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menniemenace'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.
innocentvision's review against another edition
3.0
Favoriter: "Sensini", "Enrique Martín" och "Anne Moore's Life"
frogwithlittlehammer's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
He makes the mundane absolutely haunting I didn’t even realize until now these were autobiographical fiction-y. It was like stale/stifling noir and at the same time post modern and yet there’s the element of poetry and verse that Latin American authors who lived through Allende and the coup evoke so well. Just stunning, will definitely be interesting to read his fiction.
kingtoad's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ronanmcd's review against another edition
5.0
An enigmatic collection of short stories that are almost self-consciously stiff. They are written about in the blurb as being from a series of narrators, although I would imagine each is a manifestation of some part of the author. The narrator(s) stumble through life’s challenges meeting them, and digesting as material for writing.
It is clear this is a series of vignettes describing how the world is to someone who lives by describing that same world. There is a greater truth in fiction that reaches beyond biographical specifics and that is explored through this collection of nominally fictional specifics.
Which is to say, I quite enjoyed the dark sultry writing and overall stuffiness in tone.
It is clear this is a series of vignettes describing how the world is to someone who lives by describing that same world. There is a greater truth in fiction that reaches beyond biographical specifics and that is explored through this collection of nominally fictional specifics.
Which is to say, I quite enjoyed the dark sultry writing and overall stuffiness in tone.
magehydrate's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
4.0
i used to read Bolaño almost exclusively in high school and my early 20s. This book was given to me in my junior or senior year and I read it to pieces. It’s funny to think about now, because I can’t quite remember the stories, and I wonder if I even understood them, but they made me feel something.Definitely worth a revisit.
hsienhsien27's review against another edition
4.0
Here is another Bolaño book that I have borrowed from the library and it's also another one that I have enjoyed. Like most of his books, all of the short stories contain the reading and writing obsession, the failed romantic relationships, the oddities of life, The poetry passion, the poetic but minamalistic prose, everything that makes a Bolaño novel.
That doesn't mean that the stories are stale though, they all have their own unique story. Ranging from murder to death, and the loss of a friend. In most of the stories, the reoccurring character, Arturo Belano appears under the name B. Although, I may be wrong, but that's what I heard. The character that goes under the name B travels from Germany to France to Mexico and meets a whole cast of people who have lived rather diffucult or odd lives. In each story, I feel like the endings are either really sad and tragic or kind of blank, like all of these crazy things happened and then the character is just like "Welp, that was weird," because life can be unpredictable and weird.
Another reoccurring theme in this story collection is the violence and the utter darkness in Mexico at that time, like maybe the 1970s or 80s, I could be completely wrong. If anybody reads this horrible review, they are allowed to punch me. So this book can be pretty heavy with the dark stuff but at the same there is that dull, peaceful, yet maybe harrowing repetition of life where everything seems normal and dandy and the thing that makes you feel the least comfortable pops up out of nowhere and destroys your very soul. There were times while reading this book that I felt kind of bored, but I think that's the point, because that's just how life is. Life can be boring and to fill that boring gap people like Bolaño or any of his readers fill that dull gap with reading and writing. Life can also be dangerous and painful, coincidental and surreal, and that we, as human beings, do anything to escape, by doing anything that gives us pleasure or happiness.
Bolaño's writing always seems to have this hazy feeling, but then drugs and alcohol seems to be a common thing that the characters enjoy, but sometimes he brings in this tiny dose of magical realism. It's so minimal that you don't even notice it at first and it gives the story the strangest feeling.
I feel like it's really hard to talk about Bolaño's work, but I will continue to read him and then struggle to talk about it on this blog. It's a stream of consciousness thing anyway, so of course these posts won't be coherent all the time.
Rating: 4/5
That doesn't mean that the stories are stale though, they all have their own unique story. Ranging from murder to death, and the loss of a friend. In most of the stories, the reoccurring character, Arturo Belano appears under the name B. Although, I may be wrong, but that's what I heard. The character that goes under the name B travels from Germany to France to Mexico and meets a whole cast of people who have lived rather diffucult or odd lives. In each story, I feel like the endings are either really sad and tragic or kind of blank, like all of these crazy things happened and then the character is just like "Welp, that was weird," because life can be unpredictable and weird.
Another reoccurring theme in this story collection is the violence and the utter darkness in Mexico at that time, like maybe the 1970s or 80s, I could be completely wrong. If anybody reads this horrible review, they are allowed to punch me. So this book can be pretty heavy with the dark stuff but at the same there is that dull, peaceful, yet maybe harrowing repetition of life where everything seems normal and dandy and the thing that makes you feel the least comfortable pops up out of nowhere and destroys your very soul. There were times while reading this book that I felt kind of bored, but I think that's the point, because that's just how life is. Life can be boring and to fill that boring gap people like Bolaño or any of his readers fill that dull gap with reading and writing. Life can also be dangerous and painful, coincidental and surreal, and that we, as human beings, do anything to escape, by doing anything that gives us pleasure or happiness.
Bolaño's writing always seems to have this hazy feeling, but then drugs and alcohol seems to be a common thing that the characters enjoy, but sometimes he brings in this tiny dose of magical realism. It's so minimal that you don't even notice it at first and it gives the story the strangest feeling.
I feel like it's really hard to talk about Bolaño's work, but I will continue to read him and then struggle to talk about it on this blog. It's a stream of consciousness thing anyway, so of course these posts won't be coherent all the time.
Rating: 4/5
nima_nimble's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
trashstaaar's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
mayarelmahdy'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.