2666

Banal, dark, masterful, an abyss of evil just out of eyesight.

2666 feels like one of the most important books of the 21st century. I previously read Savage Detectives and enjoyed it but wasn't captivated. With that in mind, I let 2666 sit on my shelf for several years before finally picking it up.

2666 is entertaining, beautiful, and funny. At the same time, from the very start, there's a sense of something sinister hiding around the next page / corner - though it resists the reader pinpointing that dread. It's not a character, per se. It's not (just) the vivid abuse and body horror. Instead it's a sense that all of society is pounding, driving toward obliteration.

That drive to obliterate is everywhere. Some aimless academics beat a cab driver to a pulp. Oscar Fate drinks himself into a scary situation. Amalfitano hangs a book on his clothesline to let it cook in the hot sun. A vagrant breaks into churches and soils the holy spirit. A Romanian general is crucified, left only with bits of tattered uniform. And women keep showing up dead.

All the while I felt like a creature crawling across the vast desert floor with the vulture of the black Peregrino dipping in and out of sight.

I read this while re-watching Twin Peaks and playing Disco Elysium and I found a lot of harmony between the works. Twin Peaks' story is of a woman crying for help and those around her numbing themselves to the horror (compare, Florita Almada). Disco Elysium establishes a world so complex that it has collapsed in on itself and destroyed us all in the process. In both, characters bounce off each other like atoms, often oblivious to the destruction they leave in their path.

There's so much to love about 2666. Part 4 is heartbreaking. The women given a bit of justice in Bolano's memorial, before the police and public glam on to the next shiny object. I really appreciated the backdrop of Santa Teresa - full of maquiladoras and sex workers and cartels and so many people just trying to make it to a better tomorrow.

I hope I get the chance to revisit this book some day. I think it will stick with me for a long time.

One of the astonishing pieces of literature that I have come across. It's scale and scope matches a science fiction novel while it's writing contests with the greatest of writers. At times I plodded but then strode through this novel of vivid and dark imaginings and I'm left thinking 'what have i just read?', or is that too shallow of a question.

Bolano is special, his writing pure. It's a tragedy that his talent and life was taken before this was released, particularly as I would have loved to see how he would have wanted this to be printed- in separate parts or as one connected novel? Each part smoothly negotiated with eachother, leaving new crumbs of knowledge littered throughout which became staggering to piece together.

My only qualm is the last part, part 5. The writing was immaculate and the story fantastic, but the complete tonal shift from part 4 where murder was bleak threatened to nearly capsize my growing love for this work. Nevertheless, the last 20 pages saved this for me, but did it feel a little too late? I'm unsure.

Regardless of this, I'm glad I got to appreciate these stories and to read a master at work in Bolano, what a mysterious legacy to leave.