4.0
2666
ByPublisher Description
A NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD WINNER
THE POSTHUMOUS MASTERWORK FROM "ONE OF THE GREATEST AND MOST INFLUENTIAL MODERN WRITERS" (JAMES WOOD, THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW)
Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño's life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of SantaTeresa—a fictional Juárez—on the U.S.-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared.
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4.0
keeley m
Created 2 days agoShare
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BelievableChange and growFeel distantMorally ambiguousMultilayeredOriginalStrong relationshipsDisjointedEpic scopeLoose endsNonlinear narrativeSatisfying conclusionSlow-pacedSlow start, strong finishTwistyBleakDarkDystopianEtherealEvocative imageryExpansiveGrittyHarshHistoricalImmersive world-buildingMysteriousNostalgicRealisticRusticSetting fits the storyUnique locationVivid descriptionsBeautifully-writtenDenseDescriptiveFlowery/lushHard to followOriginalTakes getting used toWhimsical toneWittyChallengingDisturbingEngagingProvocativeRewardingSpecialized knowledge requiredThought-provokingData-drivenEvidence-basedIn-depth analysisThoroughWell-researchedConfusingDenseEffective visualsEloquentEngagingOvercomplicatedStylistically uniqueVerboseAbuseBigotryChild abuseDeathDomestic violenceExplicit sexual contentGriefMisogynyMurderRacismReligious intoleranceSexual assaultSubstance abuseViolenceWar violence
Wren
Created 7 days agoShare
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Sheetal Varade
Created 8 days agoShare
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“This is Roberto Bolano's Magnum Opus, and because of that, this was made for a very small group of readers, which unfortunately doesn't include me for the vast majority. This entire book's premise alone would take an hour to explain to someone, but it's just how 5 very different and distinct parts come together in culmination to talk about the female femticide that is going on in Santa Teresa, Mexico. It is highly fragmented, but it explores many themes from obsession, the horror of human nature and the truth that comes from that. Its prose is very immersive and shows the chaotic and senseless violence throughout the book.
The first part ended up being my favorite part of the book, and by the end of the tome to call this book I wish it was longer. This part follows 4 European Scholars/Critics (as they are aptly named as the section title) who have this academic obsession with this German writer by the name of Archimboldi and when they go on the search for this author they end up in Mexico and thus find out about the waves of unsolved murders in Santa Teresa and instead of being shocked and trying to help the issues that are around them they are lost in the illusion of their literary pursuits and personal relationships. I especially love this section because it revolves around academia and how intellectuals, in whatever field they are in, for the pursuit of knowledge, will ignore things around them for selfish desires.
Second part is about a professor from Chile living in the city of Santa Teresa, who was also mentioned in the previous part as someone from the University, who is haunted by the past of his wife and then the worries of a father to care for their daughter in a city where femticide happens at a regular occurrence. This is about a father's descent into madness and just an internal view on how someone with the burden of knowledge subjects themselves and others around them to mental instability.
A Part about Fate revolves around an American journalist named Oscar who originally went to Santa Teresa on an assignment to cover a boxing match. At first, he didn't care about these murders, but shortly, he starts being drawn into the darker parts of the city that he is a tourist in and through his interaction with switch locals and journalistic ends up falling into the dark side and trying to traverse his way out. This almost plays like a noir detective thriller and how someone who is trying to write about things that matter comes into contact with horrible atrocities and doesn't uphold himself to these same standards.
The 4th section is probably the hardest to read through mostly because the entire part has this loose theme of this detective and journalist trying to investigate this slew of femticide but are powerless because of the systems around them there is just a non ending skew of highly detailed sections of each brutal murder of the women that have happened in this city which forces the you to effectively place themselves in the same position as the detective/journalist and since its just repetitive it just becomes that decent into madness that the professor of part 2 was going through mentally. I think there were over 100 women that you had to read the grusome description of their rape and murder and it genuinely was just a struggle somethings because of the content to get through it all.
5th Part revolves around a German kid who grew up through Nazi Germany and how seeing, participating in that violence changed his world view for the worse, he after the war becomes a writer and drifts around EUrope trying to write novels to somehow wrestle with whatever internal feelings he must have around him and generally the human race by seeing the lowest point of society. This brings him into contact with Klaus (his nephew), who is one of the suspects for many of the Santa Teresa murders that are happening in the city.
Generally this is a difficult book to read not only for the emotional topics that were talked about with the femticide and rape that happens but just reading it was generally hard to get through... it took me more than 3 weeks which is ALOT considering how long it normally takes me to read a novel. I think it's an important political book which criticizes the systems that enable this to happen, but at the same time,e I think the longer I read this the less I genuinely cared and by the end of it the novelty worn off and all there was left was way too many pages left to finish.”Diverse representationMinor characters stand outMorally ambiguousMultilayeredAction-packedConfusingDisjointedNonlinear narrativeSlow-pacedSteady pacingUnpredictableBleakDystopianEerieGrittyHarshMysteriousRealisticSetting fits the storyUnique locationBeautifully-writtenClunkyDenseDescriptiveOriginalTakes getting used toCaptivatingChallengingEducationalEngagingProvocativeSpecialized knowledge requiredThought-provokingIn-depth analysisPersonal experienceFragmentedHard to navigateLogical progressionSlow-pacedThematically-structuredToo longOvercomplicatedRepetitiveStylistically uniqueTechnicalVerboseAbleismAbuseBigotryChild abuseDeathDomestic violenceExplicit sexual contentFat phobiaHomophobiaMisogynyMurderRacismSexual assaultViolenceWar violence
Mare
Created 11 days agoShare
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nthnmylslm
Created 11 days agoShare
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About Roberto Bolaño
ROBERTO BOLAÑO was born in Santiago, Chile, in 1953. He grew up in Chile and Mexico City, where he was a founder of the infrarealist poetry movement. His first full-length novel, The Savage Detectives, received the Herralde Prize and the Romulo Gallegos Prize when it appeared in 1998. Bolaño died in Blanes, Spain, at the age of fifty.
NATASHA WIMMER 's translation of The Savage Detectives was chosen as one of the ten best books of 2007 by The Washington Post and The New York Times.
Other books by Roberto Bolaño
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