Roberto Bolano

I just finished Amulet and loved it...please refer to my review for more info.

has anyone else read Bolano?

No, but I am amassing a collection to get through soon. I have pre-ordered The Savage Detectives. If anyone is interested, the new issue of Harper's magazine has thorough and interesting review of all of Bolano's translated works.

very interested...also this weeks New Yorker has an exerpt of Savage Detectives and it is on-line.

I,too, am planning to check out the book in full length when it comes out.

actually the NY'er piece is not an exerpt but a rather long review of Bolano's work and life; quite interesting stuff- i am looking forward to getting The Savage Detectives.

Have read Bolano twice and having like both books--there has since that time come out 3 others--Last evening on earth, Amulet and now the Savage Detectives. I have the idea that the last mentioned is actually going to be the best of a very good lot and I am looking forward to that one. I have been waiting for the price to come down on the other two but The Savages Detectives I'm probably just going to buy.

i received a $25 B&N gift card for New Years and I have been holding out for a special book...i think i'm going for Savage Detectives- the article in the NY'er made it sound fascinating.

there is a good link to 3 reviews on Bolano at www.conversationalreading.com

Bolano reviews are all over the place getting loads of hype for upcoming publication of Savage Detectives- see current BookForum anf NY Observer-both available on-line.

Full page article on Roberto Bolano in the Style section of today's Washington Post. To my mind, an ideal writer.

thanks Ben- i am waiting to buy Savage Detectives when it comes out.

Just received my copy the other day. There was, by the way, a nice full page article on Bolano and his writings in the Style section of last Sunday's Washington Post - mentions of upcoming publications as well.

Here it is (you may need to create a free account in order to get to it):

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/07/AR2007040701186....

Great article Ben--as it happens I ordered The Savage Detectives a couple days ago and I'm looking forward to reading it very soon.

hey ben and larry-
more Bolano stuff in today's Conversational Reading website, one is a link to an article in THe Nation. I will be buying the book tomorrow but will probably not get to it right away, I look forward to hearing about it if either of you read it first.

Wow! Great review in The Nation on Bolano. It made me want to read Bolano AND the reviewer, Carmen Boullosa. I haven't read a review like that in a while; obviously written by a poet and writer of power herself. I've been working on learning to read spanish, so maybe I'll work on one of Bolano's books next. Apparently, 2666 is incredible but is not translated yet.

more on Bolano a number articles in El Pais: http://www.elpais.com/articulo/semana/Print/the/legend/elpepuculbab/20070414elpb...
I have not read anything of Bolano, but I just bought Amuleto the other day, next on my to read pile.

also today front page favorable review of The Savage Detectives in NY Times Book Review section

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/books/index.html

I'm about 60 pages into The Savage Detectives; it's moving along - some very funny passages (detailed anguish of a sex and literature mad adolescent wandering Mexico City "in the grips of my virginity", suffering from "fellatio interupta", etc.). More later.

Ben- sounds great...Iriley just finished it and says it was fabulous- he also wrote an enjoyable review on this site.

there was also an excellent review in last Sunday's Washington Post by Ilan Stavens who heads up the Latin American Studies Program at Amhearst College and who, himself, is a very good fiction writer...he calls Savage a "masterpiece"!

As of now I am saving my reading it for a trip i am planning to Argentina in the Fall. Presently I just started The Seven Madmen by Roberto Arlt an Argentine who wrote in the 1920's onward.

I have had the 7 Madmen in my Amazon queue forever - let me know what you think. I read the Post review - such was the reviewer's reverence that he merely hinted, through omission of preaise, that "The Amulet" is possibly not the gem his other books seem to be. I have always loved the novelle form - anyone whoise read The Amulet have any opinions?

i thoroughly enjoyed The Amulet and wrote a review you can view here-go to my page and link reviews.

Wonderful - yours and lriley's (though I must admit I did not read his Savage Detectives review all the way through as I have halfway through the book myself and do not wish to know a sentence beyong where I've left off).

Roberto Bolano interview at Chile's arcoiris (http://chile.arcoiris.tv/index.php) TV at
http://es.arcoiris.tv/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=getit&lid=126&...
there are also a number of interviews with other writers as well. Enjoy!

very interesting essay on Carlos Fuentes and Roberto Bolano at Conversational Reading:
http://esposito.typepad.com/

another good Bolano essay at:

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/20395

I finally picked up Bolano's SAVAGE DETECTIVES...at page 49 and am very pleased, engrossed, etc. I like reading about Garcia Madero's immersion into the bohemian scene of the visceral realists, his innocence, virginity and curiosity and courage to explore new worlds.

The Font sisters, Maria and Angelica and their crazed father make for intrigue and reming me of my own visit to Mexico City - I envision their home, with its inner courtyard and seperate bungalow, to be like the house and now museum of Freda Kahlo which is the lovely southern suburb of Coyacon...if you ever get to Mexico City this is a must stop , accesible by the fabulous and safe subway system of this great city.

see great praise at:

http://www.themillionsblog.com/
August 22 posting

another excellent discussion but in the wider context of what makes Latin American literature distintive from other threads...

see in :SLATE...Mayhem in Mexico City by Paul Berman
http://www.slate.com/id/2173485/fr/flyout

more praise- on the Critical Mass blog, Edmund White picks 5 must have books in a reviewer's library, quote:

Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives, which I read just this last spring, is a book that renews my faith in fiction. Written by a Chilean author who lived in Mexico and Spain, it is bursting with narrative energy and that most elusive and seldom-mentioned of essential qualities: charm.

More thoughts on what,now, feels like a monologue I've been having with myself since July of this year-the last time anyone else posted on this thread.

I am now past page 400 in Savage Detectives and I find the oral histories of those who knew Arturo and Ulisses to become richer in content, suspense and emotions.

This book is taking a long time for me to complete yet its structure seems to be quite condusive to short riffs...one can always, easily, pick up the tale from still another person's perspective.

I am savoring the trek.

Hey Bert, I'm still here but time sure flies. I've started Carmen Boullosa's new book They're cows, we're pigs (she wrote the review on Bolano in The Nation) and have Savage Detective's cued up as my next foray into Latin American writings. I loved Amulet and also just finished reading Memories of my Melancholy Whores in the Spanish. Whew!

By the way, there are a couple of books by Latin American writers in the Early Reviewer's program this month that you might want to take a look at.

i thought Memories...was a fabulous read- a short, powerful tale of survival of the libido in the face of old age- a very touching and sensitive portrayal.

i am sure you will not be dissappointed once you get to Bolano's Savage Detectives.

see my comparison of Bolano and Kerouac in the group, Books Compared.

for all those Savage Detectives fans i offer the following link:

http://www.themorningnews.org/tob/Round2Match1.php

hopefully the paperback edition will be out soon and Bolano will win further praise and exposure!

After having it on my shelf for almost a year, I just started The Savage Detectives. I love it already. I pretty much knew I'd like it from all I've heard and also because I enjoyed Amuletso much. His characters are just awesome.

jveezer- enjoy the "trip".

Anyone have any words on Nazi Literature in the Americas? It's on my nightstand but has not got into my hands yet.

Ben, I didn't care for it particularly, but I'd recommend it nevertheless to a Bolano fan. As you may have noticed if you flipped through it, it's a fake "Who's Who" of Latin American literature--invented writers, invented biographies, yet strangely "real" sounding--I could all too easily picture these assorted "Nazis" as actual South American writers. I loved the beginning, but eventually the satire wore thin for me, it's rather a one-joke sort of thing. That said, I wondered if and how much I was hampered in getting more from it by my general lack of knowledge of the literature he was lampooning, and especially of writers' biographies (I'm terrible at remembering personal data. It's all I can do to imagine writers exist.) I'm sure I missed many allusions etc.

I think you might like Nazi literature Ben. Bolano draws up all kinds of would be authors using a number of literary genres. Rich and decadent--soldiers of fortune--jailbirds, even crossing over racial divides--poets, historians, fiction writers.

"I think you might like Nazi literature Ben." My indwelling 12 year old is smiling.

There are three articles in the March 31st issue of The Nation on Bolano. One is a review of Nazi Literature in the Americas by Carmen Boullosa, then a piece by Marcela Valdes, and finally a piece by Forrest Gander. I haven't had a chance to read them yet but they look worth a leyendo.

"Literature, especially because it is an exercise practiced by sycophants of all stripes and political creeds--or an exercise that creates sycophants, has always been a step away from ignominy, from the vile, even from torture. The problem lies in its sycophantic nature. And also, of course, in fear" -Bolano in a 2001 Interview with Luis Garcia

i enjoyed the 3 articles and i am assuming that some curious/ambitious writer is at work on what should be an interseting biography on Bolano.

a new anthology on Bolano 'Bolaño salvaje' to appear in Spanish some time this month, edited by Edmundo Paz Soldán and Gustavo Faverón Patriau with essays by Ignacio Echevarría, Juan Villoro, Rodrigo Fresán, Enrique Vila-Matas and Carmen Boullosa. Here are a couple links: http://www.elboomeran.com/obra/45/bolano-salvaje/
http://www.candaya.com/bolanosalvaje.htm
and I forgot to mention the book also comes with a DVD

Just acquired Putas asesinas today. I like short stories so I thought I'd start with this one. Anybody been through it?

I haven't read that specific collection, but I have read Llamadas Telefonicas and El Gaucho Insufrible, which were both really good. (Though my preference would be for Gaucho, which tends more towards surreal/fantasy style.)

I read the first short story of the book last night; is called "The Eye Silva" and is VERY good. Chilling and depressing, but very good nonetheless. The second about some loner stuck in nowhere in the middle of Mexico and wandering around, discussing with female writing school director was weaker but had the same feeling of loneliness and étrangeté. Recomended.

Wow! I just bought Amulet yesterday on a whim. I had, in fact, never heard of Bolano (shame on me, it looks like!) but browsing the shelves of Stacey's Books in San Francisco I came upon his works and decided to give this one a go. Then, as I always do, now, I added the book to my LT library and clicked the Conversations link. I've got one or two magazine articles to read first, but it looks like I'm about to enter still another amazing universe of literature!

hey Rocket- welcome to the Bolano fan club- I thought Amulet was fabulous and , of course, The Savage Detectives, is magnificent.

Once you start searching on the web- there are dozens of reviews and essays on Bolano.

45/Carlos: I am near the end of Llamadas Telefonicas and the Joanna Silvestri shorty made me think of another one from Putas asesinas -- Anyone know what's with Bolano and the porn industry / porn stars?! Joanna Silvestri reds more like a eulogy to John Holmes than a story on a decaying female porn actress.

The English translation of 2666 comes out on November 11th! Sigue leyendo!

Got hold of the (MASSIVE) French translation a few weeks ago and am now let's say approx 250 p in. Not what I expected but I'd say it would be worth it even it only Part #1 had been published as a whole book. Having read some spoilers in articles, I am desperate to get to the end and learn about the actual life of Benno von Archimboldi / Hans Reiter.

I did read somewhere that Bolano had actually wanted to publish the different parts as separate books.

Bolano actually has two books coming out in November. November 28th--The Romantic dogs comes out from New Directions.

jveezer- i think i read that it was to be 3 seperate volumes.

Sweet! I've been wondering when some of his poetry would come out in the U.S. It looks like only in trade paper, though. I would have like a hardbound copy.

re: 49: Joanna Silvestri? Sounds like a clever salute to one of the "industry" stars of the late 70s, early 80s: Joey Silvera (everyone knows Ron Jeremy, but forgotten Joey gets embedded in literature).

Loved Savage Detectives and By Night in Chile - and am quite anxious to pick up the new volumes.

Re:56 -- I am at work so I do not have the volume at hand to check, but I am pretty sure there is a story involving a male pornstar named "Joey" in Putas asesinas. Sad story.

Redaction. Apologies for non-topical, flippant and potentially evil-eye attracting query.

Ben, I think the tone of your question just scared all the participants away.

Since I'm not on company time, I'll add that Savage Detectives was a great book, far better than I expected, and quite a revelation given the usual type of novel (Booker Prize, etc.) that gets so much publicity.

@58&59: Nice...

I really like Roberto Bolano's writing. I've read "Amulet", "Last evenings on earth" and have started and never finished "Savage detectives". I haven't finished it because it doesn't strike me as the type of book I have to finish, it's not about the story, it's about the conversation, the voices. I've probably started it five times now, get farther and farther into it. It delights me every time. Makes me laugh, makes me want to be there. I remember reading just past the first part, when it changes to different voices (what a theatre piece this could be!) and someone calls himself a dickhead. I read and reread and read it again because I didn't understand what was happening, I thought it was still the female voice and just couldn't understand what woman would call herself a dickhead. It's something I haven't gotten out of my head even though my first start was over a year ago. I just plain enjoy that book and it isn't the story, it's the feeling. Maybe it makes me feel like I was there. I'm wondering if all of us who liked this book came out of the same wild, creative times.

I've ordered 2666 in the 3 volume set. Don't know what to think of such a long piece. If it's as good as "Savage detectives" I won't care if it takes me my whole life and more to read.

I understand your sentiment (close to my feeling for Proust) but as someone who is rarely able to stay with a book all the way to the end, I think The Savage Detectives is a book that absolutely needs to be finished for the narrative to make sense as a whole. Besides, the last pages also explain the title, and bring a kind of closure to the novel that seems perfectly fitting, if sad; and closure, being an essential element of more populist literature, is not something most major 20th century writers have indulged in, nor something they excel at when they do bother (this novel being a notable exception.)

One of the things that kept driving me to finish the novel was the frequent return to the conversations the two young protagonists are having in 1976 with Amadeo, in Mexico city; partly because Bolaño was very successful at piquing and maintaining my curiosity in Cesárea Tinajero and her poetry; and partly because, without ever getting lyrical or maudlin, Bolaño creates and intensifies a sense of nostalgia from within the timeframe of the novel (as opposed to making the reader share a narrator's nostalgia, à la Proust) by contrasting the boys in 1976 with the unfolding of their future - documenting the change in their lives, their personalities, their aspirations and so on by using a single conversation in the past as a reference point.

Existanai, I didn't realize there was a tying together for Savage Detectives, or maybe that tying it together was important. I should have realized that there's reason for that title. Okay, I'll take your advice and finish it.

This is a book that I could sit down and discuss for hours with people. We read it for one of my book groups and even though only one person finished it (not me!) and only one person liked it (imagine that?!), it was one of our best discussions. I could go on but think instead I will start it over again and finish it. Soon I'll have 2666 to start on.

Of course, tying it together, as you call it, isn't important for this novel in the same way as it is for a traditional 'mystery' story, where the ending provides the answer all the characters and the reader have been seeking; the novel stands very well on its own without the first section or the last one. However, the title and the plot do invoke the detective genre, and the ending does put the entire narrative in a different light and makes one retrace the story in one's mind, similar to what a detective story does. If or when you finish the book, please tell us what you thought of it.

estellak- yes, definitely worth finishing BUT I had a similar reading experience as you did...it took me a few months to finish the book, i would put it away for a few days or a week, but then was able to dive right back in- it has a drawing power, a magnetism one could say, despite the dozens of voices it holds a fascination , almost as if the reader were a voyeur.

I'm back into it (Savage detectives). Yesterday, while riding the bus to work, I was reading the part where they are deconstructing Cesarea's one and only poem. It's so well written! And what it says just made me laugh. I want to read it outloud! That's the thing about that book, it really makes me want to share it with others.

I loved that part of the book! Makes you want to try a shot of Los Suicidos (I think that was what it was called) and dissect some of your favorite poems...

"Los Suicidos" tequila is also featured in 2666. Nice parallel world branding, very Tarantino-like.

Tequila or Mescal? I thought mescal...

I'm pretty sure it's Tequila but, a la Bolano style (as he makes up alternative names for real people), is there a real Tequila brand that he's referring to? I'm going to Mexico in a few months and might want to find it.

Ahhh, I finally finished it. Existanai, I have to say that I may be missing something, I didn't find a clear reason for the title. Yes, the end did connect to the beginning but why "Savage Detectives"? Who are the detectives? Are all the first person accounts of their last sitings of Arturo and Ulysses reports to unseen detectives? Are they all being interviewed because of what happens to Cesarea and the pimp and the cop? Or are Arturo and Ulysses the savages for what happens as a result of the detective work in Sonora?

Sigh, now it's on to Nazi literature in the Americas, 'though I don't think I'll like it as much.

By the way, now I'm interested in Carmen Boullosa, Someone here has read her... I'll look to see what others on LibraryThing have to say. Her reviews of Bolano in The Nation are interesting.

Ahhh, I finally finished it.

Well, what did you think? You don't seem to have been all that impressed.

Or are Arturo and Ulysses the savages for what happens as a result of the detective work in Sonora?

That's why I figured, although I'm sure other interpretations could be teased out.

Are all the first person accounts of their last sightings of Arturo and Ulysses reports to unseen detectives?

This was my initial impression, for the first part of the book, until the events starting spreading further apart in time. If you were trying to be original, you could probably take it a step further by saying: we, the readers, are like inquisitors or "savage detectives" trying to figure Arturo and Ulysses to the very end, with the multiple voices as our witnesses and their stories as our evidence. That will perhaps turn up in some thesis somewhere.

Oh no no no, I love this book. I bore people to death with reading parts outloud. I would like to find other people who liked it as much to read it outloud as a group (different voices). This book makes me laugh with joy. I relate to it too well having come of age during the early 70s.

Although the book is funny in parts, and has been noted for its humour in many reviews, I found the transition from youthful ideals to the disillusioned struggle to survive a very sad one; and I think the end confirms the overall tragic nature of the story. I guess I prefer the tragic aura because it appeals to my sentimental side, whereas many other readers take more pleasure in the episodic nature of the story. But it's successful at other levels too; for instance, I now feel a strong nostalgia for the 70s and Mexico even though I never experienced either.

Reading and Reviewing Bolaño's "The Savage Detectives".

An interesting post on a blog I discovered by chance.

Thank you, Existanai. I read the blog post and wondered what he meant by this sentence: "Could this be a strong corrective to current literature about displaced persons and multivariate geographies?" Any idea what he meant by corrective?

I've been reading Nazi literature in the Americas while waiting for 2666 to arrive. I'm not enjoying it like I did Savage Detectives but am not ready to abandon it. It seems to be another book I read for a bit, then put it down while I read something else.

I can't pretend to know what exactly the blogger was trying to say, but if my understanding is correct, that sentence only makes sense in the broader theoretical context he is discussing.

The blogger - Ramirez is apparently his name - makes reference to a couple of critical theories (neither of which I am familiar with.)

The first is derived from Žižek's essay on Mankell, The Artist of the Parallax View. Žižek says detective stories are not simply about solving mysteries, but about getting to know one's environment. That is, in order to make sense of what has happened in a place, one has to know everything about it - not only its physical geography but also its history, the people who inhabit or visit it, the character of the place as it changes from season to season, from day to night, etc.

Ramirez ties this in with his second reference to, I believe, Auge's Non-Places. Auge's work, as the linked Wikipedia biography tells you, deals with places considered transient, like airports or motels which, despite physically being defined as places, have the character of 'non-places' in our minds, locations that do not have the complete, multi-dimension character of what we consider 'genuine' places (such as a big city, or what we call home) because they are 'empty', devoid of cultural associations, places we are waiting to get away from.

Ramirez notes that Bolaño's characters travel all over the world, creating a vast canvas of unfamiliar, or one might say exotic places. As Žižek says about exotic places ("eccentric locales" is his term) that they are practically a rule in detective stories.

In describing what happens in such places in detail, Bolaño's characters help the reader (in the role of investigator) to uncover a great deal about a place - its location, personal or cultural significance, history, etc. In effect, the characters and/or the author document an unknown place, or even a "non-place", and make it familiar, a known entity, no longer exotic but somewhat mundane and predictable.

In contrast, as Ramirez implies, a lot of "current literature about displaced persons" works only because the exotic location remains exotic to the protagonist. We can only sense a fictional displacement (in a typical novel about being uprooted), because the narrative confirms that this foreign or exotic character cannot be avoided or transcended, and the protagonist can never really be in his or her element, to use a cliche. (Something like Polanski's detective/noir film Chinatown which, after a tragic climax, ends with the lines "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown".)

According to Ramirez, then, Savage Detectives could be an example of a literary corrective, i.e. something correcting or counteracting a literary trend, since the book allows readers to explore a place in its entirety, without judgement, rather than highlighting the differences between the familiar and the exotic, and reducing a place to an object onto which the author or characters project themselves or their preconceptions.

Now keep in mind, the above explanation applies only if I understood the post correctly. :)

if you liked Savage Detectives (who wouldn't) you can follow-up with Amulet in which Auxilio Lacouture, mentioned in Detectives, is the main character.

Existanai, Thanks for the explanation. I don't know anything about literary theory and had no idea that detective stories could be more than exactly what they appear to say. Not Savage Detectives, though, that's not really a detective story to me. I have to say that having finished it, stepping back and viewing the whole, I have an even greater appreciation for the book.

Thanks, also berthirsch. I did read Amulet before Savage Detectives. It's another jewel to find in Savage Detectives, the familiarity of the story read separately and then as a part of the many voices. I do not remember from Savage Detectives whether Auxilio knew Alberto or Ulysses, though. In fact, how did it fit into the book!? I will have to refer back to it.

estellak- i forget now where she was mentioned probably as the "mother of poets" or some like-phrase. when i get a chance i'll give it a look.

Read today through very nice blog "Fric-Frac Club" that Andrew Wylie is peddling a previously unreleased Bolano supposedly called "El Tercero Reich".

See http://fricfracclub.blogspot.com/2008/10/un-bolao-indit-el-tercer-reich-sorti-de... (in French) as well as http://www.elperiodicoextremadura.com/noticias/noticia.asp?pkid=403481, http://www.lanacion.cl/prontus_noticias_v2/site/artic/20081017/pags/200810171550... http://www.letralia.com/197/1104reich.htm (in Spanish) as well as http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/oct/18/roberto-bolano and http://www.complete-review.com/saloon/archive/200810b.htm#hn2 (in English)

The first url - from the French-speaking blog - has the global pitch of the book. Beware of spoilers.

Thanks, Kamakura, I found the blogs I could read to be very interesting (couldn't read the French one -I tried- so didn't find any spoilers). I hadn't heard about this new-found manuscript. I hope they don't fight so hard over it that we never see it published.

For anyone interested the Strand Bookstore in NYC is having an event for Bolano's 2666 on November 17. You can pick up a copy of 2666 signed by the translator Natasha Wimmer for $22.50. The book I believe is listed at around $30. If you can't go you can also order a signed copy online--$22.50 + shipping. On the same day as well a very good Spanish novelist Antonio Munoz Molina will be signing books as well. I've ordered both.

I finished Nazi literature... last night. It was harder to read than the other books I've read by Bolano. I don't have the literary background nor the historical knowledge, and the beginning was not very interesting to me. I'm glad I stuck with it, though. I really enjoyed reading the last third or so of the book. He was very subtle in his writings about these people. I was surprised by the poem written in the sky, kind of reminded me of Cesarea's poem in Savage Detectives because of the nonconventionality of it. Does anyone here know what the latin translates to?

My 2666 (translation) arrived yesterday. I've only peeked inside, want to wait until I can thoroughly focus on it. I bought the 3 volume set thinking I wouldn't want to have to carry the big one as I read on the bus. I would like to see the hardcover. My impression of the set I bought is that it's cheap. Small margins, looks like a published on demand book. Hope it holds up.

Finally managed to finish 2666 last night, and feeling dazed and confused - most notably by the dozens of mises en abymes Bolano used. But some of them are absolutely fantastic (the Jewish poet).

Lots of unforgettable characters too, all with a twist of horror and ridicule at the same time (Entrescu & Popescu, the academics, Baroness von Zumpe, etc.).

I managed to see the links between the 5 parts in the very end (as he planned I guess) but am somewhat puzzled by part #2 ("Amalfitano"), which is slow-paced, almost devoid of any of the dark themes that come & go throughtout the whole book.

I had to read the postface to understand what "2666" actually meant -- when I'am at home I'll paste the quote from what I believe is Amuleto. A doppelgânger called "Arturo Belano" saying something about all individuals being dead, a chilling atmosphere, "like a 2666 graveyard".

Any suggestion as the signification of "2666" beyond that I will be thankful for.

Now, onwards to Pynchon' Gravity's rainbow, another granite-sized volume... And more headaches to come I guess.

I'm starting it now and am well into the first part. I think the "Mother of Mexican poets" is the one that made the statement about a graveyard in 2666 in Amulet. I can't remember her name of the top of my head.

I started 2666 today and am interested in knowing where the title comes from, too. I checked in Savage Detectives in the chapter on Auxilio Lacouture, the mother of Mexican poetry, and didn't find reference. I don't have Amulet at home so can't check there. Also thought that it might be in the end when the four are searching for Cesarea and visit the bullfighter's grave in Sonora, But no, not there either. Has anyone found the reference? If so, let us know.

I just finished The Savage Detectives last night. For me it was a fairly enjoyable read, but not extraordinary. In fact, I had to strive to keep going through the mid-section. The writing was good - not great - and the story long and rambling. I seem to have missed the magic, the genius that others have found. I won't say any more as reading tastes are so personal and I know most people here have really enjoyed this book. Suffice to say that, although it was a bit of a slog, I think I'll come back to Bolaño again - perhaps with something shorter! I found 2666 in a bookshop yesterday and manhandled it down off the top shelf, but at $100 it was too expensive.

As for the origin of 2666, there is a reference in The Savage Detectives... on page 596 of my copy (Anagrama, 1998) Cesárea talks of "times to come" some time in the future "around the year 2,600 and something".

I look forward to reading more on this exciting group next year! A Merry Christmas to all!

Chris, Thank you for the reference. I have the English translation and haven't found it in that version yet. But at least I know where to look.

I'm one of those readers of Roberto Bolano who finds his writing extraordinary. I am currently reading 2666 (I'm in book 1) and am astounded by it. I read his works slowly, and savor the language and images. I've written in the margins of his books more than any other I've read, stuck post-its with notes on pages, and looked up references that he's made. I have not studied literature formally but I know what I like and his writing blows me away.

I've never read anything quite like it. I still am in a trance about whether it is fiction, or not. It's a dream

Chris- i strongly recommend The Amulet as a shorter fictional ppiece by Bolano. Having spent a little time in Mexico City has helped me in reference points and in imagining some of the scenes.

Thanks Bert! I'll bear that in mind. I intend to persevere with Bolaño because I'm intrigued now, though I definitely will try something shorter next time. I've been searching for Amulet - in fact for anything else - without success: very few bookshops here stock any of Bolaño's works.

May your New Year's Eve NOT be like the one in the Savage Detectives!

I don't think this has been mentioned here and it will probably be of great interest to Bolañophiles. Passing a bookshop yesterday, my attention was caught by a volume sporting Bolaño's unmistakeable face on the cover and entitled Bolaño salvaje. The shop was closed, but there's a publisher's page (with many links, including a video trailer!) at http://www.candaya.com/bolanosalvaje.htm . The book is a 500 page collection of critical essays about Bolaño and his work and includes a DVD!

There was an English language review of Bolaño salvaje in Criticas magazine. I don't know how long this link will work since Criticas has ceased but for now, you can read it at: http://www.criticasmagazine.com/article/CA6591958.html&
I would like to read this but think that I'd get more out of it if I read it in English. I don't have any idea if or when it might be translated.

By the way, there's another review in the New Republic on 2666 which I have found helpful in sorting out what the whole book is about. He also talks about Savage detectives and Bolaño's other works.

I had to re-check that New Republic review of 2666 to make sure it's current and not just a republication and it's dated 2/19/2009.

I'm not sure if this has already been posted - my apologies if it has. It appears that two previously undiscovered manuscripts of novels (in addition to "El Tercer Reich", which I gather is being translated into English) and some other texts by Bolaño were found late last year:-

"Dos novelas y otros textos inéditos encuentran en archivos de Bolaño" http://www.letralia.com/206/0306bolano.htm

From the same site:-

"2666, de Roberto Bolaño, obtiene premio de la crítica estadounidense" (2666 wins the National Book Critics Circle prize) http://www.letralia.com/206/0312bolano.htm

chris- looks like we'll be able to read through Bolano for the next few years-hopefully the material holds up. So far my 2 favorites are The Amulet and Savage Detectives, both of which also capture the atmospherics of Mexico City.

Yes, for a dead guy Bolaño is proving to be quite prolific! The titles of those two manuscript novels are "Diorama" and "Los sinsabores del verdadero policía o Asesinos de Sonora" (The Troubles of the Real Policeman or The Murderers of Sonora) - the latter sounds like familiar territory. I wonder whether they will appear first in English or the original? I think "El tercer Reich" will be published simultaneously in both languages.

you can't make this stuff up...from CONVERSTAIONAL READING blog by Scott Esposito:

What Do Barack Obama And Roberto Bolano Have In Common?
By Scott Esposito on July 14, 2009 | Comments (1) | Permalink
Both authors of books banned from our nation's swelling prisons.

The federal government's most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. Last year, Abu Ali requested two books written by Obama: "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope."

But prison officials, citing guidance from the FBI, determined that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security.

Brilliant.

Interestingly, whereas the president's inspiring tales of achieving as a black American were deemed dangerous to national security, Bolano's tales of penniless poets eking out a tortured existence were found to encourage homosexuality:

Inmate No. 1385412, in Huntsville, Texas (below), ordered a copy of the book, but on its arrival, the prison mailroom intercepted it and sent it, at the inmate's expense, to a relative of the inmate's in Austin. The prison determined that the material could "encourage homosexual or deviant criminal sexual behavior" and was "detrimental to the offender's rehabilitation." (For what it's worth, the sexual and violent acts described in the offending passage are in fact between a man and a woman.)

It feels appropriate that I'm reading Solzhenitsyn now.

I wonder how they reach these conclusions Bert. But really there are a lot of closed minded idealogues out there who do believe they know what's best for everyone. It would surprise me if any of these people rejecting these works actually sat down to read them--let alone had the objectivity necessary to understand them.

At the risk of resurrecting a dead thread, I was curious to see people's opinions of Roberto Bolano now that much of his work (or at least much more of his work) has been published into English. How does Bolano hold up after repeat readings and now that more of his body of work has been translated?

Also, has anyone found any other authors who are similar to Bolano?*

More for my own interest than anything else :)

I've bought and read pretty much everything that has come out since I first read Amulet a few years ago. I've liked everything I've read but Amulet and The Savage Detectives are my favorite. I have Monsieur Pain but haven't gotten to it yet.

One thing I liked about The Savage Detectives was it's description of Mexico City and the way the story is weaved into the city. I forget what they call that "genre" of Mexican literature where the city is practically a main character. Another book that did that well was Let the Earth Tremble at its Centers by Gonzalo Celorio.

jveezer - agreed i,too, think Detectives and Amulet are excellent - really adjuncts to one another sharing characters, place, and mood.

i did write a brief comparison on "Books Compared" Group making a connection between Bolano's The Savage Detectives and Kerouac's Desolation Angels - would be interested in any comments.

a wonderful contribution to the relevance of Bolano in today's world by Naha Ramy a writer from Tehran appearing in THe Quarterly Conversation:

http://quarterlyconversation.com/reading-bolao-in-tehran

Very nice. Thanks for that.

A long interseting reiew of between Parentheses.

http://lareviewofbooks.org/post/11647470534/the-apocalyptic-tradition

Wow, fantastic article. Thanks for posting!

an interesting article posted on Full Stop , entitled Beyond Bolano and Beyond.

http://www.full-stop.net/2015/12/02/features/essays/mattbucher/beyond-bolano-and...

The Bolano effect in Lithub

http://lithub.com/the-bolano-effect-latin-american-literature-in-translation/

an in-depth review of Bolano's newest release and how it fits into his overall literary career.

https://www.publicbooks.org/the-once-and-future-bolano/

fascinating new book about origins of Bolano's Savage Detectives

https://themillions.com/2019/02/my-life-became-a-roberto-bolano-novel.html