The Art of War

The Savage Detectives
Roberto Bolaño
Picador

For almost a month now, I have been reading the same book -- Roberto Bolaño's The Savage Detectives. You would think that after having spent so much time with this novel, I'd have something interesting to say. Well, while I hate to disappoint, I'm afraid that this one is beyond me. Believe it or not, I actually had an easier time reading Joyce's Ulysses.

From a "plot" perspective, the story is about two Latin American poets hanging out in Mexico (and elsewhere around the world) during the mid to late seventies. Both men seem to be in pursuit of some intellectual ideal and are trying to establish a poetic movement called "visceral realism". Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano, the somewhat absent main characters, are inexplicably charismatic and are a constant jumble of writings, thoughts and big ideas.

In some ways, I think this novel was brilliant. There were at least twenty narrators who collectively manage to tell the "story". The middle section of the books is a series of interviews with characters who talk about Ulises and Arturo -- you never actually hear from them directly. The first and third sections of the book are narrated by a slightly naive, very ardent law student turned poet, Juan Garcia Madero. He is so passionate, so utterly exploding with emotion that it made the novel, in parts, a joy to read. Three decadent libertines out of five.