From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

The Savage Detectives

Roberto Bolaño,

Natasha Wimmer (Translator)

Why we're reading this: Chilean author
[close] Chilean author

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May 27, 2008 Sarah rated it did not like it

Shelves: owned, books-about-books, half-read, hot-lit, abandoned

I really don't understand what's supposedly so fan-freaking-tastic about this book. Maybe I'm not a fan of teenage boy coming-of-age books (as I also loathed The Catcher in the Rye). Maybe I don't know enough about Mexican literature to appreciate this. Maybe I don't like poetry enough to care. Maybe it was the repetitive nothingness of Juan's diary entries (went here, smoked some weed, saw so-and-so, had sex with Maria. Next day: went here, drank some tequila, saw so-and-so, had sex with Rosari ...more

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Feb 25, 2016 Jenny rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary, male-authors, around-the-world-80-books, fiction, set-in-south-central-america, 2016, read-in-colombia

I was so excited to read this. I couldn't wait, and I knew I was going to love it before I even started it. And maybe that is why I didn't love it; maybe it couldn't possibly have lived up to my expectations for it. I even read most of it during a total of 18 hours on a bus through Colombia, which I understand is not Mexico where the book is mostly set, but it did focus on Latin American poets and authors in general.

Ok moving on...

I didn't love it but....but I didn't hate it either. It was inte ...more

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