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A review by hsienhsien27
Distant Star by Roberto Bolaño
4.0
From now on, all of my reviews are being copied and pasted from my blog, because I'm amazingly lazy.The link is below.
"Distant Star was kind of confusing for me. Like The Savage Detectives, it doesn't really have a flowing plot, but at the same time it does have a plot, if that makes sense. Since Distant Star is pretty much a novella, everything moves kind of quickly and the characters don't really develop much. It was more like a really long short story with chapters, which is pretty much a novella. It starts with the narrator, who is apparently Arturo Belano or Arturo B. from The Savage Detectives, he's in a writing workshop with a few guys and a pair of twins, the Garmendia Twins, the protagonist who is named Ruiz-Tangle, but changes his name to Carlos Wieder, Fat Marta, and Bibiano. Most of the novella focuses on the weirdness of Carlos Wieder, he is an autodidact. He apparently wants to revolutionize Chilean poetry, however, he murders people in the process because he's apparently a sick, crazy dude. He kills off the twins, a couple of other women, and the narrator probably thinks he killed Juan Stein, a mentor. Carlos Wieder is one of those really mysterious guys that disappear for no reason, the narrator becomes obsessed with this weirdo because he truly believes that Carlos has killed off many people for the sake of his crazy art.
I enjoyed Distant Star, but some parts were kind of confusing, especially when the perspectives were changed and the narrator starts talking about other people, like the disappearance of Juan Stein, and some other political related people. This novella was kind of on the creepy side, because Carlos Wieder is a strange, creepy person, actually his last name is kind of close to weirdo, just switch some letters around and add an 'O'. I think I might've missed a few thing while reading this novel, because there are some questions left unanswered, but it's a novella, and thats all the story you're going to get."
From my blog:
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-distant-star-by-roberto.html
"Distant Star was kind of confusing for me. Like The Savage Detectives, it doesn't really have a flowing plot, but at the same time it does have a plot, if that makes sense. Since Distant Star is pretty much a novella, everything moves kind of quickly and the characters don't really develop much. It was more like a really long short story with chapters, which is pretty much a novella. It starts with the narrator, who is apparently Arturo Belano or Arturo B. from The Savage Detectives, he's in a writing workshop with a few guys and a pair of twins, the Garmendia Twins, the protagonist who is named Ruiz-Tangle, but changes his name to Carlos Wieder, Fat Marta, and Bibiano. Most of the novella focuses on the weirdness of Carlos Wieder, he is an autodidact. He apparently wants to revolutionize Chilean poetry, however, he murders people in the process because he's apparently a sick, crazy dude. He kills off the twins, a couple of other women, and the narrator probably thinks he killed Juan Stein, a mentor. Carlos Wieder is one of those really mysterious guys that disappear for no reason, the narrator becomes obsessed with this weirdo because he truly believes that Carlos has killed off many people for the sake of his crazy art.
I enjoyed Distant Star, but some parts were kind of confusing, especially when the perspectives were changed and the narrator starts talking about other people, like the disappearance of Juan Stein, and some other political related people. This novella was kind of on the creepy side, because Carlos Wieder is a strange, creepy person, actually his last name is kind of close to weirdo, just switch some letters around and add an 'O'. I think I might've missed a few thing while reading this novel, because there are some questions left unanswered, but it's a novella, and thats all the story you're going to get."
From my blog:
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2013/10/book-review-distant-star-by-roberto.html