The story is an amazing one, indeed I think it might be my favorite so far from either Llamadas telefónicas or Putas asesinas. It will not really bear (that I can see) any summarizing on my part... 
I hope it is in translation so I can tell people to read it. And, yes! It is included in Last Evenings on Earth as The Grub.
One thing that really hit me as I was reading it was recognizing the setting -- I was walking through the Alameda and the Palacio de Bellas Artes only a week ago! I was right outside the Sótano bookstore -- a couple of locations, including the one across from the Alameda. This makes the story nicely concrete.
The story includes a lot of Bolaño's other work, specifically (of course) the above poem and some imagery from various parts of The Savage Detectives. And a note as I'm Googling around -- I see Jorge Ferrer-Vidal Turrull has a novel from 1966 called El gusano blanco; I wonder if Bolaño is intending any reference to that book.
posted morning of Saturday, August 21st, 2010
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Wonderful connection, Jeremy. I looked at my copy of Chris Andrews 's translation; it started like this: "He looked like a white grub, with his straw hat and a Bali cigarette hanging from his bottom lip."
Some of Bolaño's poems really read like novels, and his stories read like poems. And his prose poems are said to be his best writing. But "The Grub"/"The Worm" is the first one that I know that exists in two forms.
posted afternoon of August 21st, 2010 by Rise
Yep, it is cool. It was one of my favorite poems in The Romantic Dogs (even if I'm still not entirely sure what it means for an old man in a straw hat smoking a Bali to look like a worm or a grub -- I'm taking this bit of imagery on faith...) I have no idea which choice of word is better between "worm" and "grub" but I do think the title of the poem and the title of the story should be the same.
posted afternoon of August 21st, 2010 by Jeremy
I think "worm" is the better choice. It is metaphorical and suits poetry well. I think Andrews wanted to avoid literalism in the short story, but "the grub" sounds drab to me. There's an article that prefers "worm," in the sense of bookworm, as it provides a better context considering the physical appearance of Belano.
posted morning of August 22nd, 2010 by Rise
¡Excelente! -- Thanks for the link.
posted morning of August 22nd, 2010 by Jeremy
