Cyrus's review
The Savage Detectives: A Novel
by Roberto Bolaño
Cyrus's review
The Savage Detectives: A Novel by Roberto Bolaño
Cyrus's review
rating:
A good way to explain how I feel about this book is to say that as much as I liked it, I'd be reluctant to recommend it to most people. I give it four stars because though it was a very "postmodern" and "experimental" novel, it was a rare example of a time when both of those adjectives aren't synonymous with "pretentious".
The book is about the experiences of a group of young poets in 1970s Mexico City. The narrative is broken into three main sections. The first and third are told from the point of view of a seventeen year old member of the group, who is in the inner circle of two of the founding members of a short lived school of poetry, "visceral realism". The middle and longest, most challenging part of the book is a series of interviews with literally dozens of characters who tell of their experiences with two of the Visceral Realists, one of whom seems to be a thinly veiled version of Bolano himself. There is a skeleton of a plot, ...more
The book is about the experiences of a group of young poets in 1970s Mexico City. The narrative is broken into three main sections. The first and third are told from the point of view of a seventeen year old member of the group, who is in the inner circle of two of the founding members of a short lived school of poetry, "visceral realism". The middle and longest, most challenging part of the book is a series of interviews with literally dozens of characters who tell of their experiences with two of the Visceral Realists, one of whom seems to be a thinly veiled version of Bolano himself. There is a skeleton of a plot, ...more
