Unreliable Narration in by Night in Chile

Roberto Bolano's By Night in Chile takes a unique approach toward storytelling, as everything written in the book is part of a "death-bed" rant by the main character Sebastian Urrutia Lacroix, a Chilean priest, poet and literary critic. Since Urrutia is telling his tale at the end of his life, his entire story can be considered unreliable for many reasons, some medical and some which delve much deeper into his character. Combining these reasons creates doubt as to what actually happened and what Urrutia could have possibly made up, either accidentally or intentionally.

Since he is on his death-bed, we can assume that Urrutia is by no means a young man anymore and is actually quite old. With age come senility and a weaker memory, meaning smaller details of his story could be incorrect or possibly told out of chronological order. While this does not impact the overlying story dramatically, it certainly casts doubt to his reliability. There is also a chance that a particular illness may be overcoming him if he realizes that his time is short and he feels so compelled to tell his life story, or his "many things to say" (1). Both of these can potentially skew his story and our view of his character, the very thing he is trying to justify and defend, therefore manipulating the reader's perspective. The one thing the reader can be absolutely sure about is the role the "wizened youth" played in Urrutia's life, since even toward the end of his days Urrutia seems so passionate when talking about him or explaining his dislike toward him.

Aside from medical problems, Urrutia's unreliability comes from his shroud of denial which by ranting he is trying to absolve. Much of his story is dedicated to the work he ended up doing under Augusto Pinochet's regime to undermine and ultimately defeat communism (by teaching several officers Marxism). While the Catholic Church remained neutral to Pinochet's regime, Pinochet was still responsible for dozens if not hundreds of human rights violations and deaths, all of which an actually devoted priest would be able to see and disagree with. Despite this Urrutia still remained quiet and taught the regime, something which in his last hours he felt guilty about yet tried to justify anyway. As long as the read has any previous knowledge of Pinochet's work in Chile during the 70's and 80's, they can identify that Urrutia was only adding to the problem, and trying to justify his work instead of apologizing only adds to his unreliable character. All of these reasons make Urrutia an extremely unreliable narrator and somewhat of a contradicting character, but he still gives an interesting story.

Source: By Night in Chile, Robert Bolano