Meta, Meta, Meta

This has nothing to do with the North Country, so feel free to move on. This is about the literary strategy of meta-narratives and blurring the line between fact and fiction in literature. Miguel de Cervantes was an early perpetrator of this – and the modern novel – with . I love this literary device – it’s Escher-like, collapsing on itself, making your reader’s mind cycle in endless loops trying to find the answer to a puzzle that has no answer.

A controversy is emerging about the Chilean/Mexican writer Roberto Bolano, who has become one of the most celebrated “new” authors in the last few years. Much of his fame came after his death in 2003.

Bolano’s characters are often searching for lost authors (including his own alter-ego), mysteriously disappeared writers, and the truths that they reveal. What’s so cool about the brew ha-ha, as reported in the New York Times, is that real-life literary critics are searching for truths about the real-life Bolano, much as his characters do in his novels. I imagine Bolano would be extremely psyched about this turn of events. Maybe he even planned it.

Bolano is an amazing read. Try Distant Star for starters. The Savage Detectives was considered his magnum opus, that is until 2666 came out last year, whcih I can’t wait to read.