OK, this book sounds very much like my cup of tea
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Wednesday, 9 February 2011 23:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Reading Dorfman's Hard Rain at the mo - v pre-Bolano, who surely must have read this - starts off talking about how the dictatorship apes Nazi Germany in torture techniques, then follows it up w/a discussion on Chilean/Latin novels of the period (and how he/his character failed to publish a novel). The third chapters is introducing characters (who are just names).
Bolano comes across as a much better teller, so far (Dorfman was just as much a playwright).
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 10 February 2011 18:48 (thirteen years ago) link
In Spain, 'Los sinsabores del verdadero policía' by RB has just been published. I finished it last week and I think it's really good.
― EvR, Sunday, 27 February 2011 21:43 (thirteen years ago) link
I assume it'll be getting a book pub once the Paris Review finishes serialising it
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Sunday, 27 February 2011 23:04 (thirteen years ago) link
Listen carefully, my son: bombs were fallingover Mexico Citybut no one even noticed.The air carried poison throughthe streets and open windows.You'd just finished eating and were watchingcartoons on TV.I was reading in the bedroom next doorwhen I realized we were going to die.Despite the dizziness and nausea I dragged myselfto the kitchen and found you on the floor.We hugged. You asked what was happeningand I didn't tell you we were on death's programbut instead that we were going on a journey,one more, together, and that you shouldn't be afraid.When it left, death didn't evenclose our eyes.What are we? you asked a week or year later,ants, bees, wrong numbersin the big rotten soup of chance?We're human beings, my son, almost birds,public heroes and secrets.
From The Romantic Dogs by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Laura Healy
― xyzzzz__, Sunday, 6 March 2011 09:17 (thirteen years ago) link
One hundred pages into 2066. Wish me luck!
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:17 (thirteen years ago) link
hey so am I
― iatee, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:18 (thirteen years ago) link
well like 120
2666, rather
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:20 (thirteen years ago) link
can we make it a competition? that way I might actually finish the book
― iatee, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:21 (thirteen years ago) link
I don't mean like 'who can read 300 pages a day' I mean like if you post your progress you will guilt me into catching up
― iatee, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:22 (thirteen years ago) link
thoughts so far?
― Moreno, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:24 (thirteen years ago) link
mostly just happy they finally got to mexico
― iatee, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:25 (thirteen years ago) link
It gets (even) better from here on, keep going! Although not all in Mexico.
― Matt DC, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:27 (thirteen years ago) link
I just got past the scene in which they meet Jones the painter.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:41 (thirteen years ago) link
so many great little scenes that pop up in my head 2 years after reading it.
― Moreno, Tuesday, 15 March 2011 15:54 (thirteen years ago) link
i still have yet to start part 3.
― j., Tuesday, 15 March 2011 17:53 (thirteen years ago) link
is that one about the professor? i think that might have been my least favourite, but they are all worthwhile
was just thinking about rereading savage detectives but im p much illiterate now
― «( «_«)» zzzz «(«_« )» (Lamp), Tuesday, 15 March 2011 21:28 (thirteen years ago) link
just after that, the reporter.
― j., Wednesday, 16 March 2011 00:48 (thirteen years ago) link
i love sd & 2666
― deej, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 01:35 (thirteen years ago) link
2666 was so enveloping, i almost feel like im getting deja vu of some irl shit when i randomly recall parts of the book (thankfully not the part about the crimes, though)
― deej, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 01:36 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm almost done with the Amalfitano section.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 19:10 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm thinking past 2666. Besides The Skating Rink, which other short novels should I try? I loved By Night in Chile, my favorite so far.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 19:20 (thirteen years ago) link
I really like his short story collections, esp "Last Evenings on Earth"
― Moreno, Wednesday, 16 March 2011 19:31 (thirteen years ago) link
'Nazi Literature in the Americas' is great, if you don't have a problem with unconventional structure
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Wednesday, 16 March 2011 22:21 (thirteen years ago) link
yeah 'nazi literature' was the one i liked best, was sorta lukewarm on 'skating rink', really, i had a hard time taking it seriously
― the deej report (Lamp), Thursday, 17 March 2011 02:33 (thirteen years ago) link
what did u like about 'chile' alfred? its so difft from everything else
― D-40, Thursday, 17 March 2011 19:38 (thirteen years ago) link
He found a correlative for the intensity of the narrator's recollections in feverish prose. It's one of the best sustained compressed flights of invention I've read.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 17 March 2011 19:45 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm halfway through the Fate section of 2666, btw.
I haven't had time/energy to read, I doubt I'll ever catch up
― iatee, Thursday, 17 March 2011 20:00 (thirteen years ago) link
maybe I'll try saturday
Is Amulet underrated? Certainly looks like it. Not as good as By Night in Chile but better than just a rehearsal for that concentrated burning fever (actually don't know the chronology).
Also is anyone working on a biography at all? Don't do biogs but I'd think about it for this guy.
― xyzzzz__, Friday, 18 March 2011 19:13 (thirteen years ago) link
I know Melville House published a book of interviews which includes a lot of biographical info: http://mhpbooks.com/book.php?id=313
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Friday, 18 March 2011 23:42 (thirteen years ago) link
Now that I've started "The Part About The Crimes" some questions:
I wasn't clear exactly (I lost concentration) how the unfortunately named Fate wound up in Saint Teresa: the boxing story to which he was assigned changed to an investigation of the murders? Also: how is Rosa relevant?
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 18 March 2011 23:44 (thirteen years ago) link
― the most cuddlesome bug that ever was borned (James Morrison), Friday, March 18, 2011 Bookmark
Thanks James - don't think I've even read an interview w/him.
― xyzzzz__, Saturday, 19 March 2011 20:21 (thirteen years ago) link
there's a Spanish bundle with interviews as well:http://www.ediciones.udp.cl/colecciones/huellas/braithwaitebolano.jpg
― EvR, Saturday, 19 March 2011 22:40 (thirteen years ago) link
A geometry of Bolano:
http://quarterlyconversation.com/roberto-bolano-the-geometry-of-his-fictions
― donald nitchie, Tuesday, 22 March 2011 16:44 (thirteen years ago) link
OK so I made it past "The Part About the Crimes" and am almost hundred pages deep into the Archimboldi section, specifically the Ivanov part.
My question: do these five fragments cohere?
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:48 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm only just at part 3
I saw someone in the subway reading it the other day, while I had my copy out. I almost said something but that would have been potentially awkward.
― iatee, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:49 (thirteen years ago) link
sort of? xp
― max, Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:50 (thirteen years ago) link
OTM:
the fake robert rodriguez anecdote is great
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan),
Also: So far I'm enjoying Part 5 best.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:51 (thirteen years ago) link
I'm about 130 pgs from the end, and I hate to discuss books before I'm finished, but I gotta talk to somebody since I've lived with this book for nine days.
So far it's been perverse the way Bolano has developed characters as promising as Lalo Cura, the female Mexican reporter (and her female lover?), and Klaus Haas, then either dropped them or buried their arcs in reams of prose.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:54 (thirteen years ago) link
Also: it helped that I've spent bored moments at work the last six days watching old Robert Stack-hosted "Unsolved Mysteries" clips; they prepared me for "...Crimes."
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 01:59 (thirteen years ago) link
this was simultaneously maddening and wonderful, in that i kind of cherish what we got of them even more, and kept anticipating their return. like a literary cocktease.
― Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill The Radio Star (Alex in Montreal), Wednesday, 23 March 2011 02:43 (thirteen years ago) link
In 'The Return' there is a story on Lalo Cura, and in 'Los Sinsabores...' the main characters are Amalfitano and his daughter Rosa. There, the characters are much more 'deep' in the sense that you get to know them better than in '2666', where they seem to pass by and are dropped. Not that that is a bad thing though. That's actually why I like to reread Bolaño's books, they all seem to give you clues for why certain things are happening in the other books.
― EvR, Thursday, 24 March 2011 09:22 (thirteen years ago) link
Yeah the girl hiding in the toilet in The Savage Detectives is also in Amulet.
Yes the sections do cohere (those from the second half of the book especially) by the end. Although it's worth remembering that 2666 is technically unfinished and we don't know exactly what the final draft of the last section might have looked like.
― Matt DC, Thursday, 24 March 2011 11:57 (thirteen years ago) link
I FINISHED IT.
The last part is def the best. The digressions are beautifully timed: loved the endless sentence relating one of the Sisyphus myths; the crucified Romanian general; Archimboldi's affair with the Baroness. The last twenty pages deftly tie up a couple of strands.
Whether the novel as an entity works I'm not sure yet. I have to think about it.
― Rich Lolwry (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 24 March 2011 13:12 (thirteen years ago) link
one of the things I liked about 2666 was when it seemed like it was drifting or starting to become a slog, these luminescent moments would happen like the romanian general/baroness stuff, or archimboldi's underwater dreams
my favorite part is still the part about the crimes, when ppl describe it they make it sound like nonstop clinical descriptions of the murders when it's so much richer than that, so many characters floating in and out, sweeping in scope, etc
― sorry ozzy but your dope is in another castle (Edward III), Thursday, 24 March 2011 13:40 (thirteen years ago) link
I thought there was another book of 2666 that was slated to be published?
― sorry ozzy but your dope is in another castle (Edward III), Thursday, 24 March 2011 13:41 (thirteen years ago) link
I sort of hope that's not true.
Pondering the title and the epigraph have been absorbing me since I finished the book. I'm sure it coheres but I'm not totally sure I can describe how.
― a SB-in' artist that been in the game for a minute (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 24 March 2011 13:45 (thirteen years ago) link