The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso

First published:El obsceno pájaro de la noche, 1970 (English translation, 1973)

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Magical Realism

Time of plot: Mid-twentieth century

Locale: Chile

Principal characters

• Jerónimo de Azcoitía, the governor
• Inés de Azcoitía, his wife
• Humberto Peñaloza, Jerónimo’s secretary, a fledgling writer, and the narrator
• Mudito, a child who cannot speak, and an alter ego of Humberto
• The Giant, a local ne’er-do-well
• Peta Ponce, an old witchlike woman, and the alter ego of the Yellow Bitch
• The Yellow Bitch, a dog, and a fabled figure
• Iris Mateluna, a teenage orphan at Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnacíon
• Boy, Jerónimo’s disabled and disfigured son
• Mother Benita, the nun in charge of Casa de Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnacíon
• Father Azócar, a priest
• Dr. Azula, a Swiss surgeon

The Story:

Humberto Peñaloza is a man of humble origins who resolves to improve his station in life and be like Jerónimo de Azcoitía—a rich, good-looking man who belongs to the aristocracy. To achieve his goal, Humberto follows his father’s advice to become a lawyer and a writer. By chance, Jerónimo ends up hiring Humberto to be his secretary and to write a biography of the Azcoitía family. One of Jerónimo’s main concerns is to have a son to perpetuate the Azcoitía name. To achieve this, he marries Inés, a beautiful lady from the aristocracy.

Inés has an old nursemaid named Peta Ponce, who is the incarnation of two other beings: A witch and a fabled figure called the Yellow Bitch. The Yellow Bitch is a witness to all that Inés does, in particular her sexual acts with her husband. Humberto, who is attracted to Inés, tries to sleep with her, and Peta arranges for the encounter to be in her own room. However, at the moment of the act, Humberto realizes it is not Inés but rather Peta who is in bed with him; nevertheless, he sleeps with Peta.

Inés becomes pregnant and conceives a monstrous baby who, according to doctors, will not survive. His face is totally deformed and he has a hump that disfigures his body. They name him Boy because he is not worthy of receiving a proper name. His father is faced with the dilemma of either letting him die or doing all that is possible to save him. He chooses the latter and hires Dr. Azula, a Swiss specialist surgeon, to take care of his son.

Jerónimo, who finds his son repulsive, decides to hide him from society. He asks Humberto to supervise La Rinconada, the country estate to be set aside just for Boy and his keepers. In such an environment, Boy will appear normal and never know of the outside world. Dr. Azula manages to help Boy with special food blends and a number of surgeries to improve his face. Jerónimo and Inés come to understand that there is no chance they will be able to perpetuate the Azcoitía name. Boy receives no visits from his parents, and Humberto becomes the intermediary between Jerónimo and his son.

In an attempt to provide continuity to the Azcoitía name, Inés decides to travel to Rome to beatify a past ancestor, but she fails in her efforts. Humberto and Jerónimo’s cousin Esmeralda remain in charge of La Rinconada and fall in love with each other. Ready to marry, Humberto becomes ill and has surgery with Dr. Azula. It seems that Azula had operated on other areas of Humberto’s body as well, including his throat, leaving him almost voiceless. Humberto escapes and is found by the gate of Casa de los Ejercicios Espirituales de la Encarnacíon, home of the old ladies, the five orphans, and Mother Benita. They take Humberto in and take care of him as if he were a baby. At the casa he becomes his alter ego, the Mudito, or the “mute child,” and the helper of Mother Benita.

Upon her failed attempt in Rome to sanctify her relative, Inés decides to move to the casa, too, because she does not want to face her husband. Although she knows Jerónimo loves her and cares for her, she chooses to stay among the old ladies to avoid the pressure to conceive a new son. In the casa is a teenage orphan named Iris Mateluna. She is the incarnation of Inés’s pious cousin and, to the eyes of the old ladies, the embodiment of purity. Nevertheless, Inés has a double life.

Inés leaves the casa, assisted by Mudito, and has sex with the Giant, a masked ne’er-do-well who waits for her outside the casa. Mudito wants to have sex with her, too, so he asks Giant for his mask. A masked Mudito has sex with Iris, who becomes pregnant. Giant learns to use the mask to prostitute Iris; she apparently does not know she is having sex with different men, including Jerónimo. Mudito sees Jerónimo and Iris having sex, but he does not mind because he is certain that he is the real father of Iris’s future son. The ladies in the home realize that Iris is pregnant, but they wholeheartedly believe her pregnancy is an immaculate conception.

Inés becomes just like one of the ladies after she vows austerity. Slowly she loses her beauty, as the home itself becomes rundown. Her pastime is to play a board game called dog track. She always chooses the yellow “bitch” as her token and wins all the games, stripping the other ladies of their possessions. Iris has her baby and the ladies take care of it as if it were God sent, for the baby is considered to be a miracle with special powers. The baby—the alter ego of Humberto/Mudito—knows that the old ladies will turn him into an imbunche by stitching him up. According to legend, imbunche refers to what witches do with children they have stolen (sew up their orifices).

Inés continues to play the dog-track game; one night, she wins Iris’s baby. She orders the ladies to take the baby to her bed when she goes to sleep. The baby—Humberto/Mudito/imbunche—touches Inés’s breast, which enrages her. She becomes so deranged that they have to call an ambulance to take her away. Mother Benita goes with her. In the meantime, the inhabitants of the casa become like ghosts, roaming the property for food and taking care of the baby by stitching him up in a sack, like an imbunche. The ladies kick Iris out of the casa so that she can prostitute herself. They try to do the same with the other four orphans to make money, but their plan fails. They hope that the stitched up baby soon will make a miracle.

A miracle greets the old ladies. Mother Benita returns with Father Azócar, a priest who had overseen the home after Jerónimo donated the property to the archbishopric. Mother Benita and Father Azócar tell the ladies that they are to be placed in a five-star nursing home in the aristocratic side of the city. After an odd delivery of five hundred huge pumpkins, the ladies are taken to the new casa. The pumpkins had been sent by Ms. Raquel, a well-off lady whose nanny, Brigida, had passed not long ago in the casa. Brigida had been affluent herself, but she chose to be a nanny by vocation. It is with Brigida’s wealth that the ladies finally have an opportunity to live in a decent retirement home.

The baby/imbunche is left behind in an entirely stitched up sack. A ghostly old lady roams the casa, grabs the pack with the baby, and takes the infant with her. She walks under a bridge, near a lighted fire, and puts the sack down. Both the baby and the lady dissolve into the ashes of the fire.

Bibliography

Callan, Richard J. Jung, Alchemy, and José Donoso’s Novel “El obsceno pájaro de la noche.” Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Examines The Obscene Bird of Night from the perspective of Carl Jung’s analytical psychology. Explains how Donoso created his own literary version of Jungian psychology to focus on themes of imprisonment and disguise.

Carbajal, Brent J. The Veracity of Disguise in Selected Works of José Donoso: Illusory Deception. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. Discusses the use of masks, both literal and metaphorical, in four of Donoso’s novels. Chapter 1 focuses on The Obscene Bird of Night.

Donoso, José. “A Small Biography of The Obscene Bird of Night.” Review of Contemporary Fiction 12, no. 2 (1992): 18-31. A fascinating discussion, in which Donoso describes how the novel came into being, the various rewrites, and the people who inspired their novelistic counterparts.

Finnegan, Pamela May. The Tension of Paradox: José Donoso’s “The Obscene Bird of Night” as Spiritual Exercises. Athens: Ohio University Press, 1992. Finnegan examines the novel as an expression of humanity’s estrangement from the world. A difficult but rewarding study for advanced students. Includes a bibliography.

Friedman, Mary Lusky. The Self in the Narratives of José Donoso: Chile, 1924-1996. Lewiston, N.Y.: Edwin Mellen Press, 2004. A detailed examination of a major theme in Donoso’s writing: the perils of establishing one’s self. Chapter 5 is devoted to a discussion The Obscene Bird of Night.

Magnarelli, Sharon. Understanding José Donoso. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1993. A thorough study of Donoso’s works. The first chapter, “How to Read José Donoso,” offers an introduction to his work. Separate chapters analyze his novels, including The Obscene Bird of Night.

Mandri, Flora. José Donoso’s House of Fiction: A Dramatic Construction of Time and Place. Detroit, Mich.: Wayne State University Press, 1995. An examination of all of Donoso’s major fiction, including The Obscene Bird of Night, which explores his treatment of history and place. Contains detailed notes, an extensive bibliography, and an index.

Swanson, Philip. “José Donoso: El obsceno päjaro de la noche.” In Landmarks in Modern Latin American Fiction. New York: Routledge, 1990. A tightly argued essay that sets The Obscene Bird of Night in the context of Donoso’s other novels. Concentrates on the different parallels constructed by the novel, such as those between Humberto and Mudito and between the yellow bitch and Peta Ponce.