A review by korrick
The Third Reich by Roberto Bolaño

2.0

This is my fourth book of Bolaño, four being the current tipping point between authors I've sampled more than once and authors for whom I've demonstrated some level of commitment. Unfortunately, fancy covers and effusive reviews need not be explicit about publishing chronology or author bio, and had I known the posthumous conditions of this book's publication, I wouldn't have held onto it as long as I did. For what is here certainly has aesthetics of Bolaño, but very little of the gutpunch politicisms; in a word, this was lacking the thematic skeleton that enabled the linguistic skin to gird its loins before going into war. It's a difference between a death that happens and a death that means something, a paranoia that is little more than self entitlement and a double think that has saved one from the military industrial complex more than once, violence as shock and violence as endless reverberations from the disintegrating corpses of various juggernauts whose masquerading as various nations would have come to a close long ago were it not for the death grip certain fascist individuals have on their pride in the form of their respective nation's doomsday clocks. A disappointment, then, but then again, it was not Bolaño that chose to put this forth. So, if you, dear reader, are coming here with an eye on the accessibly slim contours of this work and a question of whether this is the best place to start: no, it is not. I have a good feeling, though, that [b:Nazi Literature in the Americas|1178230|Nazi Literature in the Americas|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348627738l/1178230._SX50_.jpg|1166037] would be worth a try if you're a stickler for length. I myself began my Bolaño journey with [b:2666|63032|2666|Roberto Bolaño|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1672791535l/63032._SY75_.jpg|3294830], but I'll leave that for the masochists among us.