![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() In Sebastian’s telling of events, he told his companion, Farewell, about these lessons after an attack of conscience–even though he was explicitly forbidden to speak of them. His reliability is soon called into question, however. We are led to believe that Sebastian had no choice in this scenario and that he was simply a victim of circumstance. As the narrator tells it, he was engaged to give the General and some of his supporters lessons on the politics of communism. The narration itself makes no secret about the fact that Sebastian had ties to General Pinochet. This youth can be seen as a figment of Sebastian’s fevered imagination, a real person with secret knowledge of Sebastian’s affairs, or, an embodiment of Sebastian’s own repressed moral conscience. Sebastian is haunted throughout his telling by a ‘wizened youth’ who seems determined to undermine his narration. It tells the story of the writer/priest/critic Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix as he reflects, from his death-bed, on certain events in his life, particularly those in connection to the Pinochet regime. Roberto Bolaño’s By Night in Chile is a study in unreliable narration. ![]()
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