Neruda: An Intimate Biography

The author, a Chilean novelist and politician who was a confidant of Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) for 40 years, rescues the poet from the pedestal of myth in this sweepingly lyrical, highly personal biography. We follow Neruda through his successive incarnations as greenhorn from Chile's southern frontier to ambitious but starving bohemian, agonized bureaucrat, traveler, diplomat, ``resident on earth'' in Southeast Asia, exile and famous expatriate in Paris. His story includes such stranger-than-fiction episodes as the murder of his close friend Federico Garcia Lorca, which galvanized Neruda's diehard communism; bigamy accusations filed by his first wife, coached by politicians trying to discredit him; and his clandestine exit from Chile in 1948, when he narrowly avoided arrest. Teitelboim skillfully links the creative artist to the public figure by interweaving beautifully translated verses by Neruda with the main narrative. ( Nov. )