The quality of on and on and on is not a welcome one. I’m starting to encounter that in my first excursion into longer Bolano. “Summoning the fortitude” about sums up where I’m at.

The gossipy book is undoubtably Party in the Blitz. I’ve read it but don’t remember so much about it, except that he despised most of the British literary scene.

If I’m remembering correctly, I read a review of his autobio (or one volume thereof) that had fun with the fact that a writer of such high-minded and difficult novels was also a stunningly bitchy gossip.

I think we can safely then put aside this popular notion that a differentiation should be made between narrator and author when it comes to misogyny, since it clearly seems not the case. In fact, let’s go so far as to say that, in general, authors have narrators whose opinions are much the same as their own.

Anyway, shall report back on Canetti’s autobiography on this point. I seem to remember he has a relationship with a woman during the course of writing Auto da Fé, so we can see how life has transferred across.