Chills Run Down My Spine

"In 1976, the young Maria Exposito met two students from Mexico City in the desert who said they were lost but appeared to be fleeing something and who, after a dizzying week, she never saw again." (2666, page 558)

Obviously, Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano. What's beautiful about this revelation is that it comes in the middle of a mythic narration of the births of five generations of Maria Expositos (a decent English translation would be "Jane Doe") that somewhat resembles Pynchon going into Tyrone Slothrop's deep history in Gravity's Rainbow. That this comes smack in the heart of a terrible, never-ending collection of brutal murders of women and all-out chauvinism, of course, is worth noting.

Maria ends up being the mother of a character named Lalo Cura that is playing no insignificant role in this novel, both narratively and thematically. And with the identity of his father(s) known (and with some words Lalo Cura's lovers leave his mother), I suddenly have a frame of reference from which to understand this book.

And now Bolano's entire collection is looking slightly different.

I quote from Javier's essay on Bolano's fictions:

For instance, Amuleto, which tells the story of an Uruguayan poet that claims herself to be the mother of all Mexican writers, may be seen both as an extra chapter to Los Detectives or as a short introduction to 2666—or both at the same time. The story is there, it cannot be avoided. Some other books are detailed elaborations of incidents mentioned before or to be mentioned later on. Estrella Distante, for instance, is an expansion of the last chapter of La literatura nazi. One possible beginning of Lalo Cura (Ness Themad could be a good translation, I imagine), a character from 2666, is explored in one of the short stories of Putas Asesinas. And guess who could be the long lost father of Lalo Cura? Guess, just guess . . .

Comments

[Levi Stahl]

Scott,
That's stunning.

I've been astonished so far at how utterly absorbing The Savage Detectives is, despite superficially not seeming like a book that would be up my alley. It's very, very hard to put down--though I find myself often gently setting it in my lap for a moment and staring off while the thoughts it's set racing slowly settle. Wow.

[Garth]

Just wait.

[Andrew Haley]

Other possible readings of "Lalo Cura" might be "she/he heals," "[he/she] heals her/him/it" or "she/he-priest."