2666: A Review
Posted March 15, 2009 by bec_young in Reviews
Here's the beginning of a review Justseeds friend Erick Lyle wrote for the SF Bay Guardian about the book 2666 by Chilean author Robert Bolaño:
There is a wry but hilarious scene near the very end of Roberto Bolaño's novel 2666 (Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 912 pages; $30), in which a French literary critic finds a German writer, Archimboldi, lodging at what the critic calls "a home for vanished writers." After checking into a room at the large estate, the elderly vanished writer wanders the grounds, meeting with the other vanished authors, residents whom Archimboldi finds friendly but increasingly eccentric. Gradually it dawns on Archimboldi that all is not as it seems. Walking back to the entrance gate, he sees, without surprise, a sign announcing that the estate is the "Mercier Clinic and Rest Home — Neurological Center." The home for vanished writers is an insane asylum.
As we enter the Obama era, with all its promise of "change," I've found it impossible to read 2666 without being haunted by the memory of those who vanished into the lunatic asylum of the long George W.Bush years — not just the nameless and unlucky left to rot in the Bush administration's secret torture cells throughout the world, but also those who disappeared right here at home. For instance, a guy I worked with a couple of years ago. One day he was training me on the job, and a week or so later he was in a federal prison, labeled a "terrorist" — which in his case meant that he edited a Web site called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty.
Now read the rest of the review while trying not to be distracted by all the flashing ads...
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