2666: A Novel
by Roberto Bolano
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Book Reviews of 2666: A Novel
Book Review: Emperor's New Clothes
Summary: 1 Stars
Extremely disappointing. Notwithstanding all of the literary praise and hype, this novel (if it can be called that) simply does not deliver on a storytelling or intellectual level. It is a pointless study of odd obsessions and the meaningless of life. The principal characters have few if any redeeming qualities. Even worse, the text delivers little if any enjoyment to the reader. The story is incoherent and rambling with little or no substance in terms of an overall message or theme.
Despite critical acclaim from the New York Times and other critics, there is no subtle meassage that is worthy of discussion or thought. This is an obtuse novel with no real point. Rather than concede the obvious, the critics have touted this novel as "subtle". However, such an assertion is pure drivel. There is no substance here that need to be teased out of the story. It is an obtuse (and long winded) tale that has little of note to say about the meaning of life or the human condition. Just because a novel is not easily accessible does not mean that it has something important to say or that it is worth reading.
Do not waste your time or money on this failure of a book.
Book Review: A Pleasure to Read.
Summary: 5 Stars
Few books being written today can honestl be called "A Masterpiece", but 2666 is definitely in that category. I fear however that it will be mostly read and appreciated by writers, teachers of writing and intellectual phonies. In translation it is still one of the best novels I have read in a dozen years. Split into five novellas, it is nevertheless a unified work of the human condition and humanity that can only be appreciated after a careful and complete reading. A hefty tomb is understandably intimidating in this age of instant gratification and incredibly short attention spans and visual preferences. This is a story, a novel that is worth the time and effort and will be the kind of book that will stay with the reader long after it is done, and maybe read again and again in the future. Saying almost anything else would be like spoiler alerts, and this is one book that is worth the constant literary surprises. Every page is gem and every thought worthy of deliberation. It is undoubtably the kind of book that is capable of changing lives, giving the reader new ways of viewing the simplest acts. A sixth star should be added for such great books.Book Review: 2666 Read if you dare!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an incredible novel of sweeping scope and mesmerizing story line. It is dark and rich. Maybe not for every gentle reader, but to those connoisseurs that abandon themselves to the enthrallment of the 900-something-pages the rewards are commensurate. It is difficult to describe without resorting to magical terms. To emerge from the novel at the end is as if to awaken from a spell, a bewitchment cast upon the reader in the late hours of the night. You, brave reader, will definitely, breathlessly forge forward in the wee hours of your reading journey across continents, academia, war, time, art, and crime. You will visit McCarthy's country not for old men or in Roberto Bolano's case, young women.
As in life, Bolano's characters' paths cross and recross, entangle sometimes. Some run parallel for a time and some are introduced to disappear and never appear again. The resolutions of the great mysteries of the novel, like life, are never fully satisfied. But,--the questions, --the questions posed are satisfying and lingering. Be courageous! Have fun! Read this book.
Book Review: Bolano fizzles out
Summary: 3 Stars
The first and second sections of this five sectioned book work independently of each other in a finely written and lyrical manner. The third section meanders in way that one could accept if there had been some aspect of continuity no matter how obscure to the subsequent chapters. As the reader moves on to the fourth and last sections of the book there is an abrupt flow of imagery and narrative. Its almost a list of things Bolano was considering writing about but never got around to. While I don't expect traditional sequential narratives in my reading choices,(loved Cloud Atlas, Kafka on the Shore, History of Love, One Hundred Years of Solitude for example) this book turned into a list of deaths, a never ending police report, if you will. The beginning lyricism and flow of the novel fizzles out by the end a lost train of thought? I am not sure. I think it was over hyped and "intellectuals" will love parsing its most unstructured and sloppily rendered story as something daring and important, when i fact, it was notes of an unfinished work.Book Review: Buyer Beware
Summary: 1 Stars
This is not an enjoyable/pleasurable book to read. Do not be misled by the 1st 100 pages or the other reviewers who would lead you to think it's a beautiful masterpiece. I am hard pressed to believe that the other reviewers even read this book. They gush on an on about how great it is, but every one of them fails to mention the overriding fact that this book is a GRUESOME and HORRIFICALLY VIOLENT book. The largest section of the book is basically 300+ pages of autopsy reports. You will read the words "vaginally and anally raped" over and over and over, until it runs through your mind day and night. I don't know what's more disturbing, the book itself or all the people who claim to love this book but somehow overlook or just never mention the brutal and gruesome violence which is the core of the entire work. If a masterpiece is a book to be reread again and again, then this book fails to be so. I could NEVER stomach this book for even one more read.