Reviews

Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño

jodyjsperling's review against another edition

5.0

If every writer compared his or her work to Bolaño and vowed not to write unless equal mastery were achieved, only four writers would remain. There isn't a weak link in Last Evenings on Earth.

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

4.0

A poet can endure anything. Which amounts to saying that a human being can endure anything. Except that it’s not true: there are obviously limits to what a human being can endure. Really endure. A poet, on the other hand, can endure anything. We grew up with this conviction. The opening assertion is true, but that way lie ruin, madness, and death.

wrystake's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

katiemanring's review against another edition

dark reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

mayar_reading_stuff's review against another edition

3.0

“We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain”

I finally finished it, and I'm so happy I did. I've been meaning to read this for over a year because of a quote, and now I did.

I started reading this while I was reading another collection of stories by the same author translated to Arabic named "Phone Calls" and it turns out they're both sort of the same book. I was pretty excited when I knew that since I'll get to cross two books off my TBR list at the same time, but after a couple of stories they turned out to have only about 4 stories in common. The Arabic one didn't even have the one which the book is named after, but it had some cool stories about war. The English one had more emotional stories and some random stuff.
I liked "literary advance" and "Mauricio -the eye- Silva" and "Last evenings on Earth". Some parts of certain stories were pretty haunting but I didn't like the whole package.

Short stories are my least favorite form of writing, and this book didn't change that.

thetarantulalounge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

We never stop reading, although every book comes to an end, just as we never stop living, although death is certain.”  

Last Evenings on Earth is a dreamlike collection of 14 short stories by Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño. I write “middling” with affection; many of the stories in this collection are semi-autobiographical in spirit if not fact and the author focuses on what it’s like to be a writer of low notoriety. Many of the stories include petty jealousies and insecurities amongst artists in social circles, and I have to think Bolaño is poking fun at himself. He’s also poking at some contemporaries. 

“B” (Bolaño?) is the protagonist in many of the stories, although it’s unclear if B is always the same person or even whether other featured protagonists are also B. Uncertainty and ambiguity (factual and moral) are ever present here. Look at the cover – it’s perfect for the writing. Common threads also include travel; the undecipherable meaning of our problems and loves and lives; and also a kind of potential menace underlying any group of people. 

The most representative story included here is probably Last Evenings on Earth (name of the story and the book – kind of like a song/album combo). It’s a story about a father and son with a tense relationship going on a vacation together. You’ve got the father-son thing, the ambiguity of events and morals, the longing to be connected to people, all in one. You can find this story for free in the New Yorker if you can’t track down this book. If you like this, you’ll probably like the whole book. 

My personal favorite story is Gomez Palacio, a ten-pager about a short writing workshop in Mexican small town. The main character is very “B” like, but the real protagonist is a woman working the local arts council. Nothing really happens in the story, but it’s like an old photo. Just within the few pages you know so much is happening and has happened. 

pichu0331's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Not all bangers, but I absolutely love how Bolaño’s mind wanders.

nateisdreaming's review against another edition

5.0

haunting and sad short stories that were somehow perfect accompaniments to lazy afternoons in the park.

comradegodzilla's review against another edition

4.0

I love Bolano's works. 2666 is still my favorite, but this was very good.

sam_is_wrong's review against another edition

4.0

i've realized that reading bolaño's work in chronological order, one book after the other, is a very bolaño thing to do - that is, this kind of pathological reading is typical of bolaño's narrators, and so, by use of the transitive property, typical of the man himself. he writes novels about obsessive literature fans that are, in themselves, obsessive - in their dedication to writerly ephemera, in their minute evocations of various latin american cities, in the persistent, paranoiac ways the dread hangs at the edges of each book. so, to come at these novels and collections in an obsessive manner feels like an act of knowing immersion, a way to make myself closer to the books by channeling their narrators.

anyway, last evenings on earth! this is a softer, less acute collection than anything bolaño's written previously - more tender and personal than i've come to expect, with the usual manifestations of horror located more in dreams and intuition than any specific fascist regime. makes very very strong use of the man's gift for atmosphere and feeling, and pulls a few narrative strings - an engraved knife, a city populated almost entirely with assassins - that will come to greater fruition in later books, while circling ever closer to the great void of the sonora desert