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2666: A Novel Roberto Bolano
Publisher: Picador

I'd say further, among many other attributes, that both novels offer nice examples of viable political fiction, contrary to certain claims. Roberto Bolaño died shortly after presenting the first draft of 2666 to his publisher, Anagrama. The wide ranging geography and time frame of 2666 defy easy summary. Every book that isn't a masterpiece is cannon fodder, a slogging foot soldier, a piece to be sacrificed, since in multiple ways it mimics the design of the masterpiece. Published a year after his death and translated into English a few more years later, it is an enormous book that defies summary. For the past week, I have been walking around, trying to think of what — finally — to say about Roberto Bolaño's novel, 2666. 2666 is Roberto Bolano's master statement. It was reported that he was not completely finished writing or editing the novel at the time of his death. If the streets of Santa Teresa and the style of 2666 are anarchic and the epigraph refers to our corrosive modernity and its abuses of freedom and desires, then we can anticipate an even more sprawling post-modern novel. I'd say 2666 stands with the very short By Night in Chile as the best of these. "You could say 2666 is the epic novel that Borges never wrote.