2666 by Roberto Bolaño-- summary and analysis (900 pages in 10 mins) 

The title 2666 comes from the novel "Amuleto". This is the quote's translation: «(...) and then we started walking down Guerrero Avenue, they a little slower than before, I a little more depressed than before, Guerrero, at that time, looks like a cemetery above all, but not to a cemetery of 1974, nor to a cemetery of 1968, nor to a cemetery of 1975, but to a cemetery of 2666, a forgotten cemetery under a dead or unborn eyelid, the dispassionate waters of an eye that, wanting to forget something "He has ended up forgetting everything."

Not poetic? What were you reading? This is some of the finest prose poetry to come out in 100 years.

I actually really appreciate your comments on what you didn't like about this novel, that makes me know you have an opinion based on your true sentiments about something and not based on whatever someone tells you. For me, this novel is one of the only novels of the XXI century to make me feel that a new type of novel had been born. Some parts of the book are poetic prose, some others are simply bland, cause that's life. This is a huuge book where nothing really happens, (at least at big scales), the real beauty is on the secondary events that usually would be non-important in other novels. The part about the murders is the longest and it could very well feel that its length is unnecessary, but for me, it shows how, sometimes, the hardest parts of life end up being unresolved. Anyway, I encourage you to give it another try. PS: Your channel is awesome, you have improved a lot since your first videos. I recommend you Distant Star from Bolaño, it's his best book in my opiniom

I read an article about Bolano and it said that a 6th part of this book was found in his apartment recently in a manuscript format, which was not included in the print version of the original volume. I wonder if it will ever be published... I would be curious to read that, too...😢

I enjoyed 2666. I’m currently reading Nabokovs Pale Fire and I see that flowery prose very similar to Roberto’s description of Hans Reiter as a baby. Both are spectacular.

Who else can see Daniel Kaluuya as Oscar Fate Williams driving down to Mexico to cover a boxing match.

This is a really long novel. Well done for reading it.

I totally disagree with you. I am completely enthralled with the book and consider it to be one of the greatest novels ever written.

I have read that the main theme in the 5 parts is always violence and I agree. Everything in the book eventually leads the protagonists towards Mexico. The critics end up in Mexico looking for archimboldi, Amalfitano and his daughter (whom we see from other short stories that they lived in Spain until Rosa’s mom became a drug addict and Amalfitano had been caught sleeping with a student, also in savage detectives Rosa’s mom story is told and she pilgrimages with a friend to an insane asylum to be with an old writer but contracts HIV from some guy who pays her for sex…) Oscar Fate also ends up in Mexico. During the visions of the blind holistic healer, she tells us that there’s a giant coming. Hans Reiter (named after a German doctor who conducted experiments on children during WWII) also alludes to a giant coming to Mexico once he’s in jail. I don’t think there is a clear hero in the book at all. Everyone has blood in their hands in the end and peace is not found by anyone. Archimboldi tells us that all a man needs is peace and quite, something he paradoxically found while reading Groky’s diary as he’s hiding from the war. This is a book that depicts globalism in the 21st century, the evils of the world, how impossible it is to point the finger at the culprit. It is about the unrealistic expectation of finding out the truth behind the crimes, prosecuting all the evils committed in the war, pinpointing a problem at the border. What ever happens in one part of the world, affects us all in the end. Also the part of the murders is meant to make you an accomplice by becoming indifferent like the police force. I remember reading it and wanting to feel something but after a while I was bored and you realize how numb you become to even the most horrific things.

I am currently reading that book, don't know what to think of it yet but i find it very captivating

I didn’t know Bolano was a poet but I definitely noticed lyricism in his writing on the first part of the boo only. I think his goal was to figure out the meaning of life but at the end, there was no meaning. Another thing, I felt that the German guy was too similar to Nietzsche and his sister was the mother of the serial killer, maybe suggesting Hitler. The book was almost like a nightmare, magical realism was turned up on his head. Or Dark and gloomy. Thank you for solving the mystery of the title.

Thanks for the review

If you read Amulet there is a sentence that describes a street in Mexico City that Bolão says is "more like a cemetery than an avenue, not a cemetery in 1974 or in 1968 or 1975, but a cemetery in the year 2666..."

Though Bolano died soon after writing and was not a part of editing, I see the unrefined narratives in 2666 to emulate the ambiguity of reality, how life occurs, how tragedy falls on the undeserving, and how police departments obfuscate criminal activity for their own political benefit, etc. 2666 was the first of Bolano I've read and after (finally) finishing I made sure to purchase The Savage Detectives and Amulet (referenced in editorial note) in search of the same David Lynch-esque journey through the lens of Bolano. I understand there are sentiments to nit-pick in 2666 and I will leave that to the critics because this work (in my unpolished view) is worth every long-winded tale and description.

Perhaps Archimboldi is a hero and each of the 5 parts has a hero although it is hard to find them. I've been reading this novel for the second time and now I understood why I could read it twice. There are interesting plots on the other parts also, besides the first and the last part. I loved most of your comments and there is more lyrical solution to the name of the novel but then you'll have toi read Amuleto, a short novel by Roberto Bolaño to figure it out.

I really dont understand your point about Liz Norton, clearly she's not a good person and she clearly liked the attention she was getting from those multiple men so why would she intervene to make them stop kicking that driver. He insulted her and im sure deep down she enjoyed seeing him getting beat up, it shows that even a woman that doesn't do anything evil physically speaking can be evil. Also she played with all of them while sleeping with them she knew they were in love.. I do agree with you tho when reading the book your start missing these earlier characters

Great book

The Chilean Tarantino!!

Hmm

The trucks arrive on time. I don't really read books much. I don't know how I acquired this book. Perhaps the cover art. Shallow. As I said, I don't read much. When I got to "the crimes " it wore me down. Page after banal descriptions of unspeakable cruelty. Like being suffocated.

I have to be honest, I watched this video in the hope of finding an explanation for the book and how wondrous it is. But I find an honest critic who felt the same way I feel when reading it. I fell asleep several times reading this book. Took me 2 months to finish to it because I was so reluctant to pick it up. So many critics hailed it, and I failed to appreciate it. I laboured through it, and none the wiser for reading it. It's alright, not all books end up teaching one about anything, but I also ended up not liking it. Not many books make me feel this way. Perhaps this is what the author intended? Too long, tedious, winding and nothing to grab the interest. And yes the description of the murders, I think i fell asleep while reading through it. I read another comment about the murder description part. Is it the intention of the author to make the reader labour through it all? I remember i felt like the author was trying to create a memorial for each victim and I wanted to respect them by reading it all without skipping a word. However, it still doesn't resonate with me.

Regarding the title’s mystery- i think you need to read detectives salvajes - its just a random date distant in the future. No one uses miles or the imperial system outside the US

Lol remove 600 pages? You shouldn't be reviewing books at all. This is the best fiction to be written in the last 30yrs. The fact that you only enjoyed parts 1 and 5 outs your simpleton analysis.