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2666, Part 3: The Part About Fate
118 pages, Unknown Binding
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About the author
Roberto Bolaño
139 books6,708 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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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
March 3, 2018
This might be the least-referenced Part of 2666, but it shouldn't be. It's every bit as amazing as the rest. I had forgotten just how good it is. It makes the case for the collection to be printed as separate novels, the way the author had intended, because focus on each part is necessary. To my delight (although it is a dark kind of delight), the separate Parts are vindicated upon re-reading.
First, to start, I have to state my amazement at the opening of Fate's story. Bolaño captures the voice of African-Americans with astonishing accuracy, and what's more, he doesn't just mimic their slang, he full on creates great Black characters. Barry Seaman (based on the Black Panther Bobby Seale) is profound, especially when he claims that "metaphors are like life rafts." We have to explain things to ourselves, so we compare them to other things that seem to express our feelings the right way. This is the function of art. This is the ultimate goal of 2666, to explain why things like the Juarez killings (or school shootings) take place.
And while much of the beginning of this section seems like it must be a dream (Fate's walk in the park with Seaman, for instance, and the odd mural Fate sees that spells "fear" *shivers*), there are definitive plot elements in this Part that make it crucial. The chance encounter with Detective Kessler for example, where he explains to his companions that the reason why no one cares about the women being killed is because they are outside of society, they are barbarians, an insight that deserves meditation. When I look at the misogyny that pervades this book--given to us on purpose by Bolaño as a clue, or key, to the mystery--I think that the Juarez killings are what happens when Bro Culture, or College Rape Culture, is given free reign to act with impunity. The Killer isn't a man, it's an idea, a way of living, that's been allowed to get out of control.
But why do we see this novel as a mystery in the first place? Why are we drawn to it as if it were a thriller? Why are so many caught up with trying to find "The Killer", as if it was a common cat-and-mouse game between the Good Cop and the Evil Bad Guy? (Head over to the fantastic website bolanobolano.com, and you'll find websleuths theorizing as if they were trying to find the Zodiac.) I think that, besides Bolaños genius for writing a slow-burn genre novel (he was a fan of such books while alive, and a big proponent of getting rid of the lines between "genre" novels and "literary" novels), the "mystery novel" is the metaphor needed to investigate such a dark subject without getting sick, or without becoming so numb that nothing propels us anymore. Even now I want to dive back into the world of 2666 because it has that strong narrative pull that all good crime novels have. I won't jump back in so quickly however, because Part 4 is the Part About the Crimes, and that is not territory one enters without some serious metaphysical protection.
Bon chance, Goodreaders. Keep reading. Keep sleuthing.
First, to start, I have to state my amazement at the opening of Fate's story. Bolaño captures the voice of African-Americans with astonishing accuracy, and what's more, he doesn't just mimic their slang, he full on creates great Black characters. Barry Seaman (based on the Black Panther Bobby Seale) is profound, especially when he claims that "metaphors are like life rafts." We have to explain things to ourselves, so we compare them to other things that seem to express our feelings the right way. This is the function of art. This is the ultimate goal of 2666, to explain why things like the Juarez killings (or school shootings) take place.
And while much of the beginning of this section seems like it must be a dream (Fate's walk in the park with Seaman, for instance, and the odd mural Fate sees that spells "fear" *shivers*), there are definitive plot elements in this Part that make it crucial. The chance encounter with Detective Kessler for example, where he explains to his companions that the reason why no one cares about the women being killed is because they are outside of society, they are barbarians, an insight that deserves meditation. When I look at the misogyny that pervades this book--given to us on purpose by Bolaño as a clue, or key, to the mystery--I think that the Juarez killings are what happens when Bro Culture, or College Rape Culture, is given free reign to act with impunity. The Killer isn't a man, it's an idea, a way of living, that's been allowed to get out of control.
But why do we see this novel as a mystery in the first place? Why are we drawn to it as if it were a thriller? Why are so many caught up with trying to find "The Killer", as if it was a common cat-and-mouse game between the Good Cop and the Evil Bad Guy? (Head over to the fantastic website bolanobolano.com, and you'll find websleuths theorizing as if they were trying to find the Zodiac.) I think that, besides Bolaños genius for writing a slow-burn genre novel (he was a fan of such books while alive, and a big proponent of getting rid of the lines between "genre" novels and "literary" novels), the "mystery novel" is the metaphor needed to investigate such a dark subject without getting sick, or without becoming so numb that nothing propels us anymore. Even now I want to dive back into the world of 2666 because it has that strong narrative pull that all good crime novels have. I won't jump back in so quickly however, because Part 4 is the Part About the Crimes, and that is not territory one enters without some serious metaphysical protection.
Bon chance, Goodreaders. Keep reading. Keep sleuthing.
July 2, 2019
Afroamerikan gazete yazarı olan Oscar Fate'in kitabın diğer bölümlerinden karakterler ile yollarının kesiştiği bir bölüm bu. Arka mahallelerde kadın cinayetleri işlenmeye, bir çok kadın kaybolmaya devam ederken bu kadınlar hakkında ipuçları yakalamaya ve bunu yazıya dökmeye çalışan Fate'in hikayesi oldukça akıcı bir dil ile sekteye uğramadan aktarılıyor.
Yine gizemli, yine gerilimli bir dil ile okuyoruz bu bölümü. En kısa bölümlerden biri. Kitap içerisinde önemli bir rolü olan fakat ayrıca bir kitap olmayı hak eden yapıya sahip. Suça bir adım kala.
Roberto Bolaño ciddi anlamda şaşırtıcı bir yazar ve bu kitap klasik niteliğinde değerlendirilmeli, değerlendiriliyor da.
Yine gizemli, yine gerilimli bir dil ile okuyoruz bu bölümü. En kısa bölümlerden biri. Kitap içerisinde önemli bir rolü olan fakat ayrıca bir kitap olmayı hak eden yapıya sahip. Suça bir adım kala.
Roberto Bolaño ciddi anlamda şaşırtıcı bir yazar ve bu kitap klasik niteliğinde değerlendirilmeli, değerlendiriliyor da.
September 7, 2016
A Parte de Fate: No início deu um WTF pela falta de relação do último livro para o ínicio deste, mas depois as coisas foram se convergindo e tudo se encaixou lindamente. O que mais impressiona aqui são as construções dos pensamentos das personagens e suas motivações, Bolaño as constrói de maneira inacreditável.
November 29, 2015
Tentative 3 stars.
July 22, 2021
So this part is about an African American reporter Oscar Fate whose fate thrashes him in doomed city of Santa Teresa. Odd but beautiful trick played by Bolano is to make Fate and the reader aware of sense of questioning the identity the African American main character. The reader and also Fate doesn't realize that he's black untill he is surrounded by Chicanos in Mexican bar. Which comes as a surprise for the reader too. In Fate Bolano also covers the African American diaspora's identity crisis. Let's not forget references in shape of interview of black panther party member Berry Seamens.
However this part also hints about doomed fate of our lost German writer from the first part. Let's hope that he's not the one, who's involved in serial killings. Oscar Fate seemed to be in company of eccentric characters about whom we always foresee that trouble and agony surrounds if you get close to them.
However this part also hints about doomed fate of our lost German writer from the first part. Let's hope that he's not the one, who's involved in serial killings. Oscar Fate seemed to be in company of eccentric characters about whom we always foresee that trouble and agony surrounds if you get close to them.
July 20, 2014
5 stars.....these novels are a mesmerizing, dangerous descent into purgatory....take a break before I start novel 4.
July 4, 2021
The first time I read through the entirety of 2666, I thought The Part about Fate was my favorite -- a cool, spiky little American-style noir that breezed through the middle of the book. I read this section twice again before writing this review, but I'm not sure I got as much out of it this time around.
Fate still feels noirish to me, but moreover it reads like a 90s Miramax film: crime and debauchery sort of hover around the edges, making everything a little oily and slimy, but for the most part it's just a mood, rather than something that plays out a lot on the page. Robert Rodriguez and David Lynch are invoked by name in several places, and the plot -- a sportswriter travelling to parts unknown, a little out of his mind -- feels like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by way of Terry Gilliam, rather than Hunter S. Thompson. When the criminal elements of the story finally take shape, they're sleazy and loose and unexplained, like a sweaty teenage boy's dream. If The Part about Fate doesn't often make sense, it's theoretically because Fate as a character isn't in his right mind, as his mother has recently died and he's self-medicating to cope. But I also just feel, again, like Fate is a pastiche of American crime films at the time it was being written: there's a lot of Lost Highway in here, without any strict supernatural elements.
This makes me think too about how the structure of the first three parts in general are setting up The Part About The Crimes, as we are slowly introduced to characters that don't really matter to us yet, but that all come together in the next section. Even though Tarantino certainly didn't invent this style of storytelling, it's hard not to feel his thumbprint in The Part about Fate, given the other references.
And if we take this line of inquiry even further, the section's first third is essentially a long dialogue between a retired Black Panther-turned-entrepreneurial-preacher and a young black reporter for a Harlem newspaper. The conversation is by turns experiential, historical, and philosophical, and there's a lens here where you maybe see Bolaño riffing on Spike Lee, along with the other filmmakers both directly and indirectly referenced on the page.
Along these lines, I think that Bolaño tries to do something interesting with Fate as a character. As a black man only slightly less conscious of his blackness when moving through Mexican society than when he's in the US, it seems like there's a very faint echo of what Amalfitano experiences as a Chilean in Mexico during Part 2. And in the first third especially, Bolaño maintains a constant racial refrain that governs Fate's inner monologue: Fate is always thinking about his blackness, and he can never stop thinking about it. I have no clue if it's over-the-top or on point, but it feels pretty true.
When Fate reaches Mexico, Amalfitano shows up as a character here too, and The Part about Fate seems (at this point) to offer a sort of conclusion to his storyline: you could tell me that Parts 1-3 are loosely structured as a story about Amalfitano and his family, and I'd buy it.
This section is also the first one to feel like a part of a larger whole, rather than a story on its own -- it's pretty reliant on following Part 2, and sacrifices having a true ending in order to set up Part 4. With that in mind, I don't have a real ending for this review either, and I'm not even sure I said anything here. The Truth is Out There.
Fate still feels noirish to me, but moreover it reads like a 90s Miramax film: crime and debauchery sort of hover around the edges, making everything a little oily and slimy, but for the most part it's just a mood, rather than something that plays out a lot on the page. Robert Rodriguez and David Lynch are invoked by name in several places, and the plot -- a sportswriter travelling to parts unknown, a little out of his mind -- feels like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by way of Terry Gilliam, rather than Hunter S. Thompson. When the criminal elements of the story finally take shape, they're sleazy and loose and unexplained, like a sweaty teenage boy's dream. If The Part about Fate doesn't often make sense, it's theoretically because Fate as a character isn't in his right mind, as his mother has recently died and he's self-medicating to cope. But I also just feel, again, like Fate is a pastiche of American crime films at the time it was being written: there's a lot of Lost Highway in here, without any strict supernatural elements.
This makes me think too about how the structure of the first three parts in general are setting up The Part About The Crimes, as we are slowly introduced to characters that don't really matter to us yet, but that all come together in the next section. Even though Tarantino certainly didn't invent this style of storytelling, it's hard not to feel his thumbprint in The Part about Fate, given the other references.
And if we take this line of inquiry even further, the section's first third is essentially a long dialogue between a retired Black Panther-turned-entrepreneurial-preacher and a young black reporter for a Harlem newspaper. The conversation is by turns experiential, historical, and philosophical, and there's a lens here where you maybe see Bolaño riffing on Spike Lee, along with the other filmmakers both directly and indirectly referenced on the page.
Along these lines, I think that Bolaño tries to do something interesting with Fate as a character. As a black man only slightly less conscious of his blackness when moving through Mexican society than when he's in the US, it seems like there's a very faint echo of what Amalfitano experiences as a Chilean in Mexico during Part 2. And in the first third especially, Bolaño maintains a constant racial refrain that governs Fate's inner monologue: Fate is always thinking about his blackness, and he can never stop thinking about it. I have no clue if it's over-the-top or on point, but it feels pretty true.
When Fate reaches Mexico, Amalfitano shows up as a character here too, and The Part about Fate seems (at this point) to offer a sort of conclusion to his storyline: you could tell me that Parts 1-3 are loosely structured as a story about Amalfitano and his family, and I'd buy it.
This section is also the first one to feel like a part of a larger whole, rather than a story on its own -- it's pretty reliant on following Part 2, and sacrifices having a true ending in order to set up Part 4. With that in mind, I don't have a real ending for this review either, and I'm not even sure I said anything here. The Truth is Out There.
May 21, 2024
Rereading eftersom jag lyssnade första omgången och upplevde att jag inte fick till mig boken ordentligt.
Omläsning var verkligen nödvändig, den här berättelsen gick inte att lyssna på för mig, på engelska etc, det var för mycket som gick förlorat. Läsningen av den fysiska boken gav helt andra bilder och sammanhang. Om Fate, en svart reporter som får i uppdrag att åka till Mexiko för att skriva om en boxningsmatch, och förstås får höra talas om kvinnomorden. Han vill skriva om dem istället, men får inte gehör på redaktionen. Han träffar en del underliga människor och blir kär i Rosa Almafitanto, dottern till föregående boks huvudperson, och tar henne med till USA. Det verkar som att de liksom behöver fly, och att Rosas ex på något sätt är involverade i morden. Det är lustigt, för jag fick verkligen en känsla av en Lynch-film, nån slags Lynchlogik, och så pratar de om Lynch i boken. Det måste alltså ha varit intentionen då, tänker jag. Jag tänker också på Cesar Airas Sömmerskan och vinden, ffa då Charly Cruz tar Rosa till hotellet mitt ute i öknen. Den här delen var kort, och i samma lite redovisande, torra stil som de tidigare, men det är liksom ändå intressant och är så fyllt av märkligheter att det funkar att det finns en distans, att texten liksom inte blir sentimental eller gestaltar inre känslor.
Omläsning var verkligen nödvändig, den här berättelsen gick inte att lyssna på för mig, på engelska etc, det var för mycket som gick förlorat. Läsningen av den fysiska boken gav helt andra bilder och sammanhang. Om Fate, en svart reporter som får i uppdrag att åka till Mexiko för att skriva om en boxningsmatch, och förstås får höra talas om kvinnomorden. Han vill skriva om dem istället, men får inte gehör på redaktionen. Han träffar en del underliga människor och blir kär i Rosa Almafitanto, dottern till föregående boks huvudperson, och tar henne med till USA. Det verkar som att de liksom behöver fly, och att Rosas ex på något sätt är involverade i morden. Det är lustigt, för jag fick verkligen en känsla av en Lynch-film, nån slags Lynchlogik, och så pratar de om Lynch i boken. Det måste alltså ha varit intentionen då, tänker jag. Jag tänker också på Cesar Airas Sömmerskan och vinden, ffa då Charly Cruz tar Rosa till hotellet mitt ute i öknen. Den här delen var kort, och i samma lite redovisande, torra stil som de tidigare, men det är liksom ändå intressant och är så fyllt av märkligheter att det funkar att det finns en distans, att texten liksom inte blir sentimental eller gestaltar inre känslor.
May 25, 2013
The second of this novel's two shortest sections, The Part About Fate tells the story of America's handling of the murders that have plagued Mexico for decades (barely disguised in this novel as occurring in the fictional Santa Teresa, Sonora - rather than Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua). This section's protagonist - the none-too-subtly-named Fate - is a reporter sent to cover a boxing match (not his normal beat), who becomes aware of the disappearances of women in the area and lends some small amount of assistance to a female reporter who is interested in delving deeper into the mystery.
January 19, 2018
This part concentrates on Óscar Amalfitano, a Chilean professor of philosophy who arrives at the University of Santa Teresa from Barcelona with his young adult daughter Rosa. As a single parent (since her mother Lola abandoned them both when Rosa was two) Amalfitano fears Rosa will become another victim of the femicides plaguing the city.
3* Woes of the True Policeman
CR 2666
TR By Night in Chile
TR The Secret of Evil
TR The Savage Detectives
TR Antwerp
3* Woes of the True Policeman
CR 2666
TR By Night in Chile
TR The Secret of Evil
TR The Savage Detectives
TR Antwerp
August 31, 2013
Esta parte es lo menos "bolañesca". Pero sin duda una de las secciones mejor logradas. Ácida, sucia y llena de desesperanza. Pastiche de novela estadounidense de realismo sucio, más bien oscuro. Esta parte sería el satélite más lejano del universo de 2666, en cuanto a la textura de su lenguaje. De frentón la extirparía de la novela y la editaría con un pseudónimo, por ejemplo.
Read
September 3, 2016I hardly know where to begin reviewing this massive opus. But I know I am not alone because most of the people who have read the thing just rate it with stars to indicate how well they liked it and leave it at that. I don’t even think the star rating system works well when considering this novel.
2666 might almost be thought of as fictional nonfiction in that it reads like remembered thought, something like a memoir, though it is broken into “books” and many people are central rather than a single narrator. It crosses several continents, and takes in pieces of people’s lives that we later discover intersect. Or, more precisely perhaps, their paths cross paths, like meteors leaving trace. This is ‘Life’ writ large: the work is so bulky one can barely see from one end of it to another, one loses one’s way. One makes connections but too late or too slowly sometimes and even then what does it matter? What control did we really have? Could we have made a difference, a difference to us or to everyone else? Ach!
The work is comprised of five Books which Ignacio Echevarría, Bolaño’s literary executor, tells us were meant to be published separately. Echevarría decided, however, that the parts were better off coming together because of their linked quality, which is not apparent until Book Five. Bolaño was first a poet but he thought he’d make more money in novels (publishers and writers will no doubt laugh at this, though this author was probably right in his own case) and there were many times during this opus that I thought he’d have done better to stick to poetry. I was not being facetious. He throws in the kitchen sink, gathering like a vacuum factoids and sidelines from people’s lives that don’t really seem to fit or be at all relevant.
However, in the end, if you can get to the end (and again, I am not being facetious—this takes stamina and stomach) there is something here which is difficult to articulate. It is sorrow, it is appetite, it is fullness, it is all, including the bad bits. At the end we can say we’ve seen it all, experienced it all. If you cling to life in old age or sickness with the idea that somehow tomorrow will be better, put that aside for Life is not especially kind. It has good bits but there is plenty of bad, too, and you can’t have one without the other.
Book One begins with academics following the work of an obscure German writer. They admire his style and tout it successfully enough that the man is mentioned in the same breath as The Nobel Prize. They are curious about his life and where he lives and how he writes. The second book, “The Part about Amalfitano” is about a Chilean transplant to Mexico and appears to be Bolaño’s musings about life, death, love, art, sexuality, and reality. He ranges from “this shithole has no future” to “ Poetry is the only thing that isn’t contaminated…only poetry…isn’t shit.” This section may well contain explanations to the rest of the novel—why Bolaño wrote it, how he felt when he began, and what he intended.
Book Three, The Book about Fate, is a linking book, connecting forgotten and overlooked people whose lives, like threads, nevertheless intersect and overlap others in the ball of string that is life, and move us unfathomably in a direction that appears to be no direction at all. We, each of us, could write a section like this about our lives when we stepped off into the unknowingness of the wider world and played an infinitesimal part in events that occur in the future without our knowledge or consent. This book links directly to Book Four, though we don’t understand the link until Book Five.
Book Four, The Part about the Crimes, is one of the most horrific litanies of rape, murder and torture that I have ever heard, for I listened on audio and the narrator’s deadpan voice did not inflect no matter the nature of the material he recited. A spate (how trivial a word to describe a tidal wave of such proportions) of murders of women was taking place across a section of Mexico. By the end I had concluded that one man couldn’t possibly have done this if he worked full-time at killing, so it was a crime that spawned crime, and crime done with similar hatred and method. I looked in the paper copy of the book to see if the deaths were listed, like they sounded on audio (1,2,3…). But no, Bolaño writes in paragraphs: one’s eyes skim the size and shape of the words on the page and the horror is not revealed until it is spoken or read aloud in an endless, truly agonizing Reading of the Names.
In Book Five, we learn of one killer at least. And we see that elusive author from Book One, Archimboldi, again. It finishes with Bolaño writing to his publishers, friends and readers” “And that’s it, friends. I’ve done it all, I’ve lived it all. If I had the strength, I’d cry. I bid you goodbye.” Bolaño died a matter of months after he finished the book. One senses he knew what he was leaving behind, both in terms of life and in terms of legacy. It is a very difficult work, and one doesn’t need it to live. One cannot help but be awed, though, by the workings of one man’s mind, and enriched by his big, binocular vision of this world and its inhabitants.
-----------------------------
April 10, 2014
David Foster Wallace, giant literary figure that he was, was quoted in The New Yorker magazine as saying “Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.” It seems to me this is what defines Bolaño's writing.
2666 might almost be thought of as fictional nonfiction in that it reads like remembered thought, something like a memoir, though it is broken into “books” and many people are central rather than a single narrator. It crosses several continents, and takes in pieces of people’s lives that we later discover intersect. Or, more precisely perhaps, their paths cross paths, like meteors leaving trace. This is ‘Life’ writ large: the work is so bulky one can barely see from one end of it to another, one loses one’s way. One makes connections but too late or too slowly sometimes and even then what does it matter? What control did we really have? Could we have made a difference, a difference to us or to everyone else? Ach!
The work is comprised of five Books which Ignacio Echevarría, Bolaño’s literary executor, tells us were meant to be published separately. Echevarría decided, however, that the parts were better off coming together because of their linked quality, which is not apparent until Book Five. Bolaño was first a poet but he thought he’d make more money in novels (publishers and writers will no doubt laugh at this, though this author was probably right in his own case) and there were many times during this opus that I thought he’d have done better to stick to poetry. I was not being facetious. He throws in the kitchen sink, gathering like a vacuum factoids and sidelines from people’s lives that don’t really seem to fit or be at all relevant.
However, in the end, if you can get to the end (and again, I am not being facetious—this takes stamina and stomach) there is something here which is difficult to articulate. It is sorrow, it is appetite, it is fullness, it is all, including the bad bits. At the end we can say we’ve seen it all, experienced it all. If you cling to life in old age or sickness with the idea that somehow tomorrow will be better, put that aside for Life is not especially kind. It has good bits but there is plenty of bad, too, and you can’t have one without the other.
Book One begins with academics following the work of an obscure German writer. They admire his style and tout it successfully enough that the man is mentioned in the same breath as The Nobel Prize. They are curious about his life and where he lives and how he writes. The second book, “The Part about Amalfitano” is about a Chilean transplant to Mexico and appears to be Bolaño’s musings about life, death, love, art, sexuality, and reality. He ranges from “this shithole has no future” to “ Poetry is the only thing that isn’t contaminated…only poetry…isn’t shit.” This section may well contain explanations to the rest of the novel—why Bolaño wrote it, how he felt when he began, and what he intended.
Book Three, The Book about Fate, is a linking book, connecting forgotten and overlooked people whose lives, like threads, nevertheless intersect and overlap others in the ball of string that is life, and move us unfathomably in a direction that appears to be no direction at all. We, each of us, could write a section like this about our lives when we stepped off into the unknowingness of the wider world and played an infinitesimal part in events that occur in the future without our knowledge or consent. This book links directly to Book Four, though we don’t understand the link until Book Five.
Book Four, The Part about the Crimes, is one of the most horrific litanies of rape, murder and torture that I have ever heard, for I listened on audio and the narrator’s deadpan voice did not inflect no matter the nature of the material he recited. A spate (how trivial a word to describe a tidal wave of such proportions) of murders of women was taking place across a section of Mexico. By the end I had concluded that one man couldn’t possibly have done this if he worked full-time at killing, so it was a crime that spawned crime, and crime done with similar hatred and method. I looked in the paper copy of the book to see if the deaths were listed, like they sounded on audio (1,2,3…). But no, Bolaño writes in paragraphs: one’s eyes skim the size and shape of the words on the page and the horror is not revealed until it is spoken or read aloud in an endless, truly agonizing Reading of the Names.
In Book Five, we learn of one killer at least. And we see that elusive author from Book One, Archimboldi, again. It finishes with Bolaño writing to his publishers, friends and readers” “And that’s it, friends. I’ve done it all, I’ve lived it all. If I had the strength, I’d cry. I bid you goodbye.” Bolaño died a matter of months after he finished the book. One senses he knew what he was leaving behind, both in terms of life and in terms of legacy. It is a very difficult work, and one doesn’t need it to live. One cannot help but be awed, though, by the workings of one man’s mind, and enriched by his big, binocular vision of this world and its inhabitants.
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April 10, 2014
David Foster Wallace, giant literary figure that he was, was quoted in The New Yorker magazine as saying “Really good fiction could have as dark a worldview as it wished, but it’d find a way both to depict this world and to illuminate the possibilities for being alive and human in it.” It seems to me this is what defines Bolaño's writing.
September 27, 2025
"bättre" än del två men samtidigt svår att bedöma eftersom 2666 är en helhet. 3.5
May 17, 2025
South of the boarder, plastic chairs and loud bars,tacos and a boxing match.
This book has perfectly matched the previous two parts and somehow managed to offer a bit more. The story unfolds very beautifully and I really enjoyed the subtle links to the previous two books.
I am happy to have read it and have particularly enjoyed how the book splits into five parts.
I am now hoping this book never turns into a film as the author has worked very hard to create a book that reads like one.
This book has perfectly matched the previous two parts and somehow managed to offer a bit more. The story unfolds very beautifully and I really enjoyed the subtle links to the previous two books.
I am happy to have read it and have particularly enjoyed how the book splits into five parts.
I am now hoping this book never turns into a film as the author has worked very hard to create a book that reads like one.
October 3, 2025
Neglected this
October 26, 2021
Cada tomo supera el anterior (hasta ahora al menos). Este, aunque tuvo una prosa diferente y una trama digamos, mas interesante y algo profunda, destaco por encima de todo, el ritmo trepidante desde la primera línea y dos o tres capítulos que, como oasis en un desierto, brillaron por lo profundo y crudo del manejo del tema. Pero de ahí en fuera, volvemos a diálogos sosos e innecesarios. A digresiones que, como calles sin salida, no llevaban a nada. Se viene el tomo cuarto que es el más largo de todos; espero lograr llegar a la otra orilla a salvo.
July 21, 2013
Read and listened to the book simultaneously. Not for readers without proper English Literature education. I got the 900 page book from the library and it was a pleasure to read a book that has been respected (no dog-eared pages, food smudges).
My experience with the book has been the contemplation of the "human condition" that keeps evolving yet stays the same. To use the author's word 'SEMBLANCE' would properly sum it up for me.
My experience with the book has been the contemplation of the "human condition" that keeps evolving yet stays the same. To use the author's word 'SEMBLANCE' would properly sum it up for me.
July 31, 2013
This is a book about readers. You, essentially. So read it, and this time pay attention.
January 16, 2016
2.5 stars You lost me in this one, Bolaño...Found it very difficult to contain this portion.
February 2, 2024
It's better than the first two parts.
June 15, 2025
Mesmerizing, ominous, hypnotic
November 2, 2017
Part 3 is primarily the awakening of the killing of women in Mexico, although fictional( but very reality based) the reporter, Fate who comes, to find out about these killings stumbles upon them by accident while reporting on a boxing match Actually quite chilling, and so real to life with how these killings are viewed and continue to be somehow unsolved and never really followed through with
January 5, 2019
This piece was very stream of consciousness (toward the end, especially), and very tantalizing in terms of the story beginning to take shape. The first two pieces of this novel left me with more questions than anything else, but this one started to answer a couple of them (started to, note, but did not). I was thinking about giving 2666 up as beyond my attention span, but will be reading part four without a doubt.
July 5, 2014
3/4. The weakest of the three parts so far (at this rate, I’m dreading what banalities await in parts 4 and 5 (and 6?)). The central character here is the weakest one we have been introduced to so far. Boxing, Black Power, knight-in-shining armour heroics..all of this doesn't really gel with what comes before. Maybe it does with what comes after. I don't know yet.
April 21, 2015
Bolano is something of a magician in his prose. He gives you a presence of the things beneath the curtain but never truly giving you a view, so you plod along in order to get a glimpse of the solution to the mystery. And in the end you see enough but not too much that you continue to explore the tragical world of Juarez Mexico.
December 9, 2013
I liked seeing some threads coming together.
If I were to describe in one word the first three 'books', it would be "emptiness".
"No one pays attention to those killings, but the secret of the world is hidden in them." ... oooo.
If I were to describe in one word the first three 'books', it would be "emptiness".
"No one pays attention to those killings, but the secret of the world is hidden in them." ... oooo.
Read
January 28, 2016The plot thickens with more characters thrown into the mix, several of whom are connected to characters from Parts 1 & 2. It makes the story more interesting. The mentions of rape and murder in this part are too gruesome for my liking, but I intend to finish the whole set anyway.
May 2, 2013
I could not get through this. There are very few books I do not like. I was listening to this on audio. And I just could not do it. I sent it back for a refund through audible.
May 26, 2013
So far, I liked this section the best. Things are starting to tie together and I feel like I'm getting somewhere.
Read
August 14, 2013Carbon: Read 898 pages. Published F.S.G., NYC, 2004.
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