9 - The Spanish American novel: recent developments, 1975 to 1990

Summary

The term “Boom” has been controversial since it was first coined to refer to the series of Spanish American novels that took the world by storm in the 1960s. At least in one sense, however, it is fortunate that the label has stuck, because it captures the confident, heady, atmosphere of the years when it seemed that Spanish America was finally going to take its place among the nations of the earth, not only culturally, but even politically and economically. The writers of the Boom have kept on writing, but it is undeniable that, by the mid-1970s, with the rise of right-wing dictatorships in Argentina and Chile and the economic recession brought on by the oil crisis, the Boom, in any sense of the word, had come to an end.

It is significant that after 1975 none of the major authors associated with the Boom publish “Boom novels.” Gabriel García Márquez’s El otoño del patriarca (1975) [The Autumn of the Patriarch], a work whose narrative experimentation brought him closer to the style of other Boom writers, is followed by Crónica de una muerte anunciada (1981) [Chronicle of a Death Foretold], a short work which returns to the clarity of Cien años de soledad (1967) [One Hundred Years of Solitude], and the Realism of even earlier works like La mala hora (1966) [In Evil Hour]. Mario Vargas Llosa’s Conversación en La Catedral (1969) [Conversation in The Cathedral], which develops the complex style of La casa verde (1966) [The Green House], is followed by the humorous and readable Pantaleón y las visitadoras (1973) Captain Pantoja and the Special Service].