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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Scared the hell out of me. I don't know if that was the intent.
¡Un libro bastante extraño! Me encanta el narrador misterioso y a veces ausente, pero tengo sentimientos encontrados sobre la falta de coherencia en la trama. Espero leer más de Bolaño ahora que lo he descubierto.
From now on, all of my reviews are being copied and pasted from my blog, because I'm amazingly lazy.The link is below.
"Distant Star was kind of confusing for me. Like The Savage Detectives, it doesn't really have a flowing plot, but at the same time it does have a plot, if that makes sense. Since Distant Star is pretty much a novella, everything moves kind of quickly and the characters don't really develop much. It was more like a really long short story with chapters, which is pretty much a novella. It starts with the narrator, who is apparently Arturo Belano or Arturo B. from The Savage Detectives, he's in a writing workshop with a few guys and a pair of twins, the Garmendia Twins, the protagonist who is named Ruiz-Tangle, but changes his name to Carlos Wieder, Fat Marta, and Bibiano. Most of the novella focuses on the weirdness of Carlos Wieder, he is an autodidact. He apparently wants to revolutionize Chilean poetry, however, he murders people in the process because he's apparently a sick, crazy dude. He kills off the twins, a couple of other women, and the narrator probably thinks he killed Juan Stein, a mentor. Carlos Wieder is one of those really mysterious guys that disappear for no reason, the narrator becomes obsessed with this weirdo because he truly believes that Carlos has killed off many people for the sake of his crazy art.
I enjoyed Distant Star, but some parts were kind of confusing, especially when the perspectives were changed and the narrator starts talking about other people, like the disappearance of Juan Stein, and some other political related people. This novella was kind of on the creepy side, because Carlos Wieder is a strange, creepy person, actually his last name is kind of close to weirdo, just switch some letters around and add an 'O'. I think I might've missed a few thing while reading this novel, because there are some questions left unanswered, but it's a novella, and thats all the story you're going to get."
From my blog:
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-distant-star-by-roberto.html
"Distant Star was kind of confusing for me. Like The Savage Detectives, it doesn't really have a flowing plot, but at the same time it does have a plot, if that makes sense. Since Distant Star is pretty much a novella, everything moves kind of quickly and the characters don't really develop much. It was more like a really long short story with chapters, which is pretty much a novella. It starts with the narrator, who is apparently Arturo Belano or Arturo B. from The Savage Detectives, he's in a writing workshop with a few guys and a pair of twins, the Garmendia Twins, the protagonist who is named Ruiz-Tangle, but changes his name to Carlos Wieder, Fat Marta, and Bibiano. Most of the novella focuses on the weirdness of Carlos Wieder, he is an autodidact. He apparently wants to revolutionize Chilean poetry, however, he murders people in the process because he's apparently a sick, crazy dude. He kills off the twins, a couple of other women, and the narrator probably thinks he killed Juan Stein, a mentor. Carlos Wieder is one of those really mysterious guys that disappear for no reason, the narrator becomes obsessed with this weirdo because he truly believes that Carlos has killed off many people for the sake of his crazy art.
I enjoyed Distant Star, but some parts were kind of confusing, especially when the perspectives were changed and the narrator starts talking about other people, like the disappearance of Juan Stein, and some other political related people. This novella was kind of on the creepy side, because Carlos Wieder is a strange, creepy person, actually his last name is kind of close to weirdo, just switch some letters around and add an 'O'. I think I might've missed a few thing while reading this novel, because there are some questions left unanswered, but it's a novella, and thats all the story you're going to get."
From my blog:
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-distant-star-by-roberto.html
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think anyone interested in the creative writing process might find this book interesting, since it deals with this process and also effects of interpersonal relationships and environment on writing. As it was referred to an imaginary book on one of the pages of Bolano’s book, this book might be a detective story of Chilean literature. I think this was a very creative setup. However I had really wished that I knew more on the poets mentioned in the book. After a while, it was very hard for me to discriminate the characters between real and fiction.
The book had definitely “the spirit” of the Latin American literature, giving emphasis on society, rumors, bad fate of the region, criticism on the present political system of given time period etc.. He processed all the pain and evil of the era to provide us a beautiful work of art.
The book had definitely “the spirit” of the Latin American literature, giving emphasis on society, rumors, bad fate of the region, criticism on the present political system of given time period etc.. He processed all the pain and evil of the era to provide us a beautiful work of art.
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes