The Modern Novel

Biography

José Donoso was born in Santiago in 1924, the son of a doctor. He was educated in an English school in Santiago. After attending the Instituto Pedagógico of the University of Chile he went to Princeton University (where he obtained a B.A.) and the University of Iowa. He subsequently lived in Mexico City and then Spain, where he wrote most of his major novels and where he became one of the key figures of the Latin American boom (about which he also wrote an interesting book). He returned to Chile in the 1980s where he was a strong critic of the Pinochet regime. He died in 1996. His writing is noted for its dark surrealism, with the theme of exile and the lonely world of the writer being predominant. The key twentieth century themes of the clash between order and chaos, the decay of social institutions and futility of human existence also appear strongly in his work.

Books about José Donoso

Pilar Donoso: Correr el tupido velo (biography by his adopted daughter – in Spanish)

Other links

José Donoso
Jose Donoso, 72, Fantastical Chilean Novelist
Obituary: Jose Donoso
José Donoso (in Spanish)
José Donoso (in Spanish)
José Donoso (in Spanish)
Interview (in Spanish)