The Savage Detectives

The Savage Detectives: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño, translated by Natasha Wimmer

This long novel covers a group of bohemian pseudo-intellectuals that refer to themselves as "visceral realists". There is a character that has a name very similar to the author that is mostly him in real life. We hear about this character, but not much from him directly. We go into detail about the other characters. At first it is a fairly straightforward narrative about the visceral realists in Mexico. Then it turns in to a few first-person vignettes by individual people from periods spanning most of the 20th century across much of the world from Latin America and the United States to Europe, Israel and Africa. The stories somewhat tie together, but are not much of narrative. The end returns to a narrative and a journey to escape a pimp and find a long lost poet, with an ending of them finally finding her, but losing her as she dies in a shootout. The characters are generally artsy miscreants. They do what they want regardless of how it fits in the world. Sex and drugs abound. They dislike the literature "establishment". I don't feel a whole lot of sympathy towards them.

2666

2666 by Roberto Bolaño translated Natasha Wimmer

This is a long book that the author at one time envisioned publishing as multiple books. He died before it was finished and his heirs decided to publish it as one thing. The various sections of the book tell their own stories that are somewhat related together. There are sections discussing the life and romantic experiences of an author. One section goes back to World War II and talks about experiences in Nazi controlled areas and the experiences complying with Nazi policies and "taking care of" Jewish populations. A significant section of the book covers crime in a Mexican town. This starts with the experience of a African American journalist that is sent to cover a boxing match and then gets interested in the the cases. Then there is a section about the murders. There is a criminal that goes crazy in churches. Later there are women that are mysteriously killed. Most have few external connections. Their bodies are often discovered long after their deaths. Eventually an American detective comes in to help resolve the crimes.

I was most interested in the middle section of the novel. Scott Brick always does a great job narrating. Parts at the start and end were not quite as appealing.