What am I in for?

I am of the opinion that TSD is a better place to start with Bolaño but if you wanna jump into 2666, you'll find 'the first masterpiece of the 21st century,' you'll find a category of writing unto its own, a dreamy blend of reality, a sense of doom.

The first four sections accrete into the fifth. The fourth is a little difficult emotionally and mentally to read but then you get lush wonderland fairytale prose in the fifth section. I say this as the fourth section is where most people get stuck, so carry on /lit/izen.

The English translation is quite excellent. Natasha Wimmer is a champ, as always.

Maybe if you had some more specific questions about the book I could help you out more, OP

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>>9080812
senpai I just started TSD, what are your thoughts on it? worth the read? liking it so far.

>>9080820
I believe it's possibly even more of a masterpiece than 2666. 2666 is a mawing beast written by a maximalist dying man trying to stuff every ounce of brilliance he has into a final piece of writing as a culmination of his work. The Savage Detectives is a tad more orderly and structured but is also a bit of a life's work, the second section in particular. I think the second section of that book is possibly the most impressive piece of fiction I've ever encountered in all my reading. I am so thankful I came upon that at such an early age (18).

It has a perfect structure. I assume you're still on part 1 and the sexual adventures of JGM and his involvement with the viscerrealists so I won't go too far into it. But pay attention as to where you see the focal point of narration occurring ('What are Juan Garcia Madero's motivations and aspirations and who plays a part of them?'), pay attention to the tone ('How does Bolaño achieve this dreaminess? This realist surreality? What mood am I detecting when I read this?').

The first section is so readable, it's possible one of the most entertaining things he's ever written. JGM's apprenticeship as a poet is so endearing and he's such a lovely, loveable narrator and character. The second section is very different and I've recommended this to a lot of people who end up quitting a few chapters into it, but just, a fucking monument of writing ability


I don't know, got anything else?

>>9080820
I think TSD is really overrated, it was Bolaño just fucking around, 2666 is really superior in everyway
the last chapter of 2666 is so fucking aesthetically perfect

>>9080881
How can you say it was just Bolaño fucking around? I'm genuinely curious, I'm a Bolaño nut

>>9080881
>it was Bolaño just fucking around

What does that even mean?

>>9080875
Thanks for the overview/guidance. I appreciate it.

>>9080881
Doesn't really tell me much.

>>9080901
>>9080902
He was trying to be as edgy and ironic as he could, he said that in some interview, he wanted to fuck with the critics
2666 is better, at least for me, they feel more like he was really trying to make something "poetic". Some pages of 2666 are better than everything on TSD.
This doesnt mean I dont like TSD, that chapter in africa is god-tier, same as the Nazi guy one.

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Savage detectives is objectively better

Bolaño > Pynchon desu

So I need to start with TSD?

>>9080949
"no"

>>9080772
Degeneracy

>>9080949
You don't "need" to......but you should

>>9080968
nah, is better to start with estrella distante

your mom's in for my 2666 if you know what i mean

>>9080968
“Thanks”.......?

>>9080973
Hell yeah bruther !!

>tfw bolaño thread
comfy

>>9080949
By Night in Chile is where you should start. It's only like 100 pages

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post rare bolaños

>>9080875
TSD's prose is outta this world. For such a doorstoper, it's amazing how Bolaño can, at the same time, give you so much about his characters and the world as a whole while also never giving you anything other than faint impressions about his charcaters.

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>>9081095

>>9080772
A helluva ride. I'd post my thoughts and love for this book but I'm going to bed. It'll test your patience, but press on its so worth it.

>>9080998
By Night in Chile I've only read the English and I have to say it doesn't sound anything whatsoever like Bolaño. This makes me think I need to read the Spanish to feel like its him, but the subject matter is also so uncharacteristically direct that it furthermore doesn't sound like him. I dunno if I'd say start with that. I don't think it's even really an achievement amongst his oeuvre. If anything, I'd say >>9080971 might have it right.

Estrella Distante is a very nice standalone novel, absolutely in Bolaño's top five. Amuleto though I would say is also right there, especially if you're planning on reading Savage next I would recommend that over Estrella.

But yeah, By Night in Chile. Hmm. I guess my own thoughts on this aren't quite fully made up yet but I dunno about it.

>>9080983
maybe to build off this, I'd like to say although 2666 is in one of those 'meme trilogy' threads or images, it really doesn't get the analysis or love like other books do that /lit/ supposedly has a hardon for. Maybe its length turns people off and they don't end up finishing it. I'm saying all this because I find it hard to have a really in depth conversation with anyone on this board about Bolaño or his works--they focus more on his status/image.

Anyway, I'm always happy to talk about him. Definitely feeling >comfy when I see these threads

>>9081259
What was your favorite part and why

>>9080875
>viscerrealists
>not vicerealists (as they liked to be called)

good summary though, even though I preferred the JGM part

I finished it yesterday.
It's a novel acting as a maelstrom, drawing in as many themes, motifs and characters as possible. The first three parts build up an atmosphere and are suggestive in nature, but ultimately they never let you see what's behind the curtain. You get to the fourth part soon enough, which shares aspects with the eye of a hurricane. Every part eventually leads to Santa Teresa. Bolaño doesn't take you there in a straightforward fashion, though. He's taking you on a journey and leads you to dead ends and it often feels like he's taking wrong turns.
The fifth part illuminates everything that was written beforehand. It's magnificent.
Anyway, it's a masterpiece. Jesus on the cross with the thieves on either side. :)

>>9081259
I don't want to be pejorative towards /lit/ but I think the case is that most of the board is filled with anglo saxon readers.

Bolaño's works are conformed by experiences and thoughts particular to Latinamerican intellectual life. Which is something completely different than the experience of Infinite Jest makes manifiest in the readers of this board.

I remember Bernard Shaw saying that Ulysses was such a magnificient, yet frightening, book because he had those conversations the novel portays in real life, it's the same with Bolaño's work. I was reading the other day "putas asesinas" and I find so incredible the story called "dentista" because I know people from Irapuato (the mexican city in which the story takes place) who live in the same conditions than the characters portrayed.
And don't get me wrong, it's not identification with the characters as YA readers say most of the time but a quality of culture as Bildung, a vision only concerned if you are formed in certain cultural background.

However I don't think this hinders the appreciation of a Bolaño's books to english speaking readers, precisely /lit/'s attachement on it proves it.

>>9081930
Man, that makes me kind of sad. Now I'm wishing I wasn't born a European.

>>9081259
2666 is such an exciting novel as well. I haven't read as much as many other people on this board, but this book is definitely among my favorites. Sprawling and ambitious and different from most other books in its atmosphere and handling of characters and themes, although I may be overlooking much of Latin America's other literature, as I haven't read many of its authors.
I should read more authors from other landmasses, my bookshelf is looking kind of eurocentric atm.
Anyway, I agree with you. Kind of an unnecessary ramble but in its current state /lit/ doesn't have much serious discussion going on, and that saddens me.

>>9080772
Anal and vaginal rape.