Between Parentheses

Between Parentheses is a collection of Roberto Bolano’s newspaper articles, reviews, interviews and speeches written between 1998 and 2003. The primary value of this book is in the large number of mostly lesser-known authors Bolano recommends: Enrique Vila-Matas, Ernesto Cardenal, Max Beerbohm, Georges Braque, Nicanor Parra, Cesar Aira, Javier Cercas, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Rodrigo Rey Rosa, Juan Rodolfo Wilcock, Thomas Harris, and Witold Gombrowicz. Bolano reveals himself to be an intelligent reader and offers his candid views on each writer, both positive and negative. For fans of experimental fiction, this is a very good reference guide.