Eduardo LABARCA. Butamalón. Santiago de Chile, Editorial Universitaria and Fondo de Cultura Económica, 1997, 2nd ed., 422pp.

Abstract

Initially appearing for the European audience (Madrid, Anaya & Mario Muchnik, 1994) and co-published in Chile to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Editorial Universitaria, Butamalón has garnered more attention from journalism than from specialized criticism. Perhaps influencing this, aside from the author's background as a journalist, is the quick identification of this novel within a literary typology — which has gained significant prominence not only with the Fifth Centenary — known as the “new chronicle of the Indies,” given to texts that narrate events from the history of the discovery and conquest of America.