Dawg with a Blog

Finished the part about the critics

I ended up reading Roberto Bolaño’s wikipedia page which made me sad. The first word that stuck out was “posthumously,” or published after the death of the author. He died in 2003 at the age of 50 (still pretty young in my opinion, he still had the other half of his life to look forward to), awaiting a liver but died third in line on the transplant list. He still has a wife and children but after reading the part and loving his writing then finding out that he died a year after my birth makes me feel like I just missed him. He died never truly knowing the success of his last novel, but he joked about the word ‘posthumously’ nearing the time of his death, being amused by the labels that’ll surround his name after he’s gone.

He lived his life as a leftist, being from Chile and living a part of his life in Mexico, he was active in left-wing political causes and moved back to Chile to support the socialist government of Salvador Allende, but after the right wing military coupe (sponsored by the US btw), Bolaño was labeled a terrorist and thrown in jail where he was awaiting his enhanced interrogation tactics. Fortunately for him, his good relations with the people allowed him to escape the prison and fled Chile in exile. He settled down in Barcelona where he began writing fiction as a means to make ends meet, where he lived up until his death.

I envy the critics, they at least knew of the possibility of meeting their favorite author Archimboldi, knowing they were living in the same time as them, but now here I am, a newly sprouted Bolaño fan, struck with the word ‘posthumously,’ sadden with the fact I won’t ever get the chance to meet him.