Motorcycles are the vehicles of choice in The Spirit of Science Fiction; one in particular, a stolen brown Benelli called Aztec Princess, carves its erratic path through the pages of the novel, stalling and starting, testing its engine as it changes speed and direction. Midway through the book, the narrative itself begins to feel like a motorbike being revved, a loud growl that every now and then accelerates into glee and abandon before slipping back into a more tentative mode.
The Chilean author Roberto Bolaño is best known for his effervescent novel The Savage Detectives, first published in English in 2007, four years after his death, and the epic 2666. The latest genie to emerge from his seemingly inexhaustible archive, The Spirit of Science Fiction, was not intended for publication; written in 1984, it was only published in Spanish in 2016 and, like much of his work, is masterfully translated by Natasha Wimmer. More than anything, it reads as an ur-text of The Savage Detectives, and is populated with precursory character sketches and situations. Bolaño had written mostly poetry beforehand; this book offers a view into the author’s mental workshop as he figures things out, his sights now trained on the romance and possibility of the longer stretch.
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