The irrelevant mystery, the involuntary detective, the melting clue: notes on La pista de Hielo, a neopolicial by Roberto Bolaño

Julia González-Calderón

doi:10.1590/1517-106x/2018201125141

Abstract

Abstract: This article analyzes La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink, 1993), the third novel by Roberto Bolaño, as an exponent of the Ibero-American neopolicial, focusing on how two of the main dramatic elements of the detective tale, the enigma and the detective figure, are decentralized through a series of narrative mechanisms that eventually dismantle traditional genre conventions. Furthermore, we will link La pista de hielo and its narrative key elements with the rest of the novelistic of the Chilean author, as well as with the main exponents of the neopolicial, such as Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Leonardo Padura or Ramón Díaz Eterovic.

Highlights

This article analyzes La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink, 1993), the third novel by Roberto Bolaño, as an exponent of the Ibero-American neopolicial, focusing on how two of the main dramatic elements of the detective tale, the enigma and the detective figure, are decentralized through a series of narrative mechanisms that eventually dismantle traditional genre conventions
We find detective-themed plots in the robberies of Consejos de un discípulo de Joyce a un fanático de Morrison, written along with Antoni García Porta; in the tortuous inquests that the main character of Monsieur Pain unsuccessfully carries out around an agonizing César Vallejo in Paris; in the main character and the detective Abel Romero chasing fascist Carlos Wider in Estrella distante; in the search for Cesárea Tinajero performed by Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, as well as the search that somebody does for them years later in Los detectives salvajes; and in the again literary inquiry around the mysterious German author Archimboldi in 2666
The aim of this article is to explore the third novel by the Chilean autor, La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink, 1993), reading it as an exponent of the Ibero-American neopolicial, as described by Leonardo Padura in his classic interview with Juan Armando Epple in Hispamérica (1995)

Summary

Introduction

This article analyzes La pista de hielo (The Skating Rink, 1993), the third novel by Roberto Bolaño, as an exponent of the Ibero-American neopolicial, focusing on how two of the main dramatic elements of the detective tale, the enigma and the detective figure, are decentralized through a series of narrative mechanisms that eventually dismantle traditional genre conventions.

Objectives

Results

Conclusion