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A review by jdarnold
The Third Reich by Roberto Bolaño
Did not finish book.
I returned The Third Reich yesterday, as I was kind of stuck on it. I enjoyed the beginning of it, as the writer talks about wargames in a very intelligent fashion. Set in the mid-80s, this would have been the height of wargame popularity, such as it was. The main character is an expert in the eponymous Avalon Hill game. I personally have never played it (not really big on strategic World War 2 games, even back when I was playing longer games), but I know of it and about it and the book does a good job of describing it. I really loved the part where he is a bit embarrassed to talk about his hobby in public, as many of us wargamers are. Most people think we are weird or nuts to be pushing pieces of cardboard around that simulate some of the bloodiest battles in history. At least those few who do know what it is. Most have no idea.
The translator has some problems with some of the terms, even the most basic one of 'wargamer'. She translated it to 'war games players', when just plain 'wargame players' would work. And she also talked about soccer teams as 'sections' - they watched a soccer game that had the "East German section" playing, which was really odd.
But I ran out of steam about halfway through the book, on page 126. The narrator, who was writing a journal about his vacation to the Spanish coast with his girlfriend, wasn't really all that attractive. Kind of a narcissist and really not all that likable. Makes you wonder how he would have ever hooked up with a very good looking girlfriend. And they meet up with another German couple who have a bad relationship, as well as a couple of other pretty bizarre sounding local characters. And when one of them disappears, many of them act in very illogical fashions. After I couldn't really bring myself to read it for a few days, I decided it was time to move on. I think it could be finished if I was in the right frame of mind, so I'm not going to give it the bottom score that I usually reserve for books that I give up on. I still might try it again.
The translator has some problems with some of the terms, even the most basic one of 'wargamer'. She translated it to 'war games players', when just plain 'wargame players' would work. And she also talked about soccer teams as 'sections' - they watched a soccer game that had the "East German section" playing, which was really odd.
But I ran out of steam about halfway through the book, on page 126. The narrator, who was writing a journal about his vacation to the Spanish coast with his girlfriend, wasn't really all that attractive. Kind of a narcissist and really not all that likable. Makes you wonder how he would have ever hooked up with a very good looking girlfriend. And they meet up with another German couple who have a bad relationship, as well as a couple of other pretty bizarre sounding local characters. And when one of them disappears, many of them act in very illogical fashions. After I couldn't really bring myself to read it for a few days, I decided it was time to move on. I think it could be finished if I was in the right frame of mind, so I'm not going to give it the bottom score that I usually reserve for books that I give up on. I still might try it again.