My familiarity with Latin American and Spanish writers, especially contemporary ones, is pretty limited, and the bulk of this book is Bolano's opinions on and reviews of Spanish language authors, many of whom have yet to be translated into English. So while I like his style enough to enjoy almost anything he writes, this collection wasn't quite as enjoyable because most of these reviews were originally written for a Spanish newspaper, where the cultural context is much different and many readers already knew about many of these authors. Some of these essays left me bewildered or just indifferent, but many of them piqued my curiosity and had me adding several books to my "to read" list. It was also entertaining reading certain non-fiction essays that read like some of his fiction, particularly some of his short stories that I had assumed were autobiographical. The essay I enjoyed most was a foreward to Huckleberry Finn, in which he also comments on Moby Dick. It was interesting to read his perspective on two of the most Americaniest of American novels, especially Huck Finn. In a later piece, he writes that he sees the Savage Detectives as a response to Huck Finn, something which would have never occurred to me but made me want to read SD again, the first time I'e had that desire since reading it a few years ago. Meanwhile,at least twice a week I have the urge to reread 2666. ( )

Bolaño, genio, brillante, carismático, valiente, involuntariamente agradable, guía. Siento decirte esto, porque sé que no te gusta escucharlo, pero te admiro, te venero, pregono tus citas y exalto tus libros, te nombro hasta cuando no corresponde. Hay una única y gran razón para ello, la más importante, y es que, de esto no me cabe duda, eres la primera de las voces que me grita: escribe, escribe, escribe. ( )

No one asks Balzac to be Stendhal. All anyone asks of Balzac is that he be God.

Two of my favorite books over the last few months have been [b:The Novel: An Alternative History: Beginnings to 1600|7783692|The Novel An Alternative History Beginnings to 1600|Steven Moore|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1351603790s/7783692.jpg|10713315] and [b:Written Lives|529078|Written Lives|Javier Marías|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348601693s/529078.jpg|516775] This collection is in a similar vein. These are prefaces, reviews, speeches and other observations herded together posthumously, though Bolano imagined this possibility, especially as he began a weekly newspaper column which is also gathered here.

I took some fellow GRers advice and read straight through Between Parenthese, as if it were a single narrative, parts memoir, parts novel. This remains a rich copse of joy and insight. It can also charge many a reading list, given Bolano's penchant for recommendations. ( )

Bolano is best known for his fiction - especially '2666' and 'Savage Detectives' - but he was also a decent essayist too. Here are his collected magazine and newspaper cuttings from a career so tragically cut short. ( )

Really fine piece of work. I wrote a little bit of a stinger of a review, and if you are interested you can read it here.

http://mewlhouse.hubpages.com/hub/BETWEEN-PARENTHESIS-Roberto-Bolano ( )