The Insufferable Gaucho
Encyclopedia
The Insufferable Gaucho (El Gaucho Insufrible, 2003) is a collection of short stories by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño
, published in English in 2010, translated by Chris Andrews. During his lifetime, Bolaño made his name as a writer of short stories, and The Insufferable Gaucho collects a disparate variety of work. From its comical title story to the Kafkaesque "Police Rat", the book's wide spectrum of storytelling techniques "makes an ideal introduction to the Bolaño imaginaire."
Roberto Bolaño
Roberto Bolaño Ávalos was a Chilean novelist and poet. In 1999 he won the Rómulo Gallegos Prize for his novel Los detectives salvajes , and in 2008 he was posthumously awarded the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction for his novel 2666, which was described by board member Marcela Valdes...
, published in English in 2010, translated by Chris Andrews. During his lifetime, Bolaño made his name as a writer of short stories, and The Insufferable Gaucho collects a disparate variety of work. From its comical title story to the Kafkaesque "Police Rat", the book's wide spectrum of storytelling techniques "makes an ideal introduction to the Bolaño imaginaire."
The Stories
- "Jim" - A short tale about a troubled Vietnam veteranVietnam veteranVietnam veteran is a phrase used to describe someone who served in the armed forces of participating countries during the Vietnam War.The term has been used to describe veterans who were in the armed forces of South Vietnam, the United States armed forces, and countries allied to them, whether or...
living as a poet in MexicoMexicoThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. - "The Insufferable Gaucho" - The title story of the collection is inspired by the Jorge Luis BorgesJorge Luis BorgesJorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo , known as Jorge Luis Borges , was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet and translator born in Buenos Aires. In 1914 his family moved to Switzerland where he attended school, receiving his baccalauréat from the Collège de Genève in 1918. The family...
story The South, which is mentioned in the story. The esteemed lawyer Héctor Pereda leaves Buenos Aires for a simpler life at a remote ranch on the pampas, and later returns to the city a changed man. - "Police Rat" - the story of Pepe the rat, a relative of Kafka'sFranz KafkaFranz Kafka was a culturally influential German-language author of short stories and novels. Contemporary critics and academics, including Vladimir Nabokov, regard Kafka as one of the best writers of the 20th century...
Josephine the singer, who describes his life as a police rat in the sewers. - "Alvaro Rousselot’s Journey" - The story of an ArgentineArgentinaArgentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
writer who travels to FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
in search of a director who’s been filming his books without giving the author credit or royaltiesRoyaltiesRoyalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. - "Two Catholic Tales" - "The Vocation" is about a young man waiting for his calling, and "Chance" deals with a lunatic who escapes from an asylum.
- "Literature + Illness = Illness" - an essay-story which discusses illness, sex, MallarméStéphane MallarméStéphane Mallarmé , whose real name was Étienne Mallarmé, was a French poet and critic. He was a major French symbolist poet, and his work anticipated and inspired several revolutionary artistic schools of the early 20th century, such as Dadaism, Surrealism, and Futurism.-Biography:Stéphane...
’s "Brise Marine" ("Sea Breeze") and BaudelaireCharles BaudelaireCharles Baudelaire was a French poet who produced notable work as an essayist, art critic, and pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe. His most famous work, Les Fleurs du mal expresses the changing nature of beauty in modern, industrializing Paris during the nineteenth century...
’s “The Voyage.” - "The Myths of Cthulhu" - a discussion of writers, writing, and the state of Latin American literature. The title is a reference to H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu MythosCthulhu MythosThe Cthulhu Mythos is a shared fictional universe, based on the work of American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft.The term was first coined by August Derleth, a contemporary correspondent of Lovecraft, who used the name of the creature Cthulhu - a central figure in Lovecraft literature and the focus...
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External links
- The Insufferable Gaucho - book's page on New Directions website.
- "The Insufferable Gaucho" - the collection's title story, published in The New YorkerThe New YorkerThe New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
, October 1, 2007. - "Alvaro Rousselot’s Journey" - a story from the collection, published in The New Yorker, November 26, 2007.
- Excerpt from "Literature + Sickness = Sickness" - a story/essay from the collection, published in News from the Republic of LettersNews from the Republic of LettersNews from the Republic of Letters is the third magazine collaboration between Saul Bellow and Keith Botsford, following Noble Savage and ANON. The journal, originally based in Boston and now operated from the editor's home in Costa Rica, publishes new and newly-discovered writings from American and...