tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18716562555853350992012-02-16T11:59:38.979-06:00<i>2666</i> by Roberto BolañoBrassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.comBlogger791100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-83380327368707038812010-08-04T06:04:00.003-05:002010-08-04T06:29:21.108-05:00

In a comment posted last Monday under the 1 February entry, Tyler had this to say:Do you think it's possible that Archimboldi's story could be somewhat inspired by B. Traven's bio?I'm something of a simpleton with litereature [sic] (perhaps that's why I've read all of Traven's books, haha) so that's just a passing thought not meant to be considered seriously. First of all, Tyler is no simpleton

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-10923316621442597212010-07-15T15:26:00.003-05:002010-07-15T15:41:35.976-05:00

The Writer is Gravely Ill.By Roberto Bolaño, from “Literature + Illness = Illness,” in The Insufferable Gaucho, out this month from New Directions. Bolaño dedicated the essay to his hepatologist, Victor Vargas. Translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews. This essay from the collection appears in this month's Harper's.

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-90559739684989034882010-05-20T17:59:00.002-05:002010-05-20T18:50:53.960-05:00

And then there was the tourist Vogel, a man with so much optimism, so much faith in the innate goodness of mankind, that he is nearly unbearable. Also, a great believer in masturbation.Vogel saves young Hans Reiter's life on one of the two occasions that Hans nearly drowns. Vogel had initially mistaken Hans for seaweed. When he recollects this later, it perplexes him to no end. Page 646.And then:

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-82309887235710484522010-05-19T05:22:00.002-05:002010-05-19T05:26:25.835-05:00

The opening pages of The Part About Archimboldi are in one sense typical of a novel that tells a man's life story and in another sense completely disorienting. The passages relating to Hans Reiter's childhood are poetic, but it is poetry of a very distinctive flavor. I come back repeatedly to this paragraph, set off by itself, and consider who else would have or could have written anything like

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-87236231378496811972010-05-18T14:58:00.002-05:002010-05-18T15:28:18.277-05:00

With that overview of The Part About Archimboldi, let us take a look at some of the details.The part opens with a description of “the mummy” in the bed next to Reiter's father in that military hospital of long ago. This figure, the mummy, is eerily reminiscent of “the man in white” in the hospital bed next to Yossarian in Catch 22. You remember that man in white. He had a jar connected to a tube

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-82148785745029769892010-05-09T07:35:00.002-05:002010-05-09T07:40:20.564-05:00

[The following was originally written with the intention that it be my final contribution regarding the novel at Infinite Zombies. For several reasons I have decided to post it here and move on to comments on details in that last Part.]A month-long visit in April to the United States of America interrupted my reading of 2666 along with others in attendance here. This was actually my second

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-79218227437887447202010-04-11T10:13:00.015-05:002010-04-11T10:55:19.199-05:00

I have developed my own dearly held theories about reading fiction, idiosyncrasies that I have acquired through the years. The most dearly held of these is this. When I read a novel, I consider it no longer to belong to the author. It is mine at that point. It may have belonged to the author as he was conceiving it, laboring over it, and revising it with his editor. However, when he turns the

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-32001557299550066422010-04-10T19:50:00.002-05:002010-04-11T10:44:20.756-05:00

Haas’s lawyer is not a happy woman:If it had been up to her, everyone around her, the shadowy figures on the edges of the photograph, would have disappeared instantly, and so would the room, the prison, jailers and jailed, the hundred-year-old walls of the Santa Teresa penitentiary, and all that was left would be a crater, and in the crater there would be only silence and the vague presence of

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-38865722228450151482010-04-10T19:38:00.005-05:002010-04-11T10:18:34.720-05:00

I wrote earlier about my fondness for Lalo Cura. The second half of The Part About the Crimes also presents a sympathetic picture of the humanity of Juan de Dios Martínez. He concludes that the death of the twenty-eight-year-old schoolteacher, Perla Beatriz Ochoterena, by hanging was a suicide at page 517. He discusses this with Elvira Campos at page 518 and 519, telling Elvira some of the titles

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-55548101798123914542010-03-26T22:44:00.004-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.720-05:00

At page 491 José Márquez describes a mysterious conversation to Juan de Dios Martínez, a conversation among other policemen from which Márquez was excluded. Those in on that conversation were Pedro Negrete, Inspector Ortiz Rebolledo, Inspector Ángel Fernández, and Epifanio Galindo, a motley crew indeed.Per the snatch of the conversation that Márquez heard before being waved away, the participants

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-60138070683927263122010-03-25T11:40:00.000-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.721-05:00

In October no dead women turned up in Santa Teresa, in the city or the desert, and work to get rid of the illegal dump El Chile was permanently halted. A reporter for La Tribuna de Santa Teresa who was covering the relocation or demolition of the dump said he'd never seen so much chaos in his life. Asked whether the chaos was caused by the city workers involved in the futile effort, he answered

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-50410723731011304272010-03-24T23:31:00.004-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.721-05:00

. . .and as he was talking the whore yawned, not because she wasn't interested in what he was saying but because she was tired, which irritated Sergio and made him say, in exasperation, that in Santa Teresa they were killing whores, so why not show a little professional solidarity, to which the whore replied that he was wrong, in the story as he had told it the women dying were factory workers,

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-19374915504572688092010-03-24T23:15:00.004-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.722-05:00

Sometimes Elvira Campos thought it would be best to leave Mexico. Or kill herself before she turned fifty-five. Maybe fifty-six?Page 513.Interesting. I don't want to leave Mexico either. But in my case it is not quite this serious a matter. Killing one's self in late childhood? She should up that to age seventy-five at least.It is also interesting that we are offered this angst with nary a hint

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-38272492939698911522010-03-24T13:05:00.002-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.722-05:00

vigilante: a member of a volunteer committee organized to suppress and punish crime summarily (as when the processes of law are viewed as inadequate); broadly: a self-appointed doer of justice.Harry Magaña is clearly a vigilante in the broad sense of the word. His role raises interesting questions about the complete breakdown of the state apparatus for dispensing justice as portrayed in the novel

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-13512780011210232962010-03-16T17:55:00.002-06:002010-04-11T10:18:34.722-05:00

The reporter answered that Santa Teresa was a center of the drug trade and most likely nothing happened there that wasn't related to the phenomenon one way or the other.And what exactly does that tell us? Not much. At page 463 we are told explicitly for the first time that Pedro Rengifo is a narcotraficante. We certainly suspected this at the time that Lalo commenced his employment as a bodyguard

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-29956549941787420822010-03-08T11:04:00.013-06:002010-03-08T13:51:34.222-06:00

How can we not be favorably disposed toward Olegario Cura Expósito, a sixteen-year-old kid raised in poverty in Villaviciosa who displays integrity and no small amount of courage? And how does he make it out of poverty? Through his skill and courage amid violence. La locura. Lunacy.Through him we are introduced to the two scumbags who are also bodyguards for Pedro Rengifo's wife, one from the

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-37123259231526870562010-03-08T10:29:00.002-06:002010-03-08T11:16:47.827-06:00

We learned earlier that Oscar Fate's usual beat is “[p]olitical things that affect the African-American community. Social things.” Page 311. Now he is reporting a boxing match and wants to do some crime reporting.We learned earlier that Guadalupe Roncal's previously wrote for the city section at her big Mexico City newspaper and almost never got a byline. Quite suddenly she has become a crime

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-15242255495132087862010-03-07T21:23:00.001-06:002010-03-08T11:16:47.828-06:00

The Part About the Critics at page 131:The circus was called Circo Internacional and some men who were raising the big top with a complicated system of cords and pulleys (or so it seemed to the critics) directed them to the trailer where the owner lived.The Part About Fate at page 303:There was no one at the Arena del Norte. The main door was closed. On the walls were some posters, already faded

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-30670551801164550102010-03-07T19:32:00.006-06:002010-03-08T13:41:08.743-06:00

Still, the critics liked the market, and even though they weren't planning to buy anything, in the end Pelletier picked up a clay figurine of a man sitting on a stone reading the newspaper, for next to nothing. The man was blond and two little devil horns sprouted from his forehead.Page 125.Then the man vanished and he was left alone. He [Fate] got up and went over to the edge of the arbor, next

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-22393753536506087382010-03-07T11:58:00.009-06:002010-03-08T12:46:47.714-06:00

I speculated in the Fourth Installment entry about the possibility that when Bolaño was writing the passages concerning Professor Kessler and Hugh Thomas's book, The Slave Trade, he was considering how he might use words in the service of revelation rather than avoidance in writing The Part About the Crimes.Then Matt in his Tidbits piece got me focused on Professor Plateau and his invention that

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-26862231889957381672010-03-07T10:01:00.008-06:002010-03-08T11:16:47.829-06:00

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-65268201061509015652010-03-05T17:50:00.003-06:002010-03-08T11:16:47.829-06:00

As far as the relationship of the first three parts, it now seems a pretty straightforward thing. In the first part we are introduced to Archimboldi in absentia through the critics. We then travel with them to Mexico and ultimately Santa Teresa in their search for the elusive author. With the critics in Mexico, we make the acquaintance of Amalfitano and Marco Antonio Guerra, as well as a couple

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-21448383321910331822010-03-04T12:32:00.009-06:002010-03-08T10:44:32.832-06:00

I am not a film aficionado. I was totally unfamiliar with Robert Rodriguez, the director who is the subject of a conversation between Charly Cruz and Fate at pages 280 to 281. When describing a film that Robert Rodriquez directed under another name, Cruz refers to his distinctive style. The Wikipedia article describes Rodriguez's style as one that involves “quick cuts, intense zooms, and fast

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-31618982808523624362010-03-02T17:27:00.003-06:002010-03-02T21:38:39.164-06:00

Working at 2666 is the best full-time job that I have ever had. Flexible hours. Work that I enjoy. No partners. No staff. I work at home in sunny México and send in the work product.If I could get this pay thing worked out, I would be in fat city for sure.

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-47841844498271936772010-03-02T11:21:00.009-06:002010-03-02T21:15:13.960-06:00

Nothing cerebral about this at all, an entirely subjective view of pages 291 through 349, The Part About Fate. . .Roberto Bolaño had to be a true fan of films. He was clearly inspired in part by film when he undertook this section and appears to have attempted to create in print the atmosphere of film noir. This recreation is complete with a retrospective voice-over at the very beginning of this

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-66640126898009395502010-03-02T11:18:00.003-06:002010-03-02T21:15:13.961-06:00

Everything I write here about 2666 ought to be read with an implicit question mark behind it. I earned my living for years saying things that I was not entirely sure of or that I flatly did not believe to be true. I must have been somewhat convincing because I did earn a living this way. The question marks here are going to be explicit. I am going to mash the question mark key occasionally.Before

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-42882725498517711352010-03-01T09:57:00.004-06:002010-03-01T10:03:03.153-06:00

On the way from Tucson to the border, Oscar overhears a conversation in a diner between a young man and a Professor Kessler, obviously some sort of expert in criminology. Excerpts from Professor Kessler's mini-lecture delivered to the young man: In the nineteenth century, toward the middle or the end of the nineteenth century, said the white-haired man, society tended to filter death through a

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-48099321694069542742010-02-28T21:41:00.007-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.421-06:00

I was house sitting alone for a week in January in the middle of Colonia San Antonio here in San Miguel de Allende. I read the first four parts in this courtyard in that chair. The dog was the only one available with whom to discuss the thing, but Zumm only speaks Spanish. I am not fluent enough in Spanish to discuss this book. Hell, I am not fluent enough in English to discuss this book. What an

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-63795764995432195762010-02-28T21:06:00.004-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.422-06:00

I feel like rereading Gone With the Wind or some other swish and spit. Instead, I am going to reread The Part About The Crimes. For the same reason that I did not cut my hair when that fleeting thought came. I feel like I owe it to someone.

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-42096444229474663272010-02-28T10:54:00.006-06:002010-03-01T09:38:26.639-06:00

Books of The Times - A Trip Through a Literary Labyrinth in Roberto Bolaño’s New Novel, ‘2666’ - Review - NYTimes.comHighway 61 Revisited, huh? Okay, I will buy that as an analogy, Janet.But this?“2666” earns its place in posterity by burying a hint at the book’s overall secret, to the extent that it has one, in the midst of one critic’s story.You must be talking about Morini, Janet. And it is

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-18856817870584502312010-02-28T10:24:00.001-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.422-06:00

Roberto Bolaño's Fictions Might Include His Own Colorful Past - NYTimes.comSo then. Never a heroin addict? Not in Chile during the Pinochet coup? I agree. This is going to be a tough biography to write.

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-82866822793841361432010-02-27T20:01:00.002-06:002010-03-01T09:39:40.737-06:00

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-19937949540117663832010-02-23T16:55:00.040-06:002010-03-01T09:41:24.787-06:00

Yesterday I wrote a reply to a note by Maria at wwww.bolanobolano.com, a brilliant person whom I have known for years. The gist of it was that middle class people derive meaning in life from the things they buy. When they purchase a copy of 2666, there is much gnashing of teeth when they do not find meaning in it. I mashed the “Post” button.Within minutes I realized that was not close to the idea

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-13912740572162292692010-02-22T19:46:00.002-06:002010-03-01T09:46:27.797-06:00

The following is my the review of 2666 written on Valentine's Day, 2010, after finishing the novel for the first time.HEADLINE: I do not recommend that you read the best novel that I have read in the last 20 years.Yes, 2666 is easily the best novel that I have read in the last 20 years, perhaps longer. No, I do not recommend it to you or anyone else.Nonetheless, in the event you are unfortunately

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-12770688338839444582010-02-21T12:24:00.003-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.423-06:00

Every time that I reread what appears to me to be a significant passage, I realize that I was reading it incorrectly before. So many of the things that I have written below are simply wrong.However, I am not going to sift back through this blog and edit those wrong things. That would be cheating.

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-35433822865980237372010-02-20T15:44:00.004-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.423-06:00

Before we leave The Part About Amalfitano, we ought at least to mention that fascinating book O'Higgins is Araucanian by Lonko Kilapán. Why I have taken this upon myself is as much a mystery to me as Amalfitano's ruminations on the book are.After the last appearance of the voice that we read of, Amalfitano begins to think about telepathy. That leads his thoughts to the Mapuches or Araucanians,

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-78956724853937505932010-02-19T13:59:00.003-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.424-06:00

_________, thank you so much for taking the time to transcribe that passage from The Savage Detectives. I have not read that novel. Interesting. It is apparent that Bolaño is awfully fond of this metaphor or symbol or whatever it is. I appreciate that he could be accused of being heavy-handed with this stuff at times, with some justification. My response would be that there is nothing necessarily

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-28452069984984049012010-02-18T11:16:00.006-06:002010-03-07T19:16:16.911-06:00

The Works of Benno von ArchimboldiThe following is a list of novels in order as their publication is described in The Part About Archimboldi with information found in The Part About the Critics appended.1. Lüdicke. This is Archimboldi's first novel. [p. 800]A very odd review of this book appeared in a Berlin newspaper after its publication. Mrs. Bubis kept it. Someone named Schumacher “tried to

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-7592849195556904792010-02-15T18:18:00.005-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.439-06:00

I would be more comfortable with the idea that The Part About Amalfitano is told from Amalfitano's point of view, rather than that he is the narrator. Occasionally, amid that narration we have the luxury of reading his own thoughts exactly as they occur to him and in the order they occur to him. But then, admittedly, my own comfort is beside the point.Whatever, I get to the same point as Matt

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-53060192618429090852010-02-15T16:35:00.003-06:002010-03-01T12:26:56.890-06:00

Allotting one week to The Part About Amalfitano because it is the shortest part was an innocent mistake. It may be the shortest part, but it is by far the densest part.For one addicted to the use of a Hi-Liter® as I am and speaking from my own experience, I suggest that one immediately highlight the whole thing, each and every word, and get that out of the way. Then throw the Hi-Liter® aside, and

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-50556283438171212092010-02-14T15:56:00.003-06:002010-03-01T09:53:26.604-06:00

Yes, The Part About The Critics has been quite a ride. I see development in the critics over the course of this Part in a more favorable direction than others. In addition to Amalfitano's diatribe concerning Mexican writers, this is the passage that sticks with me. It refers to the next wave of young academics coming behind our four: . . . the latest litter of Archimboldians, recent graduates,

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-34072497014412347052010-02-14T15:22:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.441-06:00

I am delighted that you see the translation discussion as helpful, __________. It was entertaining to consider it. I am actually happy that you were bugged by that phrase “false representation,” as I think you should have been.Yeah, the business about some sort of liaison between Norton and Johns is actually too simple an explanation of her reaction. But the issue surely did get me scratching

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-39098408230514577412010-02-13T10:06:00.005-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.442-06:00

I wish you could have seen La Mexicana's furrowed brow as she fanned through her dictionary while studying this post of yours this morning, _________. It would have tugged at your heartstrings. We had an extended discussion of the words “irrefutable” and “nuance.” I have recommended that she no longer sound the “b” in the word “subtle.” Any metaphor that partakes of a feature of women's clothing

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-74310259211608763392010-02-12T20:07:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:22:57.442-06:00

Almost comical? Jeff, it is hilarious! As a matter of fact, I was just laughing with a friend earlier today about this business of the orderly grabbing at empty space where Johns’ hand ought to have been as Johns plummets into this abyss in the Alps just like Sherlock Holmes. That was before I stumbled upon your great post here. From my point of view, this is the absurd taken to the sublime.Liz

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-44434496067997772812010-02-12T11:56:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:23:53.437-06:00

I will violate my own rule limiting myself to one posting per day to add a side note. My Mexicana companion is reading along with you in a beautiful edition put out by Bolaño's Barcelona publisher. She has been utterly seduced by Bolaño's Spanish, to the extent that I now feel as if I am part of some outré threesome with Bolaño. She has lived in Mexico City, Madrid, and Caracas and has a feel for

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-22897279244044622982010-02-12T10:57:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:23:53.438-06:00

That business about my reading of Pelletier being more perceptive than yours is so not true, __________. The man demands an entirely subjective response from his readers, our own participation in this novel. It partakes much more of poetry than of prose. Each subjective response is going to be different, sometimes our subjective responses will seem to be in opposition. I am not sure that the

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-87940304990315715112010-02-11T11:58:00.029-06:002010-03-01T09:48:55.031-06:00

At page 803 of this novel, something occurred to me. It was an idea with the same beautiful simplicity and clarity of the little bell that I used to hear inside my head at cocktail hour. When I have finished this novel, there will be no point in reading any other novel for the rest of my life. I will finally be done with all of that.I have had this vague feeling for some time that there was

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You submit that “hanging around in Mexico . . . has itself the effect of bringing reality inexorably, excitingly, and sometimes even frighteningly closer to a person.” I will swear an oath to the truth of that if you require it, __________. If you hang around Mexico too much, you will find yourself living here for the very reasons you cite. Which brings me to Pelletier, the character with whom I

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From Jonathan Lethem's review in the New York Times' Sunday Book Review, November 12, 2008:A novel like “2666” is its own preserving machine, delivering itself into our hearts, sentence by questing, unassuming sentence; it also becomes a preserving machine for the lives its words fall upon like a forgiving rain, fictional characters and the secret selves hidden behind and enshrined within them:

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Oh, Jesus! If people are actually going to visit this blog, I need to get my act together. Let us then return to the happy subject of torture and that exchange between Epifanio and Lalo Cura in The Part About The Crimes. I shall extract something further from the working paper at the beginning of this mess and clean it up.Americans are fond of speaking of “death with dignity.” However, in my

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__________, thank you for robbing yourself of a bit of sleep in order to write this thoughtful reply. For my part I have nothing better to do than sit in the sun during the day in an interior courtyard surrounded by a wall with glass shards embedded along the top and obsess over this book. Therefore, I have resolved to try to keep my word count under control and limit myself to one posting per

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I wish to add my congratulations on this marvelous piece! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this work by another obsessive like me. It was delightful. Very well done.Pelletier most certainly has developed insecurities about his critical abilities during his stay in Santa Teresa. When he returned to the hotel Pelletier was reading Saint Thomas again. When he sat down beside him Pelletier looked up from

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To date my tracker indicates that this blog has had not one single visitor. Given the matter touched upon in the previous entry, that is just fine with me. The next logical step would be the suggestion that we make a list of the top ten travel destinations suggested by Roberto Bolaño in the novel 2006.

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When a discussion of 2006 by Roberto Bolaño boils down to this question, it is time for me to quietly abandon that discussion:After reading this book, I do sort of yearn for some travel, although too many places come to mind from this novel!But I am curious, where does this novel make you want to travel to most?

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Every life, Epifanio said that night to Lalo Cura, no matter how happy it is, ends in pain and suffering. That depends, said Lalo Cura. Depends on what, champ? On a lot of things, said Lalo Cura. Say you're shot in the back of the head, for example, and you don't hear the motherfucker come up behind you, then you're off to the next world, no pain, no suffering. Goddamn kid, said Epifanio. Have

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Mesmerized.

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Near the end of The Part About Amalfitno, he ponders the literary tastes of a bookish, young pharmacist whom he knew back in Barcelona.He chose The Metamorphosis over The Trial, he chose Bartleby over Moby-Dick, he chose A Simple Heart over Bouvard and Pécuchet, and A Christmas Carol over A Tale of Two Cities or The Pickwick Papers. What a sad paradox, thought Amalfitano. Now even bookish

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__________ and __________, about a year ago, RMM posted this comment in The New Yorker discussion:I laughed too. In fact, I laughed throughout the novel. It's telling that the Bolanistos never mention his sense of humor. Not dark enough...I must say that I did not laugh throughout the novel. I think RMM overstates his case there. However, there are certainly humorous parts. The passage to which

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Bolaño loves to jerk these journalists out of their accustomed milieu and set them adrift. Oscar Fate's previous area was politics and “social issues” affecting the black community, and then he is sent off to Mexico to write up boxing. Guadalupe Roncal previously worked the City Desk in Mexico City before being assigned to report the killings in a sort of undercover role. Later, we meet Sergio

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Speaking of The Stranger, __________, there is something about the passages concerning Oscar Fate's mother's death and funeral that reminded me of Meursault's mother's death at the beginning of that novel. Perhaps you can help me put my finger on that.One thing is for sure, __________. The passages concerning Fate's mother's death and funeral are written in a "flat" way, very similar to Camus's

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__________, that little New Yorker piece to which you cited us long ago was actually a part of a The New Yorker's Book of the Month discussion. It is extraordinarily difficult to navigate around there, but I found that entire discussion. It took place a year ago. I have recently felt more comfortable with reading things about the book now that I am almost finished reading the book itself. This

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-52286361641549603032010-02-08T08:27:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:23:53.449-06:00

I have not forgotten about your long standing questions concerning Oscar Fate, __________. Let me see if I can keep my word count under control in this one.1. How does the death of his mother affect his attitude and actions?In the beginning we read, . . .maybe it all began with his mother's death. It strikes me that his mother's death simply marks the end forever of the world of Quincy Williams,

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What a kind thing to say, *Capitu, when clearly most of what I talk about are simply childish fascinations.For example in The Part About Fate, I was startled and delighted suddenly to be transported back to a place I know so much better. In his lecture on the stars, Seaman talks about the stars we see from Interstate 80 between Des Moines and Lincoln.Less ethereally, Campbell, a short time later,

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__________, regarding Oscar Fate, you inquired, “Do we each have our own view of the sacred?"I did very much enjoy Charly Cruz's reminiscence about the big, old movie houses. It was well said. As for the bit about the great DVD, I do think he was simply interested in selling them.Charly Cruz is a comedian, too.In not very good English the girl answered that she liked to have fun. Life is short,

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About to start The Part About Archimboldi, I am just killing time here while I await the big discussion to commence February 15. I certainly do not intend to dictate a reading of any particular passage from the first three parts. There is an implicit question mark behind everything I write. I would certainly love to hear from anyone who has read anything differently than I.My personal problem is

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Thank you, ladies. Those thoughts are better than any that have crossed my mind yet.Okay, __________. Got it. Makes perfect sense. Thanks. Yes, in that sense I suppose he is. One could make the argument that it is closer to life as we experience it than it is to the usual fictional fare.

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The guy gets into my head, _________. I contemplate my own glass shards now and ask myself, "What does Amalfitano mean when he says to himself offensive or defensive nature of his fortification? How can a wall with glass shards on the top be offensive in nature?"__________, others have suggested he is just playing with us. Someone suggested that he is playing with us based upon our experience

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The guy gets into my head, __________. I contemplate my own glass shards now and ask myself, "What does Amalfitano mean when he says to himself offensive or defensive nature of his fortification? How can a wall with glass shards on the top be offensive in nature?"__________, others have suggested he is just playing with us. Someone suggested that he is playing with us based upon our experience

Brassawehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10970847366194207494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1871656255585335099.post-26292054963585359602010-02-01T20:44:00.002-06:002010-03-01T12:25:27.645-06:00

__________, thank you for that thoughtful reply at No. 235 concerning Morini. Somehow, I had missed it when I posted right after it. I adamantly agree with the way you have contrasted him with the other three. I accept everything you say, but I remain concerned that something more than a developing maturity of outlook was happening with him because of that passage. Still, your analysis of the

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I have finished Part 3.Bolaño does a great job portraying the border town. Obviously, this one is modeled on Juárez, but it could certainly be modeled on Reynosa. They are all the same only to a little greater or a little lesser degree. One can watch videos of shootouts in Reynosa on youtube.com if you enjoy that sort of thing.I drove across the border into Reynosa alone first thing in the

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I suppose it could have been disillusionment, __________. But it sure does not read to me as if he is then in the real world of love and well being.It appears to me that he has become mentally unstable for whatever reason. I don't know that we have to have a precise reason for that, but one cannot help being curious about what is going on with him.

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__________, you were right to call me down a bit as you did in No. 224. I should not have referenced Joey Amalfitano in the discussion. He was an awful manager anyway. I should have made clear that I did not think Whitaker was full of it, but rather that the professor's statement was another false lead. It was just a measure of my frustration with the fact that at times the anticipation of big

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Okay, *Capitu. Fair enough. I just cannot believe that you are putting that much faith in something this author said about his own work.How sad I am that you are leaving. Your notes are wonderful as always. And thank you for this parting shot.With my penchant for overstatement, I have probably overstated the worthlessness of research with regard to this book. I did read the excerpt from the

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Thank you, _________. I have noted down the number of that post, and I give you my blood oath that I will take a crack at the question when I get there. But in the meantime, what do you think?__________, it is a little disconcerting to know that someone can see through me as easily as you do.I wrote somewhere about the eerie experience of finishing off The Lacuna and diving right into 2666 and in

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About Amalfitano later. . .But we certainly now have some feel for why it appeared that Amalfitano's nerves were shot and he damned near drowned in that swimming pool, don't we?This is a novel that is immensely difficult to discuss productively in a forum like this. It reminds me of the run we made at [book:The Book of Laughter and Forgetting|240976] more than ten years ago. Nonetheless, it has

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About the critics. . . .At page 39 the critics discuss the Swabian's article about his meeting with Archimboldi. Each offers his own theory as to the truth behind the article. They interpret it. Norton even floats the theory that the Swabian is Archimboldi, a theory that is quickly discounted. (Theories later surface that any number of characters are actually Archimboldi, including Mrs. Bubis.)

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__________, thank you for the invitation. Things could not have worked out better on all levels. 2666 arrived from Powell's yesterday morning just as I had finished the previous book. Today I began house sitting for a Mexican friend who is in the big city for a week on business. The house is deeper in my neighborhood, which is called Colonia San Antonio and is very Mexican. It has a high wall

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Speaking of borders, a bit on the cross-cultural barrier. I do not hold myself out as any authority. I write the following in all humility, confident that there are a couple in attendance here capable of knowledgeably correcting me wherein I am wrong.We in the United States like the phrase “a death with dignity.” People throw that phrase around all the time. The problem is that the usage is

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