SOURCE: "Stormy Adventures of the Spirit," in Americas, Vol. 39, No. 6, November/December, 1987, pp. 8-13.

[In the following essay, Kogan relates comments made by Donoso in a Washington, D.C. lecture. Kogan also provides an overview of Donoso's career and details about his wife and family.]

Back in the 1960's, when many Latin American writers were living in Europe, José Donoso accused Carlos Fuentes of stealing his ideas from a review he read on Donoso's book. Those were the days when Latin American writers, later dubbed the "Boom generation," stunned the world with dozens of novels all published at once—novels whose magical realism, intertwining metaphors and dazzling reflections cast a spell over the international literary community.

"Carlos told me I was being ridiculous," said the 63-year-old Chilean writer to a room full of avid fiction readers in Washington, D.C., where he spent four months earlier this year...