THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES will be, I bet, one of the big literary books (in English--it's already well into its life in Spanish) of 2007. And the world will be hungry for 2666, Bolano's last book, in 2008.
It's, as I said, a strange book, but enormously satisfying to read. Reading it, I have that sensation of reading a book that doesn't quite work like any other book I know. Not much happens, in a way, and yet, a lot happens: absurd encounters between slightly ridiculous characters, lots of promiscuous sex, and constant talk about poetry: how to publish it, which literary movements are cool, and who are the cool poets in the neighborhood. All the while, the political unrest in Chile flows through as an undercurrent. It's really an astonishing book.
1 comment:
Satisfying, indeed. I consider this book to be infinite. Some hailed its original publication in Spanish saying that it was "a novel Borges would have agreed to have written", which is quite a lot considering that Borges considered the novel an "imperfect genre". Bolaño is among my favorites... I am very pleased to have found a reference about him in your blog.
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