2666

Admittedly, I don't spend much time doing research about new books as I would like. Then again, I don't have too much faith in a lot of the new arts for a few reasons that I'm not going to go into in this post. At any rate, there's been a lot of buzz for the novel 2666 by the Chilean author Roberto Bolano.

I hadn't come in contact with Latin American fiction until I took a class on the subject, at random, during my pre-junior year at university. Although I focus mainly on German and Eastern European literature, those of us who have put off Latin fiction for too long are really missing a treasure chest.

During the class, we read one of Bolano's books (Distant Star). I read Last Evenings on Earth on my own. Bolano's interesting life really made me want to experience his work. I know that I've only scraped the surface.

2666 will be a more active read at most, which intrigues me. It involves a lot of things that the average reader dislikes: an English translation tallying 900 pages, five different sections with multiple story lines, and many different but somehow connected characters. These are all things that I enjoy because they are rarely as well received as they are in this book, Bolano's final work.