Impressions: 'The Unknown University' by Roberto Bolaño
This is especially for the Bolaño completists (of which I am one). Chilean author Roberto Bolaño is better known for his novels and short fiction but he always considered himself, first and foremost, a poet. (He only took up writing fiction at 40, after the birth of his son). Since his death, a steady stream of his work has been published in translation and has placed him at the top tier of the literary world. This book is a mammoth collection of all of Bolaños poetry.
Clocking in at nearly 800 pages, it’s quite a read. His poetry is as powerful as his prose. Many of these poems are deeply personal, often recalling his youth while still living in Mexico as well as his early days in Barcelona before finally ending up in Blanes off the Mediterranean coast, where he lived until the end of his life. The poems reflect his deep love for literature and poetry, especially poets such as Nicanor Parra, Cesar Vallejo, and Gilberto Owen. The style of most of these poems could be described as ‘Post-Beat’, and there is a definitive Beat influence on a lot of this work. His style is free form, sometimes experimental, sometimes highly lyrical. The more experimental prose poems such as People Walking Away (later published as Antwerp) recalls William S. Boroughs and concerns itself with a time he worked as a watchman at a campground in the suburbs of Barcelona. There are poems about love, sex, death, literature, life, all written with his own unique style that the world has eventually come to know and love.
It was a pleasure reading these poems because they give insight into who Roberto Bolaño, the man, was, opening a window beyond his literary persona. Sometimes the poems veer off into surrealist territory which recalls Nicanor Parra, while others are very touching, such as the poems written to his then four year old son, most of which were written while Bolaño was ill, as he worried he wouldn’t be around much longer to watch his son grow up. Touching, sad, and very powerful work.
If you’ve read all the fiction (which I am still working my way through) you can’t go wrong here. The Unknown University shows another side to Bolaño’s literary output, which was prolific and immense. A must for fans of his work as well as any admirer of the more experimental and less traditional poetry. A true giant who left this world much too soon.
Translated from the Spanish by Laura Healy
The Unknown University is available here.