The Savage Detectives by Robert Bolaño
The Savage Detectives is a lot. Being my second Bolaño doorstopper of the year, I assumed I knew what I was in for. I was way off. This was a far more challenging read than 2666. It had its rewards and I’m glad I stuck with it. But I needed to take a break halfway through, at the risk of putting it aside for good. I’m glad I did because the plot is not the most important thing going on here. This can possibly be considered a […]
2666 by Roberto Bolano
This isn’t going to be a conventional review because I don’t know what to say about 2666 or really make of it. I know it’s an excellent novel; it felt like Bolaño was writing through me rather than to me. But to summarize it the way I normally do (plot, good points, bad points, summation) won’t do it justice. So this is going to be a grab bag of thoughts about a stirring, complex, difficult, beautiful, exhausting, breathtaking book. -The five story lines connected in a way […]
This novel was translated from Spanish by Sophie Hughes and was the winner of an English Pen Translates award This is Women In Translation month #WIT Umami is a novel about loss, grief and craving told from 5 narrative points of view over 5 years. From the beginning we know certain facts: Ana is planting a milpa or garden instead of going to camp; it is the third anniversary of the drowning death of her little sister Luz; Pina’s mother, who had been absent for […]
Seriously though…what the fuck did I just read??? That’s not rhetorical, that’s not me being cute, and that’s not a set up to explain to you lovely readers what the fuck I did just read. It’s just the first thought that sprang into my head after closing Alvaro Enrigue’s gloriously weird Sudden Death. Reading this book reminded me of the first time I read Roberto Bolano’s masterpiece 2666 (and in fact the same translator worked on both books. That can’t be a coincidence). They’re both […]
This was another MFA required read, and sadly, I wasn’t really impressed by it. I’ve noticed a trend in books of this time period (Graham Greene was writing in the 20s, 30s, and early 40s) disappointing me, and I have a feeling it’s partially because I don’t understand the social temperature of that time, nor the social issues being tackled in books of that era. So this low star-rating is quite possibly not the book’s fault. I know several people, (including my professor, who did […]
The plan was to review this book as my first CBR8 review, but I simply could not stop turning pages. I had to finish it as soon as possible. My one-sentenc review: Born to Run is a book about will, the human spirit, living well, and sticking to the man. It’s very good and inspiring, but a smidge too hyperbolic to be five stars for me. Born to Run has over 3,100 reviews on Amazon and a 4.5 star rating, so the odds are good […]
