By Night in Chile

Urrutia argues that nonstop reading and writing bores the intellectual; they need social stimulation, too. This, Urrutia explains, is how under Pinochet’s regime he came to frequent the literary salon of the socialite writer María Canales. Young, pretty, and vivacious, Canales hosts multiple parties a week at her house on the outskirts of Santiago. The all-night parties provide both a meeting place for the remains of the city’s literati (many fled the country under Pinochet—for personal, not political reasons, Urrutia insists) and a workaround to the curfew.

Canales is married and has two sons with an American man, James Thompson, who works for Pinochet’s secret police (DINA). Urrutia only reveals this information later in the narrative and claims that he didn’t know Thompson’s nationality or true occupation when he attended Canales’s salons.

At a typical party at Canales’s house, people drink, recite poetry, and discuss the New Chilean Scene, the nascent literary movement young writers hope will fill the gap left by those who fled the regime. Urrutia prefers to spend the parties in a chair in the corner, holding court with an exclusive clique of young writers. Urrutia insists that, despite some accusations, he didn’t attend the gatherings multiple times a week, but only once every few months, and that he rarely talked to Canales herself.