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A review by piccoline
The Third Reich by Roberto Bolaño
4.0
[First read 3 stars:] There's still the dread, the sense of ill-defined menace lurking just there at the corner of the eye. But it fails to quite coalesce into the moments of fevered intensity and dislocation that made _2666_ such a major work.
But of course, failing to match _2666_ is a little unfair as grounds for dismissing a book. So I will not dismiss this one. It is worth reading, but _Distant Star_ and _By Night in Chile_ should be higher on your Bolano queue. (With _2666_ at the top, obviously.)
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Adjusted up to 4 stars on second read. Only did a re-read because it was available as an audiobook right before a road trip to Canada. It's still a notch down from top Bolano, but better than I gave it credit for the first time. Long stretches of real menace and dread. There is a rather unseemly obsession with rape, especially in the second half of the book. Possibly defensible on artistic grounds, reflecting the pathologies of the narrator and also of his milieu. But it's still quite a lot.
All that said, this should be far down the Bolano list. Make sure you get through 2666, Savage Detectives, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Last Evenings on Earth, and The Return first.
But of course, failing to match _2666_ is a little unfair as grounds for dismissing a book. So I will not dismiss this one. It is worth reading, but _Distant Star_ and _By Night in Chile_ should be higher on your Bolano queue. (With _2666_ at the top, obviously.)
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Adjusted up to 4 stars on second read. Only did a re-read because it was available as an audiobook right before a road trip to Canada. It's still a notch down from top Bolano, but better than I gave it credit for the first time. Long stretches of real menace and dread. There is a rather unseemly obsession with rape, especially in the second half of the book. Possibly defensible on artistic grounds, reflecting the pathologies of the narrator and also of his milieu. But it's still quite a lot.
All that said, this should be far down the Bolano list. Make sure you get through 2666, Savage Detectives, By Night in Chile, Distant Star, Last Evenings on Earth, and The Return first.