Monday, December 6, 2010

5332: A lengthy ramble on 2 people reading 2666 by Roberto Bolaño

Where: Both on the R-train, traveling in opposite directions.
Bet that would sound WAY more poetic if you framed it as a nautical analogy: Good point. Perhaps the esteemed "Unknown" said it best when s/he wrote "There are those who pass like ships in the night, who meet for a moment, then sail out of sight."
Much better, now who was reading? Ship #1 was a young woman in a purple-and-yellow plaid skirt, with black tights and black everything else including a pair of clunky Amelie shoes. Ship #2 was a young man of the hipster persuasion, with an unseasonably bronzed face and light brown whiskers. Said whiskers were swaddled in a saffron-colored scarf and he carried a sack of art supplies.
How come none of this has anything to do with 2666? Pure oversight. But come to think of it I heard that book was good. Like really good.
Isn't it amazing... that Bolaño has been writing novels since the early '90s, and yet his work has only recently come into the limelight in this country? It makes me wonder how many great works of literature go unnoticed—or "sail out of sight"—simply because they're never translated into English.

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