Bolaño

Amazing starts

First half of middle always dips hard

200 pages + of actually painful slog

Amazing finish

At least in 2666 it kinda builds up the premise. In savage is just painful mostly, but there are some interesting stories mixed in the boring shit. The German van escapade for example

>>8583096
The encounter between Ulises and Octavio Paz, and the duel on the beach made up for the more boring stories.
And the last part was a great road story.

Same in 2666, there were parts of the Fourth books that made up for the overall boring aspects of that chapter. Such as the American Sheriff for example.

I'm currently reading detectives. Towards the end of the first part I was starting to really get into it, but then he changes the format of the stories and I don't like them as much. I don't know, but I'll keep at it. I'll also go through a few shorter ones like nocturno de Chile before 2666, any suggestions?

>>8583096
Ulises Lima in Israel, in Austria, lost in Nicaragua, meeting Octavio Paz, Belanos duel with a critic, The speeches of critics in the Book Fair, Belano in Africa, the Uruguayan poet hiding in the bathroom and the camping are all great. That is the best part of the book. Not the start or the finish.

Although I agree on the sudden change being very off putting and not easy reading. The middle section improves as the characters from the first part like Angelica or Joachim are left behind in the past and new characters are interviewed.

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>>8583096
Isn't his main novel Distant Star?
It was pretty good all along.
Althought I prefer the nazis one.

Weird.

I definitely felt the part about the crimes dragged in 2666. the part about fate was meh. the part about archimboldi was great though, nearly as good as the part about the critics.

I really hated savage detectives at first but thought it kept getting better.