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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
Affords centrality to violence in a more or less interesting way
It's one of those books that works better in theory than in practice. It starts off excellent, and then, in its demonstration of showing the narrator's distance from all the important events, spends a lot of time dwelling on stuff that really isn't important. The first half is much more interesting than the second. It was still good, and impressive, but it just doesn't work out as well when you're several pages into details the narrator is obsessed with that don't end up mattering in the long run.
This is my first Bolano novel. His style is quite different from everything I've read. But, contradicting myself at the same time I can go back over modern novels I have read and see his influences seeped throughout them. I can't quite put my finger on how he is different though which is tough. It's not just that this is a translated text, I've been reading many of those lately, it has more to do with his style and the formulation of this novel.
So Distant Star threw me. As I said, it's really different from anything I have experienced before. The story itself is an intertwining of multiple stories throughout the novel. We're introduced to many, many fictional characters with a real historical backdrop which is what makes this novel something special. I really enjoyed this but to be totally honest I don't know how to rate this because it's so different.
I really want to read more Bolano after this. This may not be the best novel I have ever read but I can see the potential he has and how he has influenced literature.
So Distant Star threw me. As I said, it's really different from anything I have experienced before. The story itself is an intertwining of multiple stories throughout the novel. We're introduced to many, many fictional characters with a real historical backdrop which is what makes this novel something special. I really enjoyed this but to be totally honest I don't know how to rate this because it's so different.
I really want to read more Bolano after this. This may not be the best novel I have ever read but I can see the potential he has and how he has influenced literature.
Solo Bolaño puede contar la misma historia otra vez y hacerlo bien. Porque esta novela es la "versión extendida" del último texto de La literatura nazi en América. Aunque la versión breve, por su corta extensión, tiene más silencios y da a más interpretaciones, la versión de Estrella distante, si bien un poquito más explícita, mantiene el punto justo, logrando tremendo librazo.
dark
funny
reflective
fast-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Bolaño learned all the lessons of the boom generation and American genre fiction & crammed it into like 150 antifascist pages
My first Bolaño reread. This still seems to me a marvelous place to start with him. You get all the darkness and menace, along with the strange humor and unexpected asides. You get the obsessive devotion to poetry and literature, and you're initiated into the deep subterranean connections it has with violence and the world.
Heck, it's just a great noir, too, if you need an easier label for it. And a clean, gripping read at under 150 pages. Highly recommended.
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First read in 2006 or so?
Heck, it's just a great noir, too, if you need an easier label for it. And a clean, gripping read at under 150 pages. Highly recommended.
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First read in 2006 or so?
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes