Amuleto is a novel written by Roberto Bolaño, a Chilean author and poet. It was first published in 1999 and is considered one of Bolaño's most famous works. The book follows the life of a character named Auxilio Lacouture, a Uruguayan woman living in Mexico City in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Auxilio, also known as the "Mother of Mexican Poetry," narrates her story as the only woman who stayed inside the Faculty of Philosophy and Literature during the student unrest at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). As she recounts her memories from the perspective of the past, the novel explores themes of exile, identity, literature, and political turmoil. Amuleto delves into a complex narrative structure, combining both personal anecdotes and broader historical events.
These pronouncements continue for a few pages. Underneath the madness, one can sense Bolaño’s goofy joy, but there’s more here than just list-making: Auxilio is pointing toward metempsychosis, suggesting her own soul’s migration, perhaps—here we find a way in which literature might transcend the violence and horror of history. And yet there’s also a sense of doom, of repeated violence and exile. Late in the novel Auxilio finds herself cast in the role of Erigone, daughter Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, forced from home by her half-brother, Orestes. There’s a sense that tragedy capitulates throughout time; that even if Auxilio can survive the army’s occupation, it will nevertheless scar her forever. Cycles of violence are bound to recur indefinitely.
One gets the sense that this oblique reference to 2666 is really part of Bolaño crafting his own canon, an internal canon of the Bolañoverse, almost as if he were J. They do not, as one would think, create a shared sense of community and identity, but instead they act as a cleavage of language and self from others.
Amuleto delves into a complex narrative structure, combining both personal anecdotes and broader historical events. The protagonist's stream-of-consciousness style provides insight into her thoughts, emotions, and reflections on her relationship with other characters, including fellow poets and revolutionaries such as Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima (who also appear in Bolaño's earlier work, "The Savage Detectives"). Through Auxilio's voice, the novel also explores Mexican literature and its connection to social and political contexts.
Book provides a map for reading boundary-challenging author
When he died at age 50 in 2003, prolific Spanish-language writer Roberto Bolaño had only begun to achieve the worldwide recognition that has since come to him.
In the last six years of his life, Bolaño published critically acclaimed works, including “The Savage Detectives,” which established his international stature, “Amulet” and “By Night in Chile.” His reputation continued to increase after his death, most especially with “2666,” a 1,000-page book published in the original Spanish in 2004 and translated into English in 2008.
But despite the popularity and page counts of “2666” and other posthumous, award-winning publications, Bolaño is, at heart, “a novelist who began as a poet and never ceased wanting to be one,” writes Jonathan Monroe, professor of comparative literature.
In “Framing Roberto Bolaño: Poetry, Fiction, Literary History, Politics,” one of the first full-length monographs devoted to Bolaño, Monroe provides a context for understanding this writer. To grasp his achievements, Monroe argues, the reader must understand not only poetry and fiction, but also literary history and politics.
“I see in Bolaño a pivotal, generational figure for thinking through questions of genre in the last quarter of the 20th century and the first few years of the 21st,” Monroe said.
Bolaño wrote both poetry and fiction, but it’s not a simple division between his youth as a poet in Latin America and his maturity writing novels in Spain. Rather, Monroe argues, Bolaño was at once a poet and a prose writer, packing the power of poetry into non-verse, novel-length works in a genre Bolaño called “poemas-novela,” or as Monroe calls it, a “prose poem novel.”
Bolaño “smuggles” poetry into the epic “2666” – which is 898 pages in the English edition – and his other books, Monroe said.
“He was trying to free himself, and to free poetry, from the limiting constraints of poetry-as-verse, and of poetry understood as mere “self-expression. The ‘prose poem novel’ proved to be his path toward restoring poetry to its full capacity and literature to a full range of possibilities.”
Monroe has written extensively on genre, particularly on the prose poem, as well as publishing prose poetry himself.
“What makes a prose poem prose is its block-print form. This is the form we expect for both fiction and nonfiction,” said Monroe. “What makes a prose poem a poem is that ‘brevity and intensity’ [Edgar Allan] Poe identified as essential to poetry.”
Bolaño, who read voraciously, gained his knowledge of and capacity in prose poetry from Poe and others. Charles Baudelaire and Arthur Rimbaud, early pioneers of the genre, were especially strong influences, Monroe argues.
Born in Chile in 1953, Bolaño came of age as a poet in Mexico City during politically turbulent times. He returned to Chile briefly in 1973 to support the democratic socialist government of Salvador Allende. Political upheaval figures prominently in many of his works, with settings in both Europe and the Americas in “Monsieur Pain,” “Nazi Literature in the Americas,” “Distant Star,” “By Night in Chile,” “Amulet,” “2666” and others.
But more than this, poetry, fiction and literary history are political to Bolaño, Monroe writes. His prose poem novels test the limits not only of genre, but of “the systems and hierarchies of discourses and disciplines” that create division between poetry and fiction and between the aesthetic and the political.
“Literary criticism, history, theory are not the others of poetry and fiction, his work tells us, but inextricably bound up with them,” Monroe writes in his conclusion. Bolaño, who wrote prolifically during the tumultuous last two decades of the 20th century and into the 21st, leaves to readers and writers today a “poetics for the twenty-first century,” helpful for traversing the ground shared by literature, history, and politics.
“He has become in the past several decades one of the most written-about authors anywhere in the world,” Monroe said. “His readership and literary reputation continue to grow, and he continues to draw enormous critical and scholarly attention worldwide.”
Kate Blackwood is a writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.
In these two short paragraphs, late in the book, we get so many of the motifs that populate Bolaño’s world: the self-naming poet, the influence of violence in Latin America, the horrors inherent in resisting this violence, exile, hints of madness. We even get Bolaño’s elusive alter-ego, Arturo Belano, who floats through Amulet and the rest of the Bolañoverse like an unknowable specter.
It references important intellectual figures of the time, such as Octavio Paz and Carlos Fuentes, as well as other literary movements and works. The character of Auxilio Lacouture is often seen as a representation of the marginalization and resilience of women in a male-dominated society. She becomes a witness to the violence and political turmoil of the era, as well as a symbol of endurance and hope for the future. Amuleto has received critical acclaim for its unique narrative style and its exploration of themes deeply rooted in Latin American literature and history. Bolaño's ability to weave personal and collective stories into a larger historical framework has earned him a place as one of the most important Latin American authors of his generation. The novel continues to captivate readers with its literary and political significance, solidifying Bolaño's reputation as a master storyteller and one of the most revered voices in contemporary literature..
Reviews for "The Treatment of Death and Mortality in Amuleto by Roberto Bolaño"
1. John - 2/5 stars - I found "Amuke" by Roberto Bolano to be quite disappointing. The narrative was disjointed and hard to follow, making it difficult for me to engage with the story. Additionally, I didn't connect with any of the characters, as they lacked depth and development. Overall, I was left feeling unsatisfied with this novel.
2. Sarah - 3/5 stars - Although I appreciate Roberto Bolano's unique writing style and his ability to create an atmospheric setting, "Amuke" failed to captivate me. The plot felt scattered and lacked a clear direction, which made it challenging to stay engaged throughout. Furthermore, the book's pacing was quite slow, and I often found myself struggling to maintain interest. While there were moments of brilliance in Bolano's prose, they were overshadowed by the overall lack of coherence in the story.
3. Mike - 1/5 stars - "Amuke" was a complete letdown for me. The narrative was convoluted and lackluster, failing to hold my attention. I found the characters to be uninteresting, and the dialogue was stilted and unnatural. Even though I tried to give it a fair chance, I simply couldn't connect with this book on any level. It was one of the most disappointing reads for me, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
4. Emily - 2/5 stars - I had high expectations for "Amuke" based on Roberto Bolano's reputation, but unfortunately, it fell short for me. The story lacked a clear structure, and the transitions between different plotlines were confusing. Additionally, the writing style was overly verbose and pretentious, which made it difficult for me to fully immerse myself in the story. While the book had moments of intrigue, the overall experience left me feeling unsatisfied and underwhelmed.
5. David - 2/5 stars - I'm usually a fan of Roberto Bolano's work, but "Amuke" left me disappointed. The novel felt disjointed and fragmented, making it hard to grasp the main themes and storyline. The characters lacked depth, and I found it challenging to care about their journeys. Bolano's writing style, while unique, became tiresome after a while, and I struggled to maintain interest. Overall, "Amuke" was not one of Bolano's strongest works, and I would recommend exploring his other novels instead.