Transformation

Throughout many of the works included in The Insufferable Gaucho, Roberto Bolaño captures both the inevitability of transformation, and the fear that accompanies it. The various transformations depicted in The Insufferable Gaucho range from societal transformations and literary transformations to individual, personal transformations.

The two most significant societal transformations depicted in The Insufferable Gaucho are the economic decline of Argentina following the 1998-2002 Great Depression, as described in “The Insufferable Gaucho,” and the moral decline of the rat community in the sewers of “Police Rat.” Both of these events are described as cataclysmic and foreboding; however, as the stories suggest, only the protagonists of the stories understand the significance of the change their society is undergoing. For example, Pereda is describing as telling two friends over lunch that “Buenos Aires is sinking… The ex-journalist had thought that the lawyer had gone crazy and recommended some...