The Savage Detectives

At long last, I finished reading the incredibly dense and mesmerizing novel The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño. I thought I’d never finish the damn thing, it's so long, confusing, and emotionally draining.

The piling up of names, places, and dates, the piecing together of perspectives, the zigging and zagging through time and space was challenging to follow. The book’s protagonist (sort of) is poet and literary detective Arturo Belano , who together with fellow poet Ulises Lima, a prostitute, and a 17-year old boy, goes on a mad quest to find a “lost” female writer who disappeared without a trace (written or otherwise) in the 1930’s. Inserted into this framing story is over 400 pages of interviews with tangential characters who obliquely reveal what happens to the two poets over the 20 years that follow their quest.

Since Belano and Lima don’t narrate their own story (nor do they appear to actually produce any written work in all this time), the events in their lives feels more apocryphal than real. The Savage Detectives contains most of the elements of classic epic, though seriously postmodernized. This tale is all about the loss, not the glory. There isn’t much that’s noble in this world, and plenty that’s creepy, vicious, and meaningless. The novel captures the chaotic trajectory of life and leaves you with the sneaking suspicion that it’s pretty much pointless.

I’m not going to recommend you read this novel unless you
a) have a lot of time on your hands
b) have powers of concentration beyond the norm
c) are looking for something offbeat, and at times hilarious
d) don’t mind peering into the abyss
e) are a librarian, in which case you should take this book off the shelf NOW (meaning you should read it, not banish it)

My next read is Affliction by Russell Banks. What can I say … I’m a glutton for punishment.