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thebobsphere's review against another edition
3.0
After reading, and loving the mighty 2666, I just couldn’t wait to read The Savage Detectives. I mean in theory this was the book which made Bolano’s name and propelled him into the big league? Instead, at least from my point of view I finished the novel with a set of very mixed reactions.
The Savage Detectives is a satirical attack on the literary movements which cropped up during the 1960’s namely the Magical Realist and the OULIPO. Here we have a literary group called the Visceral Realists and it’s founders are Arturo Belano (guess who he represents) and Ulises Lima. After great bouts of poetry and flings with the other members of the movements these two go on a world-wide trip in order to find Cesarea Tinajero, who is the heroine behind the Visceral Realists.
There are passages which dazzle and descriptions. metaphors and analogies which will confirm that Bolano was a literary genius and yet there is something off-putting about the novel and that is its second part.
The book is divided into three sections. The first and last are a description of the Visceral Realist life as told through the eyes of a university dropout called Juan Garcia Madero. It’s in diary form and without doubt the strongest and funniest parts of the book.
It is the over lengthy second part in which things become to drag. In fact during this section of the book I began to get highly irritated at how the pace changed and slowed down the flow. Comprised of short interviews where characters give their own impressions of Belano and Lima while filling us readers with what these two did on their travels and helping us understand these two enigmas better is a very exhaustive read. In theory it would have been excellent but when such a section goes on for nearly three hundred pages you feel worn down. By the end I was relieved to have shut the book.
As such The Savage Detectives is a masterpiece in scope but due to its execution it’s a very flawed one. If you’ve got the time a patience check it out but really I would say stick with 2666, it is way more varied and satisfying.
The Savage Detectives is a satirical attack on the literary movements which cropped up during the 1960’s namely the Magical Realist and the OULIPO. Here we have a literary group called the Visceral Realists and it’s founders are Arturo Belano (guess who he represents) and Ulises Lima. After great bouts of poetry and flings with the other members of the movements these two go on a world-wide trip in order to find Cesarea Tinajero, who is the heroine behind the Visceral Realists.
There are passages which dazzle and descriptions. metaphors and analogies which will confirm that Bolano was a literary genius and yet there is something off-putting about the novel and that is its second part.
The book is divided into three sections. The first and last are a description of the Visceral Realist life as told through the eyes of a university dropout called Juan Garcia Madero. It’s in diary form and without doubt the strongest and funniest parts of the book.
It is the over lengthy second part in which things become to drag. In fact during this section of the book I began to get highly irritated at how the pace changed and slowed down the flow. Comprised of short interviews where characters give their own impressions of Belano and Lima while filling us readers with what these two did on their travels and helping us understand these two enigmas better is a very exhaustive read. In theory it would have been excellent but when such a section goes on for nearly three hundred pages you feel worn down. By the end I was relieved to have shut the book.
As such The Savage Detectives is a masterpiece in scope but due to its execution it’s a very flawed one. If you’ve got the time a patience check it out but really I would say stick with 2666, it is way more varied and satisfying.
duparker's review against another edition
3.0
If Jack Kerouac wrote thriller mystery novels, this would be one. The writing style is detached and in some ways very devoid of details. I really liked the stream of consciousness storytelling and the fact that the narrator is aloof and invested at the same time. It was a different style than I am used to, and I think that is due to both the fact it is foreign novel, and the fact that it was written in the 70s.
3.5 stars. Good pick up
3.5 stars. Good pick up
queenofflowers's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Some chapters of the book are great, but all the men are abhorrent pieces of horse crap.
I hated see their perspective.
I hated see their perspective.
majo_barr's review against another edition
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
ti_leo's review against another edition
4.0
Uff. Ich habe eine Weile gebraucht. Unterbrechungen machen es schwer, wieder in die vielstimmige, oft recht ziellos mäandernde und komplex verästelte Geschichte einzutauchen.
Liest man am Besten wie in einem Rausch. Das Buch ist voller kleiner, interessanter Geschichten und Menschen, man kann sich gut treiben lassen, bis die große Geschichte wieder mal in den Fokus rückt. Erzählt werden schlimme Dinge, aber in einer großartigen Sprache und immer wieder auch aus purem Spaß am Fabulieren.
Bolano beherrscht mühelos zahlreiche Stimmen und glaubwürdige Charaktere mit eigenen Marotten, die man ihnen abnimmt. Zugleich klingt er aber immer nach Bolano. Keine Ahnung, wie genau er das macht. Ich glaube, es liegt dran, dass die Charaktere, obwohl sie alle auf ihre Weise "verrückt" sind, doch irgendwie in sich ruhen. Dieses Gefühl kommt beim Leser an.
Ich hab nicht wenig Lust, direkt 2666 zu lesen, auf das in Die Wilden Detektive mehrfach angespielt wird. Aber wenn ich wieder so lange brauche... Die Wilden Detektive ist auch anstrengend. Ein paar Tage wäre mir schon noch danach, aber nicht wieder Jahre.
Liest man am Besten wie in einem Rausch. Das Buch ist voller kleiner, interessanter Geschichten und Menschen, man kann sich gut treiben lassen, bis die große Geschichte wieder mal in den Fokus rückt. Erzählt werden schlimme Dinge, aber in einer großartigen Sprache und immer wieder auch aus purem Spaß am Fabulieren.
Bolano beherrscht mühelos zahlreiche Stimmen und glaubwürdige Charaktere mit eigenen Marotten, die man ihnen abnimmt. Zugleich klingt er aber immer nach Bolano. Keine Ahnung, wie genau er das macht. Ich glaube, es liegt dran, dass die Charaktere, obwohl sie alle auf ihre Weise "verrückt" sind, doch irgendwie in sich ruhen. Dieses Gefühl kommt beim Leser an.
Ich hab nicht wenig Lust, direkt 2666 zu lesen, auf das in Die Wilden Detektive mehrfach angespielt wird. Aber wenn ich wieder so lange brauche... Die Wilden Detektive ist auch anstrengend. Ein paar Tage wäre mir schon noch danach, aber nicht wieder Jahre.
ailynobaire's review against another edition
The secret story is the one we'll never know, although we're living it from day to day, thinking we're alive, thinking we've got it all under control and the stuff we overlook doesn't matter. But every damn thing matters! It's just that we don't realize. We tell ourselves that art runs on one track and life, our lives, on another, we don't even realize that's a lie.
- “Dentist,” Bolaño
• The madness of youth can only be understood in retrospect.
• The trinity of life in Bolaño’s eyes: youth, love, death.
• Constructing one’s idea of self-identity with the voices of others.
• Putting together a vision of the
world in contradictory fragments: like Rashomon, there is no knowing ourselves.
• The truth of literature is the truth of what can be found outside the novel, through the novel.
• Art is futile, but it is not meaningless. Its purpose lies in its futility. Our answers may only be found in the attempt.
• If there is Truth, we are incapable of knowing it. Like Cesárea in the desert, it dies upon our touching it, like a mirage, a dream. It requires a lifetime to catch only a glimpse of True Love and Truth, and even then, you don’t know when you have it. You look back and there it was, it was there. You held it, but for a moment.
• The madness of youth can only be understood in retrospect.
• The trinity of life in Bolaño’s eyes: youth, love, death.
• Constructing one’s idea of self-identity with the voices of others.
• Putting together a vision of the
world in contradictory fragments: like Rashomon, there is no knowing ourselves.
• The truth of literature is the truth of what can be found outside the novel, through the novel.
• Art is futile, but it is not meaningless. Its purpose lies in its futility. Our answers may only be found in the attempt.
• If there is Truth, we are incapable of knowing it. Like Cesárea in the desert, it dies upon our touching it, like a mirage, a dream. It requires a lifetime to catch only a glimpse of True Love and Truth, and even then, you don’t know when you have it. You look back and there it was, it was there. You held it, but for a moment.
alisonjfields's review against another edition
5.0
The more I think about this book, the more I love it, despite the fact that I also love a fair number of writers that Bolano notably despises (Fuentes, Donoso, Garcia Marquez, Vargas Llosa). The largest portion of this (best I can tell) somewhat autobiographical book consists of individual reminiscences of its protagonists (Ulises Lima and Arturo Belano) and their intimates (Luscious Skin, the Font family,etc) by various, often recurring characters. These passages are individually remarkable (there's enough meat in the briefest of anecdotes to provide the plotline for a whole other novel) and as a whole, almost overwhelming at first.
Bolano is an author that invites several days of musing after you've finished the last page. I look forward to the English translation of "2666"(I envy those privy to advance galleys). Until then, I plan on doodling more visual puns in the margins of "By Night in Chile."
Bolano is an author that invites several days of musing after you've finished the last page. I look forward to the English translation of "2666"(I envy those privy to advance galleys). Until then, I plan on doodling more visual puns in the margins of "By Night in Chile."
blrosene's review against another edition
4.0
One of those books that drags quite a bit and then you finish it and you immediately want to re-read. Jumps around a ton, but I found it much more digestible than 2666
jenpen3's review against another edition
3.0
I struggled with rating this book, and in the end wonder if the fault isn't my own for trying to read it on my own timetable rather than at the pace the book demanded. I probably liked it better than "3 stars" suggests, but felt too ambivalent in the end to give it more. Interestingly, my inability to connect with most of the narrators was less of a problem than my expectation that the beauty of the novel as a whole would ultimately match that of its many vignettes.