Roberto Bolaño's Fiction - A Glimpse of Catholic Fascism

The fiction that has most permitted me to understand the psychology of fascism - a virulence that is asserting itself anew in the US and elsewhere - are the works by Roberto Bolaño that I'll mention below. RB was born in Chile and spent part of his childhood there, before moving to Mexico with his family. He returned to Chile at age 17 in order to take part in the exciting social changes occurring around Salvador Allende. He arrived just in time for the savage and mass-homicidal coup d'etat being carried out by General Augusto Pinochet in 1972. RB escaped being executed by a Pinochet firing squad only when a soldier who recognized him from childhood permitted him to flee. The Pinochet movement was rooted in European Catholic-style fascism. Reading Bolaño 10 years ago, I had no idea how relevant his observations would be to what was coming to the US. Fiction permits the telling of history through a series of interior experiences. As such, it offers truths unavailable through other forms of expression. The translations of Roberto Bolaño in English are very good. Also, his prose in Spanish is clear, direct and declarative - nothing like the feverish baroque of some fiction by Garcia Marquez, for example. A student of Spanish with a high intermediate level should read RB in the original Spanish.

Among the excellent fiction by Bolaño that deals with fascism in Latin America are the following works:

1. By Night in Chile (short novel in the form of a ticking monologue)

2. Distant Star (short novel in the form of a ticking monologue)

3. "Mauricio ("The Eye") Silva" (tour de force short story spanning continents and decades)

4. "Sensini" (tour de force short story spanning continents and decades)