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2666, Part 1: The Part About The Critics
Composed in the last two years of Bolaño's life, 2666 has been greeted as his greatest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness,beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters include academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student caring for her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the desert sprawl of Santa Teresa--a fictional Juárez--on the US-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared. Audacious, impassioned and profoundly inspired, 2666 is Roberto Bolaño’s masterwork.
210 pages, Paperback
Published June 15, 2006
162 people are currently reading
6363 people want to read
About the author
Roberto Bolaño
139 books6,742 followersFor most of his early adulthood, Bolaño was a vagabond, living at one time or another in Chile, Mexico, El Salvador, France and Spain. Bolaño moved to Europe in 1977, and finally made his way to Spain, where he married and settled on the Mediterranean coast near Barcelona, working as a dishwasher, a campground custodian, bellhop and garbage collector — working during the day and writing at night.
He continued with his poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolaño stated that he made this decision because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he could never secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolaño "abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" because the birth of his son in 1990 made him "decide that he was responsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." However, he continued to think of himself primarily as a poet, and a collection of his verse, spanning 20 years, was published in 2000 under the title The Romantic Dogs.
Regarding his native country Chile, which he visited just once after going into voluntary exile, Bolaño had conflicted feelings. He was notorious in Chile for his fierce attacks on Isabel Allende and other members of the literary establishment.
In 2003, after a long period of declining health, Bolaño passed away. Bolaño was survived by his Spanish wife and their two children, whom he once called "my only motherland."
Although deep down he always felt like a poet, his reputation ultimately rests on his novels, novellas and short story collections. Although Bolaño espoused the lifestyle of a bohemian poet and literary enfant terrible for all his adult life, he only began to produce substantial works of fiction in the 1990s. He almost immediately became a highly regarded figure in Spanish and Latin American letters.
In rapid succession, he published a series of critically acclaimed works, the most important of which are the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), the novella Nocturno de Chile (By Night In Chile), and, posthumously, the novel 2666. His two collections of short stories Llamadas telefónicas and Putas asesinas were awarded literary prizes.
In 2009 a number of unpublished novels were discovered among the author's papers.
He continued with his poetry, before shifting to fiction in his early forties. In an interview Bolaño stated that he made this decision because he felt responsible for the future financial well-being of his family, which he knew he could never secure from the earnings of a poet. This was confirmed by Jorge Herralde, who explained that Bolaño "abandoned his parsimonious beatnik existence" because the birth of his son in 1990 made him "decide that he was responsible for his family's future and that it would be easier to earn a living by writing fiction." However, he continued to think of himself primarily as a poet, and a collection of his verse, spanning 20 years, was published in 2000 under the title The Romantic Dogs.
Regarding his native country Chile, which he visited just once after going into voluntary exile, Bolaño had conflicted feelings. He was notorious in Chile for his fierce attacks on Isabel Allende and other members of the literary establishment.
In 2003, after a long period of declining health, Bolaño passed away. Bolaño was survived by his Spanish wife and their two children, whom he once called "my only motherland."
Although deep down he always felt like a poet, his reputation ultimately rests on his novels, novellas and short story collections. Although Bolaño espoused the lifestyle of a bohemian poet and literary enfant terrible for all his adult life, he only began to produce substantial works of fiction in the 1990s. He almost immediately became a highly regarded figure in Spanish and Latin American letters.
In rapid succession, he published a series of critically acclaimed works, the most important of which are the novel Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives), the novella Nocturno de Chile (By Night In Chile), and, posthumously, the novel 2666. His two collections of short stories Llamadas telefónicas and Putas asesinas were awarded literary prizes.
In 2009 a number of unpublished novels were discovered among the author's papers.
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June 25, 2016
I know, I know. It’s 2016 and Bolaño is so last decade. Everyone’s heard the story of his rise from total obscurity to one of the biggest literary darlings of the 21st century. He was so hot right now.
I was late to the party anyway. I’d only picked up The Savage Detectives because I’d been hearing so much about this “Chilean poet” and I had basically planned on hate-reading it. I was sure that I would find it to be mushy and lame, like I considered almost all poetry to be at the time. I was wrong. I fell in love with Bolaño’s brand of storytelling for many of the same reasons others have: the sense that reading was fun, and important, and that its importance was a big part of what made it so fun, so vital.
All of that is old hat. I’m not saying that it’s a gimmick, but that initial Reading is Fun moment can’t by itself sustain further re-readings. Could Bolaño survive a second go-around? I’d have to find out. I’d recently re-read Distant Star, and I’m convinced that it, along with 2666 and The Return , comprise his best work. I feel this way because it is these two novels and one short story collection that most explicitly illustrate Bolaño’s primary thesis, which is that the pursuit of imaginative literature will inevitably end in the Void.
In Part I: The Part About the Critics, this kenoma is manifested on earth by Archimboldi. If 2666 is a satanic bible, which I believe it to be, then the elusive German writer and subject of the critics’ obsession is the Antichrist. This opening novel is one of the most overlooked Parts of 2666; I certainly didn’t think it was that big a deal when I first read the entire book, at least not in comparison to Parts IV and V. I remember thinking, “OK, he’s doing his Third Reich thing here.” I remember reading an interview with Bolaño where he said that 2666 had a secret center – to paraphrase – that there was a parallel story happening the whole time, a story in which zero words were dedicated. At the time I thought I could see it, he was talking about Parts IV and V, I thought. It was that secret center that had been calling to me recently, and not wanting to go through The Part About the Crimes again (I have a seven month-old daughter, so that part is impossible), I chose Part I just to see what would happen.
After that moment, reality for Pelletier and Espinoza seemed to tear like paper scenery, and when it was stripped away it revealed what was behind it: a smoking landscape, as if someone, an angel, maybe, was tending hundreds of barbecue pits for a crowd of invisible beings.
I realized that the secret center is alive and thriving from the very first pages, that Bolaño wasn’t being “mundane” (there’s a tendency these days to equate mundanity with literary profundity), he was in fact crafting a slow-burning thriller, like one of the asadas presided over by an archon in the deserts of Mexico. The fantasy-characters of the critics have what a naïve, pre-coup Bolaño must have dreamed of as ideal lives, jet setters with disposable income, the luxury to have refined tastes, who are published often, and get to devote their lives to the obscure literature of a wildcard that goes mainstream. How they actually feel about Archimboldi is never explicitly mentioned, except for the comment of his “delicate” descriptions of pain and shame (which is Bolaño talking about himself). Their pursuit of Archimboldi the human being is Bolaño’s metaphor for Art butting up against Truth, and Truth is the Void. By the end it is unclear whether he even respects the critics; I suspect he still does, but they’ve been tainted, their inability to adequately sense the horror around them in Mexico betrays a coldness, their insistence on searching for a writer when the world is ending a pedantry that even Bolaño finds disappointing.
Without its secret center, this novel is mundane and boring, and one could easily ask (and many have) What’s the big deal? This dude is overhyped, they say. They’re like tourists in a Juarez flea market lookin’ for a cheap deal on a counterfeit handbag, they don’t realize the Void is all around them.
I was late to the party anyway. I’d only picked up The Savage Detectives because I’d been hearing so much about this “Chilean poet” and I had basically planned on hate-reading it. I was sure that I would find it to be mushy and lame, like I considered almost all poetry to be at the time. I was wrong. I fell in love with Bolaño’s brand of storytelling for many of the same reasons others have: the sense that reading was fun, and important, and that its importance was a big part of what made it so fun, so vital.
All of that is old hat. I’m not saying that it’s a gimmick, but that initial Reading is Fun moment can’t by itself sustain further re-readings. Could Bolaño survive a second go-around? I’d have to find out. I’d recently re-read Distant Star, and I’m convinced that it, along with 2666 and The Return , comprise his best work. I feel this way because it is these two novels and one short story collection that most explicitly illustrate Bolaño’s primary thesis, which is that the pursuit of imaginative literature will inevitably end in the Void.
In Part I: The Part About the Critics, this kenoma is manifested on earth by Archimboldi. If 2666 is a satanic bible, which I believe it to be, then the elusive German writer and subject of the critics’ obsession is the Antichrist. This opening novel is one of the most overlooked Parts of 2666; I certainly didn’t think it was that big a deal when I first read the entire book, at least not in comparison to Parts IV and V. I remember thinking, “OK, he’s doing his Third Reich thing here.” I remember reading an interview with Bolaño where he said that 2666 had a secret center – to paraphrase – that there was a parallel story happening the whole time, a story in which zero words were dedicated. At the time I thought I could see it, he was talking about Parts IV and V, I thought. It was that secret center that had been calling to me recently, and not wanting to go through The Part About the Crimes again (I have a seven month-old daughter, so that part is impossible), I chose Part I just to see what would happen.
After that moment, reality for Pelletier and Espinoza seemed to tear like paper scenery, and when it was stripped away it revealed what was behind it: a smoking landscape, as if someone, an angel, maybe, was tending hundreds of barbecue pits for a crowd of invisible beings.
I realized that the secret center is alive and thriving from the very first pages, that Bolaño wasn’t being “mundane” (there’s a tendency these days to equate mundanity with literary profundity), he was in fact crafting a slow-burning thriller, like one of the asadas presided over by an archon in the deserts of Mexico. The fantasy-characters of the critics have what a naïve, pre-coup Bolaño must have dreamed of as ideal lives, jet setters with disposable income, the luxury to have refined tastes, who are published often, and get to devote their lives to the obscure literature of a wildcard that goes mainstream. How they actually feel about Archimboldi is never explicitly mentioned, except for the comment of his “delicate” descriptions of pain and shame (which is Bolaño talking about himself). Their pursuit of Archimboldi the human being is Bolaño’s metaphor for Art butting up against Truth, and Truth is the Void. By the end it is unclear whether he even respects the critics; I suspect he still does, but they’ve been tainted, their inability to adequately sense the horror around them in Mexico betrays a coldness, their insistence on searching for a writer when the world is ending a pedantry that even Bolaño finds disappointing.
Without its secret center, this novel is mundane and boring, and one could easily ask (and many have) What’s the big deal? This dude is overhyped, they say. They’re like tourists in a Juarez flea market lookin’ for a cheap deal on a counterfeit handbag, they don’t realize the Void is all around them.
June 15, 2019
Dil-edebiyatçıların ders konuları arasında şayet "Bolaño Hikaye Anlatımı" üzerine içerikler mevcut değilse bence olmalı demek küstahlık mıdır emin değilim fakat yine de birileri bu fikri bir düşünsün derim.
"Kütük" gibi kitabın ilk bölümü. Fransız Jean-Claude Pelletier, İtalyan Piero Morini, İspanyol Manuel Espinoza ve İngiliz Liz Norton Avrupalı dört eleştirmenimiz, kariyerlerini Alman yazar Benno von Archimboldi üzerine ilerletiyor. Bolaño biz okuyucuya bu dört kişi ve yan karakterleri kendine özgü anlatım biçimi ile uzun tasvirler kullanarak aktarıyor. Öyle ki bölümün neredeyse dörtte üçlük kısmında konu edinilen bu ve diğer karakterlerin hayat hikayelerini, yaşam alanlarını, rüyalarını ve aralarındaki bağları ısrarlı ve olabildiğince aceleci davranmadan okuyup öğreniyoruz. Yazar bu konuda oldukça sakin. Archimboldi -kayıp yazar- bu dört eleştirmeni bir araya getiren asıl mesele. Tanışmalarını ve ardından gelişen ilişkilerini sayfalarca sindiriyoruz. Ve her sayfayı çevirdiğimizde beklenen korkuya bir adım da yaklaştığımızı fazlasıyla hissediyoruz.
Uzun zamandan beri okuduğum en ilginç kitap diyebilirim. Okurken tedirginlik hissi sürekli bir yerinizde ilişikte duruyor. Benim için bunun nedeni bu derece önemli görülen eserin aslında her bölümün ayrı değerlendirilecekken okuduğum diğer Bolaño kitaplarını da düşününce bölümler aralarındaki bağları atlayıp gerekli özveriyi gösteremeyeceğimden doğan tedirginlik. Bir mekan, bir karakter ya da bir olay. Kaçıracağınız herhangi bir an hazzınıza kurtçuk sokabilir. Umarım bilmeden atladığım detaylar ilerleyen bölümlerde anlam kargaşasına neden olmaz.
Her kitaplıkta yer alması gereken bir kitap olduğunu sanırım belirtmeme gerek yok. Henüz okumamış olanlar, ertelemek için neden yok, hayat kısa roman uzun.
"Kütük" gibi kitabın ilk bölümü. Fransız Jean-Claude Pelletier, İtalyan Piero Morini, İspanyol Manuel Espinoza ve İngiliz Liz Norton Avrupalı dört eleştirmenimiz, kariyerlerini Alman yazar Benno von Archimboldi üzerine ilerletiyor. Bolaño biz okuyucuya bu dört kişi ve yan karakterleri kendine özgü anlatım biçimi ile uzun tasvirler kullanarak aktarıyor. Öyle ki bölümün neredeyse dörtte üçlük kısmında konu edinilen bu ve diğer karakterlerin hayat hikayelerini, yaşam alanlarını, rüyalarını ve aralarındaki bağları ısrarlı ve olabildiğince aceleci davranmadan okuyup öğreniyoruz. Yazar bu konuda oldukça sakin. Archimboldi -kayıp yazar- bu dört eleştirmeni bir araya getiren asıl mesele. Tanışmalarını ve ardından gelişen ilişkilerini sayfalarca sindiriyoruz. Ve her sayfayı çevirdiğimizde beklenen korkuya bir adım da yaklaştığımızı fazlasıyla hissediyoruz.
Uzun zamandan beri okuduğum en ilginç kitap diyebilirim. Okurken tedirginlik hissi sürekli bir yerinizde ilişikte duruyor. Benim için bunun nedeni bu derece önemli görülen eserin aslında her bölümün ayrı değerlendirilecekken okuduğum diğer Bolaño kitaplarını da düşününce bölümler aralarındaki bağları atlayıp gerekli özveriyi gösteremeyeceğimden doğan tedirginlik. Bir mekan, bir karakter ya da bir olay. Kaçıracağınız herhangi bir an hazzınıza kurtçuk sokabilir. Umarım bilmeden atladığım detaylar ilerleyen bölümlerde anlam kargaşasına neden olmaz.
Her kitaplıkta yer alması gereken bir kitap olduğunu sanırım belirtmeme gerek yok. Henüz okumamış olanlar, ertelemek için neden yok, hayat kısa roman uzun.
June 20, 2014
5 stars.....hypnotic, chilling....I will take a short break and then read the second novel....will write a review once I read all five novels that complete the whole of 2666 which might take me to next year. This is an incredible start....
March 1, 2014
I've owned this book for years but could never find the time or the courage to climb the mountain. Having finally done just that, I can confirm that this is a great big fat work of tremendous art. All great readers out there should be aware of the great trees out there in the literary forest. And 2666 is a big tree. A giant piece of art. Scary and unpleasant human art. But art and for that fact remarkable and notable. Bolano is on a par (put maybe even more incandescent) than Cormac McCarthy. Cormac is a scary artist himself (I'm thinking of Blood Meridian and the Road). If you've been warily eying up this tome, take the plunge.
May 25, 2013
The first part of Bolaño's sprawling masterpiece is a deceptively comic set-up for the remainder of the book, which has significantly (and appropriately) less wit than is dished up in this tale of four academics - professors of German from England, France, Spain and Italy. While these four professors are busy reading and writing and arguing about their favorite author - the mysterious recluse Benno Von Archimboldi, whose Italianate name is not explained until part five - women are disappearing in northern Mexico and turning up later, brutally raped and murdered. We need no Cliff Notes to tell us that these four represent Europe - aware of the situation in Mexico, but not really interested enough to do anything about it. A delicious piece of work, with greater pleasures to follow in books 4 & 5 (less so in 2 & 3, which feel like interludes - though each adds to the whole). A must -read.
September 20, 2014
5/5. This whole part trembles with the anticipation of impending dread: something is coming and there’s nothing that can be done about it. Bolano achieves this with a simple technique. He writes and keeps writing in the “describing setting” mode (not sure if this is the best phrase) which is usually used to begin narratives. Consequently, we the readers, keep waiting and waiting and keep dreading what looms.
August 6, 2016
This was just Part I, so I am not ready to put the whole thing together in my head just yet. I understand that Bolaño wanted these "books" to be published one a year after his death as an insurance policy for his family. Bolaño must have felt very sure of his hold on his audience because this book does not feel like a stand-alone to me. It is rather like an extremely talented friend taking time to tell a long and involved story with amusing bits about the way people act and how they interact with one another and what it is like to be an academic with an intimate and yet distant connection with a person that is the subject of their study--they'd never met the man they studied. That remove, that unknowingness, is perhaps the subject of this portion.
December 25, 2018
The first 120 pages of the book felt like an introduction to something and only the last 40 pages put everything together. The end of the Part 1 was one of the saddest, most beautiful and brilliantly written things I've ever read. Looking forward to reading the rest of 2666, although I can see how Part 1 can be a novel of its own.
January 15, 2018
From Wiki:
Originally planned as a single book, Bolaño then considered publishing it as five volumes to provide more income for his children; however, the heirs decided otherwise and the book was published in one lengthy volume.
This part describes a group of four European literary critics, the French Jean-Claude Pelletier, the Italian Piero Morini, the Spaniard Manuel Espinoza and the English woman Liz Norton, who have forged their careers around the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi. Their search for Archimboldi himself and details of his life causes them to get to know his aging publisher Mrs. Bubis. Then in a seminary in Toulouse the four academics meet up with Rodolfo Alatorre, a Mexican who says a friend knew him in Mexico City a short while back and that from there the elusive German was said to be going to the Mexican border town of Santa Teresa in Sonora. Three of the academics go there in search of him but fail to find him. A major element of this part centers around romantic entanglements between the critics.
Following Bolaño first planning for this book, I decided to read as original scheduled by the author.
Originally planned as a single book, Bolaño then considered publishing it as five volumes to provide more income for his children; however, the heirs decided otherwise and the book was published in one lengthy volume.
This part describes a group of four European literary critics, the French Jean-Claude Pelletier, the Italian Piero Morini, the Spaniard Manuel Espinoza and the English woman Liz Norton, who have forged their careers around the reclusive German novelist Benno von Archimboldi. Their search for Archimboldi himself and details of his life causes them to get to know his aging publisher Mrs. Bubis. Then in a seminary in Toulouse the four academics meet up with Rodolfo Alatorre, a Mexican who says a friend knew him in Mexico City a short while back and that from there the elusive German was said to be going to the Mexican border town of Santa Teresa in Sonora. Three of the academics go there in search of him but fail to find him. A major element of this part centers around romantic entanglements between the critics.
Following Bolaño first planning for this book, I decided to read as original scheduled by the author.
August 4, 2016
A Parte dos Críticos: Aqui temos o estilo que me encantou em Os Detetives Selvagens, aficionados em busca de um autor, a prosa de Bolaño é precisa e envolvente.
November 29, 2025
An excellent read. Left me eager to read part 2 and on!
June 10, 2016
This is one of the most interesting books I've ever read. Bolaño's style is so unique; he describes scenes/thoughts/objects/people for pages and pages, sometimes until you think you'll go mad. He talks about everything and nothing. You get to know these character's inner thoughts and feelings on a deeper level than most. I'm quite intrigued to see where the next parts of the story go.
February 7, 2017
When I heard that the publisher disregarded Bolano's will to publish every single book once a year I was horrified. How dared he!! ....... Now that I've read this first book I might agree with him. This book as little sense on its own. It must be seen as a part of a whole.
September 12, 2024
Academics Gone Wild
June 29, 2025
tl;dr it's good 👍
The first part of 2666 follows a group of friends, German literary professors, all of whom are experts on a an writer, Archimboldi, who no one has seen in years. We follow them on their journey, from their respective discovery of the missing author and watch as their relationship grows.
If you know the overal premise of the book, this may sound entirely tangential: the novel revolves around the mystery of Santa Teresa, a fictionalised Juarez, on the Mexico-US border. Both the fictional and real life city are infamous for the Mexican Femicides, where over 500 woman were murdered between 1993 and 2011 by cartel gangs and buried in mass graves, with authorities doing less than nothing about it.
For the lost part, the critics have nothing to do with Santa Teresa. We follow their lives and their complicated relationships, as well as the mystery of Archimboldi. Over the years, they receive breadcrumbs on Archimboldi's whereabouts until one day they get news of sighting (the first in decades) in or around Santa Teresa.
When they arrive, Santa Teresa begins to change them. This unreal place, where people disappearing is a normal, everyday occurrence, strains their friendship to the point of fracture.
Still, the vast majority of this part of the book is set in Europe. On the surface, not the most exciting premise. However, our four friends (Pelletier, Espinoza, Norton and Morino) are characterised so well, and the slowly unfolding mystery of the missing author is so engrossing that the whole thing manages to be juggle character study and detective novel without dropping the ball once. Bolaño made the (presumably) bland world of German literature academia exciting.
The fact that the first 15 percent of this massive book is essentially preamble to the main plot doesn't take away from the novel. It gives the story an immense sense of scale, and immaculately introduces characters that will be pivitol later on as well as the madness of Santa Teresa.
Originally, Bolaño was going to publish 2666 as ffice separate books and, honestly, this would have made an excellent standalone novel.
The first part of 2666 follows a group of friends, German literary professors, all of whom are experts on a an writer, Archimboldi, who no one has seen in years. We follow them on their journey, from their respective discovery of the missing author and watch as their relationship grows.
If you know the overal premise of the book, this may sound entirely tangential: the novel revolves around the mystery of Santa Teresa, a fictionalised Juarez, on the Mexico-US border. Both the fictional and real life city are infamous for the Mexican Femicides, where over 500 woman were murdered between 1993 and 2011 by cartel gangs and buried in mass graves, with authorities doing less than nothing about it.
For the lost part, the critics have nothing to do with Santa Teresa. We follow their lives and their complicated relationships, as well as the mystery of Archimboldi. Over the years, they receive breadcrumbs on Archimboldi's whereabouts until one day they get news of sighting (the first in decades) in or around Santa Teresa.
When they arrive, Santa Teresa begins to change them. This unreal place, where people disappearing is a normal, everyday occurrence, strains their friendship to the point of fracture.
Still, the vast majority of this part of the book is set in Europe. On the surface, not the most exciting premise. However, our four friends (Pelletier, Espinoza, Norton and Morino) are characterised so well, and the slowly unfolding mystery of the missing author is so engrossing that the whole thing manages to be juggle character study and detective novel without dropping the ball once. Bolaño made the (presumably) bland world of German literature academia exciting.
The fact that the first 15 percent of this massive book is essentially preamble to the main plot doesn't take away from the novel. It gives the story an immense sense of scale, and immaculately introduces characters that will be pivitol later on as well as the madness of Santa Teresa.
Originally, Bolaño was going to publish 2666 as ffice separate books and, honestly, this would have made an excellent standalone novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 6, 2018
1st 100 pgs
The author spent a great deal of time in the beginning of this book depicting/analyzing the educational history and career outcomes of the four main characters and, for me, I was left with preconceptions based off of this lengthy, rather drab, period. Three University professors are introduced, intellectuals who, after time, hold high reputation and stature, eventually earning great notoriety for their work in their fields. The fourth character, an only female, who is also a teacher. There is a time when the author changes the mood of the story, it's very lethargic - gradually unfolding, encroaching even, it was very well done. The atmosphere shifts from normalcy and lightness to dark nights, dangers and an emerging theme (reoccurring) of; “What constitutes insanity?”
Definition: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Extreme foolishness or irrationality when a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality.
I found it very unexpected when the characters willingly began to engage in acts that I can only imagine thugs partaking in. So much information has been displayed to the reader in only 100 pages. I choose the word Displayed because I literally feel that a great deal of the content, with relation to the characters, has been exposed to us as if on display, information revealed has been exploited and the characters vulnerabilities in derogatory ways are brought to the forefront. Readers have no choice but to contemplate: How am I left feeling about this or that? Just as the characters do. How are my perceptions of the characters changing and rearranging? Most important: Where is this headed? I can’t believe it’s only been 100 pages, so much has taken place, there’s multiple themes that can be psychoanalyzed.
Needless to say I'm very engaged
The author spent a great deal of time in the beginning of this book depicting/analyzing the educational history and career outcomes of the four main characters and, for me, I was left with preconceptions based off of this lengthy, rather drab, period. Three University professors are introduced, intellectuals who, after time, hold high reputation and stature, eventually earning great notoriety for their work in their fields. The fourth character, an only female, who is also a teacher. There is a time when the author changes the mood of the story, it's very lethargic - gradually unfolding, encroaching even, it was very well done. The atmosphere shifts from normalcy and lightness to dark nights, dangers and an emerging theme (reoccurring) of; “What constitutes insanity?”
Definition: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. Extreme foolishness or irrationality when a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality.
I found it very unexpected when the characters willingly began to engage in acts that I can only imagine thugs partaking in. So much information has been displayed to the reader in only 100 pages. I choose the word Displayed because I literally feel that a great deal of the content, with relation to the characters, has been exposed to us as if on display, information revealed has been exploited and the characters vulnerabilities in derogatory ways are brought to the forefront. Readers have no choice but to contemplate: How am I left feeling about this or that? Just as the characters do. How are my perceptions of the characters changing and rearranging? Most important: Where is this headed? I can’t believe it’s only been 100 pages, so much has taken place, there’s multiple themes that can be psychoanalyzed.
Needless to say I'm very engaged
June 22, 2021
Too romantic to be a crime mystery. Knots are being untied. Let's move to next part.
This is first of five parts in 2666 series. I picked it up because it felt "oldy goldy fresh" and "strange". I had never heard of Bolano before.
This part revolves around four European literary critics, who come to Mexico in search of their favourite "vanished" German writer. This detection turned literary pilgrimage unfolds their unhappy romantic sides.
This is first of five parts in 2666 series. I picked it up because it felt "oldy goldy fresh" and "strange". I had never heard of Bolano before.
This part revolves around four European literary critics, who come to Mexico in search of their favourite "vanished" German writer. This detection turned literary pilgrimage unfolds their unhappy romantic sides.
January 27, 2023
3.5
I’ll rate the sections of this individually as I go through it, but I found this one a little slow and meandering, so it was hard to piece together the things that make this section relevant to the rest of the book - I understand the macro idea of ambivalence and pretension that allow for horrors to go unnoticed but I didn’t need a 150 page love triangle to get it. It’s okay, i’m excited to see where this goes
I’ll rate the sections of this individually as I go through it, but I found this one a little slow and meandering, so it was hard to piece together the things that make this section relevant to the rest of the book - I understand the macro idea of ambivalence and pretension that allow for horrors to go unnoticed but I didn’t need a 150 page love triangle to get it. It’s okay, i’m excited to see where this goes
June 18, 2015
I am possibly not educated enough for this book. I am fighting my way through 2666, part II right now. The reason I am bothering to fight is that I often find that, for me, reading difficult, challenging work ultimately makes me happy. But I have now turned to goodreads as a modern-day, asynchronous version of the book group to get some insight into "What the what did I just read?" I suppose the violence by the literary critics is emblematic of the obscene, unpredictable violence that we find in the world, particularly in real-life Ciudad Juárez (renamed Santa Teresa here, for murky to me reasons). And their quest to find Archimboldi? There are so many cultural references that I feel that I am missing, as each of the main characters of this section are a different nationality, relating to one another through a common love of literature, and perhaps through their academic careers. I also am often wondering if I am supposed to remember my reading of some cited author, or if they are a fictional character. This is due to my failure to dip, even a bit, into the canon of German literature, and my passing acquaintance with many of the great philosophers and artists. There is also the hapless character of Amalfitano, misunderstood by the critics, and later, in part II, misunderstood by me as well. I now will read the reviews of better-informed, more well-read people in hopes of some greater understanding.
June 25, 2013
This reminds me of the scene in the film Out of Africa, when Denys Finch Hatton and Berkeley Cole first visit Karen Blixen, who during dinner, boasts of her talent to weave a fully-drawn story from any sentence that would serve as the beginning. Finch Hatton bites and both men are rewarded with a tale lasting to the early morning hours. And so Part 1 of 2666 commences: The first time that Jean-Claude Pelletier read Benno von Archimboldi was Christmas 1980, in Paris, when he was nineteen years old and studying German literature. What follows is a seemingly unending chronicle of events, which feels like a stream of consciousness, because of the many digressions and dreams, though it's written as a journalist would -- sticking to the facts -- sometimes to the point of clinical. Part 1 reads as if Roberto Bolano wrote it in one seating without stopping and without an editor to shape his manuscript, which subsequently renders the text hypnotically fresh and unencumbered. It's a vast piece of work. At one point, I imagined I was Sheherazade's executioner testing to see if the storyteller can sustain my interest. I was enthralled.
January 28, 2018
Meh. Maybe the style and premise are supposed to grow on you via the later books but I've had enough.
Read
May 14, 2021god this book is so sad. I read half of it (this time) in an ER bed and the other half on my couch. I don't think I've known how sad it was any of the other times.
February 13, 2022
I really don’t understand the hype. Maybe the next books will be better
December 1, 2025
...o insultavam em inglês, sem se importar nem um pouco com o fato de que o asiático estivesse caído, todo encolhido no chão, chute vai e chute vem, enfie o islã no cu, é lá que ele deve estar, este chute é por Salman Rushdie (autor que ambos, aliás, consideravam bem ruinzinho, mas cuja menção lhes pareceu pertinente), este chute é pelas feministas de Paris (puta que pariu, parem com isso, gritava Norton), este chute é pelas feministas de Nova York (vocês vão matar ele, gritava Norton), este chute é pelo fantasma de Valerie Solanas, seu filho da puta, e assim até deixá-lo inconsciente e sangrando por todos os orifícios da cabeça, menos pelos olhos.
Decidi logar cada parte separadamente pra discutir com calma o que me parecer interessante, em vez de tentar resumir em um parágrafo as mais de mil páginas. Da parte dos críticos, gostei muito de como ele opõe a rotina do acadêmico europeu (congressos, hotéis, tudo bancado pela universidade) à do acadêmico latinoamericano, que trabalha pro Estado, sem luxo e sem delírios de grandeza; e de como Amalfitano parece descrente que Archimboldi seja maior que Handke, Bernhard, etc, talvez por não ter nenhum interesse na ascensão do autor, enquanto os acadêmicos europeus construíram uma bela carreira em cima do alemão, e comemoram a nomeação de Archimboldi ao Nobel justamente por saber que a imortalidade do autor garante a imortalidade dos seus críticos.
Também me admira a fluidez com que Bolaño passa de um ponto de vista pro outro, conjurando personagem atrás de personagem sem parecer se repetir nos traços, nas atitudes, e aí largando essa voz e passando pra outra como se o ato de criação não lhe despendesse esforço nenhum. Talvez não despenda mesmo, quando se escreve bem assim. Posso apenas sonhar.
Decidi logar cada parte separadamente pra discutir com calma o que me parecer interessante, em vez de tentar resumir em um parágrafo as mais de mil páginas. Da parte dos críticos, gostei muito de como ele opõe a rotina do acadêmico europeu (congressos, hotéis, tudo bancado pela universidade) à do acadêmico latinoamericano, que trabalha pro Estado, sem luxo e sem delírios de grandeza; e de como Amalfitano parece descrente que Archimboldi seja maior que Handke, Bernhard, etc, talvez por não ter nenhum interesse na ascensão do autor, enquanto os acadêmicos europeus construíram uma bela carreira em cima do alemão, e comemoram a nomeação de Archimboldi ao Nobel justamente por saber que a imortalidade do autor garante a imortalidade dos seus críticos.
Também me admira a fluidez com que Bolaño passa de um ponto de vista pro outro, conjurando personagem atrás de personagem sem parecer se repetir nos traços, nas atitudes, e aí largando essa voz e passando pra outra como se o ato de criação não lhe despendesse esforço nenhum. Talvez não despenda mesmo, quando se escreve bem assim. Posso apenas sonhar.
February 15, 2025
I guess it’s all been said about this novel. But the Part about the Critics was so worth the hype for me! I love characters that remind you that the smartest person in the room can be the dumbest person in the room.
June 14, 2025
(For my mom) This represents basically the first 200 pages of the behemoth of a novel I bought last week. The book was published posthumously as 1 novel despite the authors intentions for it to be 5 shorter novels so I'm rating each one separately and maybe giving a big review of all of them at the end, it depends on how I feel, who knows?
I really like this novel, the story is essentially 4 professors obsessed with a reclusive German writer named Archimbaldi travel to Mexico in search of him, all the while debating whether or not to have group sex. But it's so much more than that, because of the underlying plot of the serial murders of women in Santa Teresa, that's not explicitly what this part revolves around but the danger is so clearly there leading to an incredibly unsettling feeling throughout the entire last third of this part. To me it feels like we're watching a Star Trek episode from the perspective of a no-name redshirt.
I don't have any complaints about this book so far, I really enjoy the writing style, and the humor in this book is super underrated, the way the professors interact with each other is hilarious (also they're so cool, they just travel around by plane on a whim, have the most expensive tastes and get their writing published frequently). I read sections out loud for my girlfriend and my roommates because I thought they were so funny (I was unfortunately alone in that sentiment, having to explain all the context really detracts from a punch line). It's slow for sure, but it's slow in the way Godfather is slow or American Pie is slow, I don't actually want it to end I just like trucking away on it. I'm very proud of myself I've done a good job at not peeking ahead I have no idea what future parts have in store and I'm so excited, I've heard good things about part 5.
I really like this novel, the story is essentially 4 professors obsessed with a reclusive German writer named Archimbaldi travel to Mexico in search of him, all the while debating whether or not to have group sex. But it's so much more than that, because of the underlying plot of the serial murders of women in Santa Teresa, that's not explicitly what this part revolves around but the danger is so clearly there leading to an incredibly unsettling feeling throughout the entire last third of this part. To me it feels like we're watching a Star Trek episode from the perspective of a no-name redshirt.
I don't have any complaints about this book so far, I really enjoy the writing style, and the humor in this book is super underrated, the way the professors interact with each other is hilarious (also they're so cool, they just travel around by plane on a whim, have the most expensive tastes and get their writing published frequently). I read sections out loud for my girlfriend and my roommates because I thought they were so funny (I was unfortunately alone in that sentiment, having to explain all the context really detracts from a punch line). It's slow for sure, but it's slow in the way Godfather is slow or American Pie is slow, I don't actually want it to end I just like trucking away on it. I'm very proud of myself I've done a good job at not peeking ahead I have no idea what future parts have in store and I'm so excited, I've heard good things about part 5.
March 10, 2016
Bolano's masterpiece is set a short distance from where I grew up in Arizona, but a world apart. We are in a world of literary critics, love triangles, and self-mutilating artists, but more importantly we move to a haunted northern Mexico. The crimes that form the backbone of the fear cascading through this book really happened, in Juarez, and that mystery and pain informs much of the book. The power of the book also comes from its gorgeous style and its terrifying digressions. There is a four-page sentence about a horse race in Argentina early in the book. In it, Balano sets the table for what he wants to do - tell us a masterful story, in a gorgeous style, and occupy a corner of our soul for years to come.
May 29, 2015
Started May 16. I figured I'd write this 5-part book up a part at a time in case I didn't finish it. This may be a fool's errand (making me just the man for the job) as it is, for me at least, difficult to evaluate this book on its own. Maybe I'll change my rating one way or the other when I'm done with the others.
The Part About the Critics starts out a little like a comedy of manners with almost precious descriptions of the characters and their actions. I also got bits of Gulliver's Travels and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These two despite there being no fantasy or magic, realistic or otherwise.
The Part About the Critics starts out a little like a comedy of manners with almost precious descriptions of the characters and their actions. I also got bits of Gulliver's Travels and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. These two despite there being no fantasy or magic, realistic or otherwise.
August 26, 2020
One of the greatest works of literature in the last 20, and even 50 years. A novel encompassing the oft ignored and ignominious underside of global culture: the structure and length go a long way in showing the subjective nature of history and the world, and the way Bolaño shows the intellectual literati's indifference to the struggling and the poor, the victims of violence, economic, and a failure of the social order, all centered around those that would understand the 'finer things in life', Bolaño's magnum opus is a true masterpiece.
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