This book is on my 5-yr timeline

4.5/5

9/10

poetic prose, crushing subject, and a quick read. I need to read something lighter next man

8/10

somedays it rly feels like u wake up that way and everyone dear to you recoils in horror

I said I was gna read smth lighter lol

The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano

I finished 2666 in May of this year and even though it remains Bolano’s magnum opus, this is nothing short of a classic.

A tragic yet deeply beautiful love letter to Latin American literature, to the avant-garde, to forgotten poets, writers, and artists — and to readers who still love books with their whole hearts. Belano and Lima are pure students of the craft: they rarely write, yet they live entirely for literature. Their obsession isn’t with success or recognition, but with the idea that somewhere out there lies a purer form of art, one that can’t quite be reached. Cesárea Tinajero, the forgotten poet they chase, becomes less a person than a symbol of that unreachable truth. The beauty of it all is in the failure and the way their endless searching, wandering, and myth-making becomes the very essence of literature itself.

I often like to connect Bolano’s work to the modern day culture of music & film and the novel anticipates today’s art world to a tee, where image and persona often overshadow the work itself. Belano and Lima’s futile search for pure art mirrors how modern artists chase “authenticity” through branding and attitude rather than substance. We see how rebellion becomes commodified, avant-garde posturing turns empty, and yet the doomed pursuit of meaning remains the only sincere act left.

A sidenote but I love how Bolano writes about Mexico City, especially having been there earlier this year. He gives it so much character, charm, and grandeur, turning its streets, bars, and rooftops into a living, breathing map of artistic longing

bolaño love let's gooooo!! It's a dream of mine to visit Mexico City after loving so many of his books for so long. He makes it sound amazing

Just cried real tears during the last two chapters of Babel.

Now it’s either Katabasis, Gass, finishing East of Eden, or Bury Our Bones.
All while reading whatever we read next in my friend group book club and reading mega long fics from ao3

banger

You f***ers are relentless

The climax of Babel is good af.

I’ve been in a terrible slump this year but I still been reading. 10 books so far this year. Have to update this thread

streets are waiting for your The Secret History review

Oh yea you peeped that?? Really enjoyed it. Such a fun read

yea I gotta reread that one soon. hope Tartt comes out with a new novel in the next few years

The Wall by Marlen Haushofer (1963) 240 pages

speculative fiction novel about a middle aged Austrian woman who wakes up on a farm she is visiting with everyone gone and a giant wall surrounding her. well written exploration of isolation and how without society mankind reconnects with the natural and animal world. definitely slow paced and I liked the first 60% of it but at times it just felt way too repetitive with the description of menial chores and work she had to do to stay alive. others have raved about this book and I can see why but personally I lost interest with both the character and story by the end of it

7.2/10

Deliverance by James D***ey (1970) 278 pages

fun adventure/thriller novel about four friends from Atlanta who go on a canoe trip in rural Georgia and have an awkward run in with locals. nothing that impressive about the writing but had entertaining action with some interesting perspectives on relationships in male groups, living with guilt, and how far you'll go to save your life. waited until I finished to see the movie for the first time and it was a faithful adaptation (written by D***ey) and definite classic

7.5/10

El ruido de las cosas al caer/The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vásquez (2011) 272 pages

Colombian novel about a young professor in Bogota who befriends an older man at a pool hall and as their lives intertwine the professor seeks to learn more about the man's past. tells the shared experience of living in Colombia from the 70s-90s with a Matryoshka like structure that contained stories within stories. both the prose and storytelling were captivating, and although I didn't like the main character at all, the character development and historical fiction made for a really good book

8.3/10

Would Read Again/10

The most obvious relevance to current topics is in the narrator’s obsession with a life that is not “real”. His fixation makes him lose track of his own survival and brings him to justify violence towards and integration with projections. There are also hints that the narrator has lost his true love and friends because of his government’s persecution and in order to avoid the regret of abandoning them, he creates a new love and friends out of these images. What I found more interesting was the ideas of immortality and life. On the surface it seems insane to create a way to record and relive a person’s entire existence, but in some ways writings, videos, and songs already do this. When executed well, I feel the life in these art mediums with all my senses. So maybe there is nothing to worry about with death because we’ll be alive as long as memories are here in physical record or within others. Then there's the chance that this exact loop is happening right now with our own lives but outside of our awareness. And if our lives are destined to replay maybe it becomes even more important to live in a way that we’ll be happy to relive. The narrator acting out his life how he wants it to be etched into the invention looks crazy, but maybe it is no different than us living our life to the fullest so that it is carved into the world in a way that fulfills us.

Finished Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and Sharp Objects. Both are really good but Sharp Objects man…..

Crazy two books deal with the death of a sister and its impacts years later I had no clue before reading it’d be a shared theme.

Next I think will be finishing/restarting East of Eden. I’ve been at 25% for like a year so I need to get back rolling on that.

I’m sure it’s been talked about in here, but I get it rec’d on TikTok. I’m going to skip to the front of the line. Insane title, this is what those authors who do the “phrase title” are trying to achieve but miserably fail at

Haven't posted here in a while but I'm coming back because I need to talk about this:

This is a reimagining of The Adventures of Huck Finn told from the persepctive of the slave Jim. It was booker shortlisted and won the pulitzer and the national book award . It's had rave reviews from every publication under the sun and I've just seen that it has a 4.45 rating on goodreads. I thought it was s***e.

To me the whole thing read like it was written by a 14 year old. The prose is incredibly clunky, most of it is dialogue and about half of that is just lazy exposition. Not a page goes by without James explaining a plot point or providing needless context in a way that no human being would ever talk. Everett doesn't seem to trust the reader at all and it completely hampers his ability to tell a story.

The plot is simple enough, with James lurching from one situation to the next in the most contrived way possible. Every convenience or inconvenience you can think of pulls him towards the conclusion. Every character is introduced and discarded at will, solely to add fuel to James' fire, every one of them completely one dimensional. And that includes James himself! We spend 300 pages inside his head and he still doesn't feel like a real person.

There is a major plot twist that makes zero sense in the context of the narration we've had up until that point, delivered in a laughable way and then just not explored at all for the rest of the book? And the ending, which admittedly was quite entertaining, feels like it belongs in a different book altogether.

I feel like maybe most of this would've been less of a problem for me if I'd been able to lose myself in the book at all, but thanks to the writing style that just wasn't possible. Would be interested to see if anyone here has got on better with it because I find the praise it's received a bit baffling

Some more positive updates as I haven't posted here in a while. Best reads from this year:

Mason & Dixon - Thomas Pynchon
Jesus' Son - Denis Johnson
The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
The Story of a Life - Konstantin Paustovsky
Underworld - Don Delillo
Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? - Lorrie Moore
Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned - Wells Tower
The Passenger - Cormac McCarthy
Ubik - Philip K. D***
Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada

And I also found time to reread Lincoln in the Bardo (best book to come out in the last 10 years) and Suttree (top 5 of all time)

fair critiques, tho I found the book pretty compelling and was able to connect with it more. I read it right after reading the original Huckleberry & Finn and thought the retelling through James was well done and provided a much needed different perspective. I understand what you mean about the twist, but I thought the character development of James was strong and I really liked the ending

on another note, I did not like Lincoln in the Bardo

I know everybody loved that novel and I do like Saunders a lot but it just didn't work for me, maybe because of the structure. but I'm excited for his new novel coming out early next year

loved The Passenger & Nickel Boys (Whitehead's best imo). gotta get to Suttree soon

I'm glad you got a lot more out of it than I did! I can imagine most of my issues wouldn't have bothered me as much if I was able to connect with his writing style a bit more.

I think my main problem with James' character is that none of the potentially interesting aspects are explored. Apart from his interest in philosophy, which felt a bit ham-fisted and unbelievable to me, we don't learn enough about his thoughts, feelings and desires beyond that he's a slave who loves his family. And I think that's a problem when he's painted as so erudite and we spend the whole book inside his head.

When, how and why did he learn all this stuff about philosophy? And how does that inform his opinions on slavery? I think Everett tries to delve into that with the dreams but it didn't really work for me.

Who actually are his wife and daughter? We learn nothing about them and his relationship to them. In fact every woman in this book is nothing more than a plot device.

When did he sleep with Huck's mum?! How did that inform his relationship to both their family and his? Why doesn't he seem to care about Huck as much as the rest of his family. I think it's mental that we spend the whole book in his head and he doesn't think about Huck being his son until the twist. I get that it's a plot device to allow for the twist itself but it doesn't make sense!

And I think if Everett spent less time writing exposition-driven dialogue and had a little more faith in his reader he could've explored a lot of this. And I think if we were in the head of a more well rounded character I would've been able to get past most of my other gripes.

Agree on Nickel Boys being Whitehead's best btw, at least from the few I've read

Yea all these years later I still think about Suttree from time to time. Cormac's best imo and probably my all time fav book

Stoner by John Williams

A perfectly quiet masterpiece. The kind of writing that makes you just smile. A simple, tragic story about an ordinary man but one that is universal, relatable and meaningful.

“And then she smiled. It was a slow smile that started in her eyes and pulled at her lips until her face was wreathed in radiant, secret, and intimate delight. Stoner almost pulled back from the sudden and involuntary warmth.”