What's outside the window?

The quote is from a wonderful book called the Savage Detectives. It is a roman a clef in the tradition of Ulysses and is worthy of the comparison. The author was Roberto Bolano. He was a Chilean exile who led a peripatetic existence in Mexico and Spain. He wrote many great books but the Detectives is my favourite.

It tells the story of the search for a 1920s female Mexican poet by two 1970s poets, the Chilean Arturo Belano ( Bolano's alter ego) and the Mexican Ulises Lima. This doesn't sound promising but reading it opens a door to a room where everything is alive. I read it in a (very good) translation - my Spanish is not up to scratch. I envy the reader who has not yet encountered the odyssey of Belano and Lima across the Mexican desert.

Today there is little of interest outside the window . It's wet autumn day in South East London. Apropos nothing I attach a photo of a window at the Hilton at Gatwick. The round window reminded me of a TV programme from childhood called Rainbow. For those unaware of George, Zippy and Bungle you have been spared . It was a traumatic experience . Most children's TV from the 70's seems to have been made by space cadets with a familiarity with hallucinogenics.

Instead of the wind and the rain on a South London garden I will dream of two poets driving through the Sonora Desert in Mexico on a search without end. It doesn't end until Bolano's posthumous follow up called 2666 . His alter ego declares "And that's it, friends. I've done it all, I've lived it all. If I had the strength, I'd cry. I bid you all goodbye, Arturo Belano".