the women in the group and the women were drawn to him. As an extreme crime show enthusiast, this is a very tell tale sign. 


Although I enjoyed this long attempt to try and find Carlos Wieder through these fragmented stories of multiple characters, I also liked the interjections of other short-ish stories of people who were not directly related to the plot of the serial killings. I really enjoyed Lorenzo or Lorenza’s mini story that was included in the book. I thought that it provided a story of hope and resilience in a book about very intense and real things. I think that this short storytelling throughout the book really highlighted the importance of art and artists in times of mass destruction like a revolution or being involved with trying to find a serial killer. Although this novel is plot wise about a murderer and the mystery to find him, having them all be poets and artists adds an entire new dimension to these characters. I feel like we have really only read about families, soldiers, or children's lives and perspectives so far and I find that artists (even if fictional ones) have an entirely new way of viewing the world. So even though the narrator is focused on the horrors in front of him, he will always take the moment to recognize amazing fellow artists, or explain Wieder’s poems or photographs to the reader. 


Above all, I really do have to say that I enjoyed this book the entire time and there are so many questions to ask but I am interested to know everyone’s take on why Carlos Wieder did not kill Marta, or insinuate hurting her when she first visited his apartment when he subtly confessed to killing the Garmendia twins? Do you think it was an act of love or was there a deeper reasoning there?


Comments

  1. JonMarch 27, 2023 at 8:38 PM

    I'm happy you liked the book! But I wonder if there's not a difference from a show such as Criminal Minds--which I don't know, so I may be wrong in what I'm about to say. But in most murder mystery books or shows, at the end everything is tied up neatly and the criminal is sent to jail or otherwise justice is done. This is not always the case... I've just watched the first series of The White Lotus, and that doesn't happen there, but on the whole this is the pattern, especially in classic stories such as Agatha Christie's. What about in Bolaño's book? Do you find the ending satisfying? Because I don't think the narrator does.

    ReplyDelete
  2. kenwardtMarch 28, 2023 at 7:27 PM

    Hi Jordan, I too really enjoyed the book this week! In response to your question, I guess the narrator leaves it up to the reader to decipher why Wieder doesn't kill Marta is partly because she was his lover and he may have feelings for her still. Also, she was a part of the avant-garde artists and writers, and Wieder may not want to lose the connection he has with the group.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elisabeth HerringtonMarch 29, 2023 at 4:56 PM

    Hi Jordan!

    Thank you for your thoughts on A Distant Star. I also found myself comparing the writing to other forms of media such as shows and detective books. However, there was also something unique about this book, and maybe that has to do with the fact that we as readers are never truly satisfied with the ending. At least, for me, I felt as though the narrator was often not fully sure of his thoughts being necessarily an exact memory, but more of a depiction of how he felt in the moment. I think that this is similar to how art is interpreted, we often dont know the exact storyline or details of art, although we feel and sense the emotion the artist has depicted. I think this intentional uncertainty is potentially why the author leaves Carlos Wieder killings and intentions unclear, and the narrators thoughts somewhat untrustworthy.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 12: My Tender Matador (Lemebel)

  Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a good start to the week. We are almost done this semester, we can do it!! This week I chose to read My Tender Matador by Pedro Lemebel. Personally, although this book had an interesting story line and dealt with really important themes I found myself struggling to read it. I kept getting pulled out of the trance of the story and had to keep going back to reground myself back into the book. However, I did get some clarification and background on the political scene and attempted assassination from Jon’s lecture which helped me to understand Carlos’ character a bit better. I found his relation with Queen of the Corner to be quite toxic. He was always just using her either for her space to keep his weapons, or as a distraction from getting caught by the police checkpoint, and always just coming and going as he pleased. I think it was obvious that she was in love with him from the start yet he kept on controlling her for his own personal benefit th
Read more

Week 7: 100 Years of Solitude Part 1 (Márquez)

  Hi everyone! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing break. I have to say I am really enjoying this book so far. When I first saw the family tree at the beginning I thought I was in for a long, hard, and confusing book (which this one was at times), but mostly I found myself being fascinated by the multitude of stories and characters in the book. From the founding of the town, the gypsy arrival, seeing ice, love triangles, incest, this book had it all. I particularly enjoyed reading about the marriages between Rebbecca and Crepsi and then Aureliano and Remedios. I loved the sibling (or adopted sibling) rivalry that grew between the adopted Rebbecca and Amaranta. The anticipation of the weddings and what was going to happen kept me hooked to the book for a bit.  Jon and his lecture were definitely correct when he said that this was a book you have to stick with more than just pick it up when you feel like reading. I get very distracted easily and have a hard time focusing, so I str
Read more

Week 2: “Mama Blanca’s Memoirs” (De La Parra)

  Hi everyone! I found this week's reading rather interesting as I haven’t read a lot of memoirs in the past. I am not a very fast reader so this reading took me a while and I found myself doing it in shorter blocks of time, which I wish I hadn't as I felt like every time I began again I was reading something completely different. For next week I am going to try and read the reading in longer sit down sessions so I can truly absorb the content more and not feel so out of place when I start reading it again. That being said, I did enjoy this book as I loved its attention to detail, especially when discussing the hair or the features of her other family members. I always appreciate this attention to detail, as for someone who watches a lot of film and TV (being a film major) it helps me to paint a more detailed image in my head, which overall makes the story more interesting to me. I found the part where she was discussing in intense detail about her hair and how her mother fe
Read more