Comprising five almost autonomous books, the novel is a chronicle of the 20th century, unafraid to confront its more gruesome turns in its sweep across history. To call 2666 ambitious is to understate its scale. (Considering that Bolano died in 2003 before he finished the final book of the five-part sequence, that’s quite a feat.) In his hands, narrative tangents, followed to their logical (or illogical, as the case may be) conclusions, fill in the spaces opened up by the boundlessly layered story lines. Among the countless stories that he tells in 2666, his 900-page cinderblock of a novel, there is not one that feels incomplete. Roberto Bolano is a master of digression. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa-a fictional Juárez-on the U.S.-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared ( From the publisher.) Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Winner, 2008 National Book Critics Circle AwardĬomposed in the last years of Roberto Bolano’s life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Roberto Bolano, trans., Natasha Wimmer, 2004 There will be no compulsory secondary reading or outside preparation beyond the novel itself.Summary | Author | Book Reviews | Discussion Questions (Please read each Part before the corresponding week’s meeting). The novel is divided into five sections, and we will read one section per week. In addition to these thematic concerns, we will dissect the novel aesthetically, examining how each part employs different styles and structures.

In this reading group, we will approach 2666 as a multi-faceted, expansive novel that is many things at once: border narrative, history of violence, and meditation on the art and calling of literature. Its sprawling plot takes in a mysterious German author and a gang of literary critics who set out to find him, the sinister and mostly unsolved femicides in the fictional border city of Santa Teresa (largely based on Ciudad Juárez) along with fascinating explorations of the nature of horror, violence and art in the 20th century. Originally published in Spanish, shortly after the author’s death in 2003, Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is considered one of the greatest novels of the 21st century, in any language. Please allow 2 weeks for shipped books to arrive. The ‘With Book’ option includes a copy of 2666 at a 10% discount from our Bookstore.

Bolano 2666 review