A review by bennysbooks
Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño

3.0

For the first 60% of the book I was mesmerized. A lot of it went over my head (not knowing enough about the Chilean poetry/literary scene of the 70's), but I was engaged by the rambling, stream-of-consciousness writing style, and the fascinatingly suspicious narration. The narrator is highly unreliable - all of the information we get from him is either decades old reminiscences, the result of dubious research, or secondhand gossip (often from one, seemingly obsessive, old friend). And yet everything is presented in this detailed, omniscient way. It was entertaining, but at a certain point things just became repetitive (yet another digression about a new historical/literary figure with a barely discernible connection to Wieder), and bizarre in a boring way. I didn't hate the ending, but I also didn't feel much about it at all. It's a strange, sometimes funny, quite dark little book. Glad I read it, but not sure I would ever return to it. 

I've had a couple of Bolaño novels on my shelves for years now, but was too intimidated to pick them up. Very excited to continue reading his books. 

Read for the Storygraph Read the World challenge 2024.