Roberto Belano's first novel and his unusual literary style

Started reading the late Chilean author Robert0 Bolano's first novel, By Night in Chile (2000) and from the start he enunciates a certain style that he maintained across his too-short career. The novel is in the form of one long (130 pp) take, no page breaks, no paragraph breaks - and the work comprises many extremely long sentences as well, but the novel is not as difficult to follow or grasp as one might think: Bolano's style is clear and crisp and he keeps the narration moving along, like a long, unspooling thread of film. That said, though the novel is easy to follow, it's much harder to say what it's actually "about." The book begins with an older man reflecting on a "wizened youth" who, we believe or he believes, has slandered him in some way, and then the man, the narrator, jumps back to his childhood in Santiago. He was from a prosperous family and grew up w/ literary ambitions but for some reason not entirely clear he entered a seminary and became a priest. After his ordination he became friendly w/ the leading literary intellectual in Chile at the time, who introduces him to other literary figures, notably the near-godlike Neruda (as w/ other Bolano work, this novel is strewn w/ names of artists and authors - most of them obscure to English-language readers, but from the few that I do recognize I believe all of them were Bolano's contemporaries). The narrator's literary fame rises, and as he ages he maintains his friendship w/ his benefactor, who tries (unsuccessfully so far) to seduce the young priest. Much of the narrative so far consists of the benefactor's long digressions, mostly about the European literary scene: he describes a meeting w/ the German author Junger during the Occupation of France (a section that intentionally revolts us as the benefactor seems to have no recognition of what the Occuapation entailed for millions of French citizens, Jews especially) and another digression about a wealthy shoemaker who gets the Emperor's blessing to build a monument - this at the outset of WWI - and goes bankrupt in doing so: a warning against those who idolize and prostrate themselves before political leaders, emperors, or kings. That's what's happened so far, and it's anyone's guess where this narrative is headed.