Bookatlas
1924–1996Latin America
Portrait of José Donoso

José Donoso

Chile

Baroque, hallucinatory prose that keeps dissolving identity itself: masks, doubles, and rot accumulating until the narrator disappears entirely.

Donoso was born into a comfortable Santiago medical family but spent part of his youth working as a shepherd and dockhand in Patagonia and Argentina, an interlude he credited with breaking him out of his class. He studied at the University of Chile and later at Princeton, and taught for years at the Iowa Writers' Workshop.

He wrote The Obscene Bird of Night over nearly a decade while living mostly in Spain, where he settled for financial and personal reasons during the years leading up to Pinochet's coup rather than in direct political exile. He also published The Boom in Spanish American Literature, a memoir-essay skeptical of the movement's own myths, including his place within it.

He returned to Chile in 1981 and died in Santiago in 1996.

The Latin American Boom

Their books in the atlas

  1. 1970
    Cover of The Obscene Bird of Night
    The Obscene Bird of Night
    Lvl 9gothic
  2. 1978
    Cover of A House in the Country
    A House in the Country
    Lvl 8political novel

Meanwhile, elsewhere

Portrait of Marguerite Duras1914–1996Marguerite DurasFrance / VietnamWestern Europe · France / VietnamPortrait of Alain Robbe-Grillet1922–2008Alain Robbe-GrilletFranceWestern Europe · FrancePortrait of José Saramago1922–2010José SaramagoPortugalWestern Europe · PortugalPortrait of Camilo José Cela1916–2002Camilo José CelaSpainWestern Europe · SpainPortrait of Iris Murdoch1919–1999Iris MurdochIreland / EnglandWestern Europe · Ireland / EnglandPortrait of Muriel Spark1918–2006Muriel SparkScotlandWestern Europe · Scotland

If you like Donoso, try

Portrait of Guillermo Cabrera Infante1929–2005Guillermo Cabrera InfanteCubashared movement: The Latin American Boom · kindred genres: postmodern · both write in SpanishPortrait of Augusto Roa Bastos1917–2005Augusto Roa BastosParaguayshared movement: The Latin American Boom · kindred genres: political novel, postmodern · both write in SpanishPortrait of Carlos Fuentes1928–2012Carlos FuentesMexicoshared movement: The Latin American Boom · kindred genres: political novel, gothic · both write in SpanishPortrait of Manuel Puig1932–1990Manuel PuigArgentinakindred genres: postmodern, political novel · both write in Spanish · neighboring movementsPortrait of Julio Cortázar1914–1984Julio CortázarArgentina / Franceshared movement: The Latin American Boom · both write in Spanish · same region & eraPortrait of Fernando del Paso1935–2018Fernando del PasoMexicokindred genres: postmodern, political novel · both write in Spanish · neighboring movements