ABSTRACT
In a review titled 'Un paseo por el abismo', Bolano provocatively argued that the best novels about Mexico have been, paradoxically, written by Anglophone writers. Bolano is no stranger to literary scandals having earned himself a reputation as enfant terrible for launching rebellious and corrosive attacks against the state-sponsored Mexican literary establishment with his Infrarealists group of poets. Virginia Woolf's oft-quoted statement that 'on or about December, 1910, human character changed' acquires a peculiar resonance if read from the other side of the Atlantic, not least because this happens to be precisely the year that marks the outbreak of the Mexican Revolution. Lawrence's first impressions of Mexico wavered between optimism and despair, as he pondered whether to stay or not to stay in the country, inevitably foreshadowing the hesitancy of Kate Leslie, the female protagonist of The Plumed Serpent. One of the most prominent narratives of a violent death in Mexico is the assassination of Emperor Maximilian of Mexico.
