#ABookADayInMay is back! And I didn’t like the first one!

It’s May again, and that can only mean one thing – I’m doing A Book A Day in May again! I don’t know if Madame Bibi is planning to do a novella a day in May again, as I am merely following her lead with this challenge.

To refresh memories – my aim is to finish a book every day in May. I say ‘book’ rather than ‘novella’ because it’ll almost certainly include some non-fiction, and it’s ‘finish’ rather than ‘read a full book’ because I have a whole pile of half-read books that will come into play. Besides those, I haven’t made any specific reading plans. Part of the fun is choosing the book each morning, spontaneously, matching the mood of the day. (And the number of pages I think I’ll have time to read.)

And I started with Antwerp by the Chilean author Roberto Bolaño – written in 1980, finally published in 2002, and translated into English by Natasha Wimmer in 2010. I think my copy was actually a review copy in 2010, thinking about it. The cover boldly quotes Bolaño saying, “The only novel that doesn’t embarrass me is Antwerp“, which is bold for a publisher who was also issuing a bunch of his other stuff. And also because it’s not really a novel?

Antwerp: Amazon.co.uk: Roberto Bolano: 9780330510585: Books

Antwerp is a series of 56 short vignettes. I’m quite drawn to this sort of fragmented way of crafting a book, as some of my favourite reads of last year demonstrate – though In The Dream House and The Self-Portrait of a Literary Biographer are both non-fiction. Antwerp is fiction, whatever else it might be, and these vignettes do paint some sort of collective picture – albeit one with such porous edges that the only really safe thing you can say about it, formally, is that it is made of words.

Actually, before we get onto the main part, there is a quick preface by the author – which starts like this:

I wrote this book for myself, and even that I can’t be sure of. For a long time these were just loose pages that I reread and maybe tinkered with, convinced I had no time. But time for what? I couldn’t say exactly. I wrote this book for the ghosts, who, because they’re outside of time, are the only ones with time. After the last rereading (just now), I realize that time isn’t the only thing that matters, time isn’t the only source of terror. Pleasure can be terrifying too, and so can courage.

I think that can help us know what we’re dealing with. It’s the sort of experimentalist think-speak that I had a lot more time for when I was 19 than I do now. So I entered the novel (?) proper fearing I might not know what was going on, and so it proved to be. The 55 vignettes take up less than 80 pages in my edition, and many of those pages are only half-filled. Certain characters recur, such as a nameless woman, a pornstar (?), various police officers, and Roberto Bolaño himself, or at least an author of the same name. There are clear themes: police investigation, violence, circuses, rather grubby sex. Maybe there’s even the detective of an actual crime, though I rather failed to pick up the pieces.

I started treating each vignette as a tiny short story, without trying too hard to connect it with what went before and after. And considering they’re things like this, you can perhaps see why:

10. THERE WAS NOTHING

There are no police stations, no hospitals, nothing. At least there’s nothing money can buy. “We act on instantaneous impulses” … “This is the kind of thing that destroys the unconscious, and then we’ll be left hanging” … “Remember that joke about the bullfighter who steps out into the ring and then there’s no bull, no ring, nothing?” … The policeman drank anarchic breezes. Someone started to clap.

But there were some parts that I loved and went back and re-read, like a poem. I noted down this opening to a vignette:

Silence hovers in the yards, leaving no pages with writing on them, that thing we’ll later call the work. Silence reads letters sitting on a balcony. Birds like a a rasp in the throat, like women with deep voices. I no longer ask for all the loneliness of love or the tranquility of love or for the mirrors. Silence glimmers in the empty hallways, on the radios no one listens to anymore. Silence is love just as your raspy voice is a bird. And no work could justify the slowness of movements and obstacles.

I keep using the word ‘vignette’, though I have no idea if Bolaño would like it. I got to the end having really appreciated some of the writing, and not at all knowing what the point of Antwerp was. (The city is mentioned, finally, in the 49th of the 55 vignettes – with an anecdote about a man in Antwerp being killed when his car was run over by a truck full of pigs.)

It’s probably the sort of book that would reward a year’s careful studying. Each line could be debated and played with and appreciated. Certainly Bolaño has his admirers. I don’t think I’m likely to become one of them.

10 thoughts on “#ABookADayInMay is back! And I didn’t like the first one!

  • May 1, 2024 at 8:44 pm
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    Well, I’ve not read Bolano (I think many of his books are very long??) and I’m probably not about to now, but I do see what you mean about his writing. That poetic quote is very lovely. I can read a book without really knowing what it’s about if the prose is good, but I feel that the subject matter might spoil this here!

    Anyway I shall follow your daily posts with interest. I don’t think Madame B is planning to do a novella a day this month, but I believe she plans to focus on them!

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    • May 3, 2024 at 3:08 pm
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      A few people have said his longer books are much better, so I won’t rule him out – but I won’t race to him either!

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  • May 2, 2024 at 8:47 am
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    Gosh, is it novella in May again already! I very much enjoyed and added several books to my ‘want to read’ list last year when you did this. I liked some of these quotes but am not sure I will seek Bolano books out. Hope you have a relaxing May so you can have fun with each day’s book choice! I shall be following along with interest for inspiration.

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    • May 3, 2024 at 3:07 pm
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      Oh lovely! Yes, it has come around fast. I’m already looking at some May days and wondering how the time will fit in, but that’s when audiobooks in car journeys can come in handy.

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  • May 2, 2024 at 10:24 am
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    I’m so disappointed not to be joining you this year Simon! But I’m really looking forward to seeing what you read. I don’t think this is for me although I did like the silence quote. I hope you have some reads you love before the month is out!

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    • May 3, 2024 at 3:07 pm
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      I’ll miss you Madame B!

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  • May 2, 2024 at 5:09 pm
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    Hmmmm not sure what to think of this one! I am looking forward to what all you read this year. I think I’ve only read 1 “in a day” “book” and it was really a short story but if Claire Keegan’s “books” can be “books”…. Any way that was A Night at the Tropicana by Chanel Cleeton.

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    • May 3, 2024 at 3:06 pm
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      Oo don’t know that author at all, thanks for the mention

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  • May 6, 2024 at 9:41 pm
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    Have fun with your 31 finishes, I really admire you being able to do this!

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    • May 22, 2024 at 4:57 pm
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      Thanks Liz!

      Reply

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