In 1984, two young writers made their Spanish prose debut with a strange dual novel titled “Consejos de un discípulo de Morrison a un fanático de Joyce” (“Advice from a Morrison Disciple to a Joyce Fanatic”). The book was not a commercial smash and in truth is not a great novel, but it is noteworthy for launching the career of the Chilean co-author, Roberto Bolaño.
Whereas Bolaño continued to write and publish after “Consejos,” eventually delivering his second novel in 1993, his collaborator, Barcelona-born A. G. Porta, went dark and reportedly abandoned literature, not returning until 1999. (Bolaño claimed that Porta spent the decade and a half wrapped up within a deep study of “Ulysses”.) He quickly made up for lost time, publishing a total of five novels within a decade. The first of Porta’s books to appear in English, 2006’s The No World Concerto, has now arrived via Dalkey Archive Press in a co-translation by Darren Koolman and Rhett McNeil.
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