A review by rmaxwell33
Last Evenings on Earth by Roberto Bolaño

4.0

Last Evenings served as my first real foray into Bolaño —having only a hazy imprint of the vague vignettes in Antwerp to serve as previous exposure — and these stories do what the best literature can do in the sense that they paint a world so vivid and clear that you have no choice but to dive in head first. (An aside: I’m about 20 pages into By Night in Chile and so sound the trumpets, the Bolaño plunge has commenced.) I’m a sucker for the “biography as fiction” type of writing and these stories are certainly that: the majority featuring protagonist “B” who is a stand in for Bolaño himself. Most feature a writer, or writers, of mediocre talent (self prescribed), with next to no renown, often on some sort of detective like quest, who offer up honest portrayals of the not so sparkly aspects of our character (at least for someone who is always reading himself into characters i.e. this reader right here, hello!) and end right at the fever pitch, where in you let out a gasp of air, and sink into some sort of reflective thought. They are a bit dark, but hey that’s what we’re here for right? All I can say is I’m in and cannot wait to read more of Bolaño’s work.