Jim’s review of The Mad Patagonian > Likes and Comments
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You might find it interesting that the catalog of murders contained in the "Emilio's Diary" section is derivative of Bolano's list of murders in 2666. Mad Pat purports to have been finished in 2002, which would predate Bolano's death in 2003 and the posthumous publication of 2666. Therefore, it contains evidence of its own misrepresentation.
Hello Jim, good to hear from you after all these years, albeit through this strange medium. You raise a question in your comments that carries with it a hidden assumption. You ask: “ It might be more interesting to ask why interest dropped off when it appeared the book might not be what it said it was...”
The assumption here is that you seem to be defining interest by reviews, either those written in journals or newspapers, or those written by those belonging to Goodreads or LibraryThing. There is a significant book-buying population that doesn’t pay attention to any of those outlets. Perhaps they are too busy reading. But there is plenty of interest in the novel; and it is steady and sustained. Every day, someone somewhere in the world buys The Mad Patagonian. Since 2021, the book has been selling a steady 650-700 copies a year; not huge by any stretch, and certainly under the radar; but it is steady.
And there is, in fact, a steady stream of comments that we either receive directly or someone alerts us to. A few notable examples:
After reading Volume One of The Mad Patagonian (November 2024) , author Nick Perry, who shares his comments about the novels he reads (about 6 novels a month) posted the following on his Instagram page: “I’m becoming more convinced, {Volume One of The Mad Patagonian] is part of the greatest novel of the century.” After finishing the three volume set in December 2024, he posted the following: “Sure, there were some duds but the high points completely overshadow them. Most notably, the conclusion to “the Mad Patagonian” and “A Tale of Two Cities” — both novels I wouldn’t recommend anyone under the age of 25 to attempt.”
Author Danial Handler (he wrote Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events), after finishing The Mad Patagonian, sent a small note to River Boat Books about his experience reading the book; he said: “The book is extraordinary. I am grateful.”
Someone on Redditt created a meme of the book comparing Bolano’s 2666 to The Mad Patagonian and dedicated it: “For All You Mad Patagonians out there.”
People have shared with us links to various discussion threads where folks are chatting about The Mad Patagonian in Filipino, Spanish, Swedish, and French. According to a marketing professional we did reach out to, our reach is astonishing (sales in 37 countries worldwide) given we do nothing to push it. We don’t market the book. We don’t market any of our books. We don’t really have the resources to commit to marketing. But The Mad Patagonian is slowly, surely finding its way to readers.
One more truly interesting example of the reach of The Mad Patagonian. The novel was initially presented as being written by Javier Pedro Zabala, and in the introduction there were diary accounts of Zabala meeting Roberto Bolano. There was even a photo with Bolano, Zabala, and the writer Bruno Montane. In the December 2023 issue of the Italian journal L'Indiependent, staff writer Giovanna Taverni interviewed Montane and they talked mostly about Bolano and Montanes own work, but at the end of the interview they talked about The Mad Patagonian and the photo. Here is what they said regarding The Mad Patagonian (I used google to translate from the Italian, so it is not great but will give you an idea):
Giovanna: I came across a photo online of you, Bolaño and a Cuban author named Javier Pedro Zabala, sitting in a bar in DF in 1975. Zabala is said to have later written The Mad Patagonian.
MONTANE: I searched the Internet and asked my friend Rubén Medina, an infrarealist poet and academic in the United States, and I saw that there is a confusion with that photo or that someone, presumably an American author and perhaps an admirer of Roberto, thought of playing an apocryphal game and giving that novel to the alleged Zavala. I have not read The Mad Patagonian, but apparently Zavala is not called Zavala and the attribution is due to an apocryphal action, perhaps inspired by the narrative territories of Bolaño, written, as I will tell you, by a novelist named Ken Johnson.
I think that is pretty cool.
I had wanted to write a piece of metafiction that would generate metafictional commentary in the real world that would broaden the scope of the novel without the commentators realizing they were adding a metafitional layer to the story. It appears I have done that. (And now a real world writer - Bruno Montane, who was brought into the novel as a minor pseudo character - has added a new metafictional element - The Mad Patagonian as written by someone named Ken Johnson; how crazy and wonderful!
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Mar 27, 2025 01:38PM
You might find it interesting that the catalog of murders contained in the "Emilio's Diary" section is derivative of Bolano's list of murders in 2666. Mad Pat purports to have been finished in 2002, which would predate Bolano's death in 2003 and the posthumous publication of 2666. Therefore, it contains evidence of its own misrepresentation.
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Hello Jim, good to hear from you after all these years, albeit through this strange medium. You raise a question in your comments that carries with it a hidden assumption. You ask: “ It might be more interesting to ask why interest dropped off when it appeared the book might not be what it said it was...”The assumption here is that you seem to be defining interest by reviews, either those written in journals or newspapers, or those written by those belonging to Goodreads or LibraryThing. There is a significant book-buying population that doesn’t pay attention to any of those outlets. Perhaps they are too busy reading. But there is plenty of interest in the novel; and it is steady and sustained. Every day, someone somewhere in the world buys The Mad Patagonian. Since 2021, the book has been selling a steady 650-700 copies a year; not huge by any stretch, and certainly under the radar; but it is steady.
And there is, in fact, a steady stream of comments that we either receive directly or someone alerts us to. A few notable examples:
After reading Volume One of The Mad Patagonian (November 2024) , author Nick Perry, who shares his comments about the novels he reads (about 6 novels a month) posted the following on his Instagram page: “I’m becoming more convinced, {Volume One of The Mad Patagonian] is part of the greatest novel of the century.” After finishing the three volume set in December 2024, he posted the following: “Sure, there were some duds but the high points completely overshadow them. Most notably, the conclusion to “the Mad Patagonian” and “A Tale of Two Cities” — both novels I wouldn’t recommend anyone under the age of 25 to attempt.”
Author Danial Handler (he wrote Lemony Snicket: A Series of Unfortunate Events), after finishing The Mad Patagonian, sent a small note to River Boat Books about his experience reading the book; he said: “The book is extraordinary. I am grateful.”
Someone on Redditt created a meme of the book comparing Bolano’s 2666 to The Mad Patagonian and dedicated it: “For All You Mad Patagonians out there.”
People have shared with us links to various discussion threads where folks are chatting about The Mad Patagonian in Filipino, Spanish, Swedish, and French. According to a marketing professional we did reach out to, our reach is astonishing (sales in 37 countries worldwide) given we do nothing to push it. We don’t market the book. We don’t market any of our books. We don’t really have the resources to commit to marketing. But The Mad Patagonian is slowly, surely finding its way to readers.
One more truly interesting example of the reach of The Mad Patagonian. The novel was initially presented as being written by Javier Pedro Zabala, and in the introduction there were diary accounts of Zabala meeting Roberto Bolano. There was even a photo with Bolano, Zabala, and the writer Bruno Montane. In the December 2023 issue of the Italian journal L'Indiependent, staff writer Giovanna Taverni interviewed Montane and they talked mostly about Bolano and Montanes own work, but at the end of the interview they talked about The Mad Patagonian and the photo. Here is what they said regarding The Mad Patagonian (I used google to translate from the Italian, so it is not great but will give you an idea):Giovanna: I came across a photo online of you, Bolaño and a Cuban author named Javier Pedro Zabala, sitting in a bar in DF in 1975. Zabala is said to have later written The Mad Patagonian.
MONTANE: I searched the Internet and asked my friend Rubén Medina, an infrarealist poet and academic in the United States, and I saw that there is a confusion with that photo or that someone, presumably an American author and perhaps an admirer of Roberto, thought of playing an apocryphal game and giving that novel to the alleged Zavala. I have not read The Mad Patagonian, but apparently Zavala is not called Zavala and the attribution is due to an apocryphal action, perhaps inspired by the narrative territories of Bolaño, written, as I will tell you, by a novelist named Ken Johnson.
I think that is pretty cool.
I had wanted to write a piece of metafiction that would generate metafictional commentary in the real world that would broaden the scope of the novel without the commentators realizing they were adding a metafitional layer to the story. It appears I have done that. (And now a real world writer - Bruno Montane, who was brought into the novel as a minor pseudo character - has added a new metafictional element - The Mad Patagonian as written by someone named Ken Johnson; how crazy and wonderful!
