The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolano REVIEW 

I think the enduring quality of Roberto Bolaño's work is that in some way it's always referring to the redemptive and transcdendent power of art. The transformation of the mundane into the sublime. The resultant labyrinths that occur from chasing the desire to create and to be liberated, even obliterated, through the alchemical sublimation that occurs in the investigative and artistic processes themselves. Living art, not just creating it. A true bohemian Daedalus. Orpheus' descent into the underworld.

One of my all-time favorites, I've read maybe three times, the last time in Mexico City which was really a treat. One aspect of the book that I like very much (probably because I am older!), is how the vignettes of the characters lives that you hear from so many sources paints this not-that-clear picture of these vibrant youths trying to maintain their idealism as they get older and start having more 'real world' experiences. The Visceral Realists were going to set the world on fire, but, as with the rest of us, reality hits hard and they end up sleeping on couches and in caves, and then just kind of disappearing. In that way it felt like a book about capital-L Life, even though at first read it seems mostly about youthful hijinks.

Bolaño himself have said it: literature should be a game, that after La invención de Morel and Sobre Héroes y Tumbas there is not place for just plot-driven novels. The Savages Detectives is a game, because who is the detective? And what is he looking for? This can have many answers, but my opinion is that the reader is the ultimate detective of the novel (Belano and Ulises are obviously in a literary quest) and that what we are looking for is both Arturo Belano and Ulises (and trying to anticipate and decipher that misterious event that took place in The Deserts of Sonora) through the eyes of so many characters. Is like the novel spins around them but we never get to get close to them, they remain unknown till the end. It's very important to considere the autobiografical aspect of the novel, Arturo Belano is Roberto Bolaño, and many of his friends are real people that were his real friends (like Ulises Lima) and a lot of what he describes actually happened to him, in that sense it is indeed much like On The Road, but not just the discovery of certain kind of bohemian freendom but also its aftermath, its consecuences through time, space and other people's life. For me was not just similar to DFW but to Pynchon too, it has an end of the world uncanny feeling that is very pynchonian. Now read 2666, that is way more pynchonian and apocalyptical. Bolaño considered both Novelas Río (River Novels), in wich the plot lines meet or diverge from one single moment, event or place, like the afluents of a river. PD: Sorry for my horrible english.

Great video! "Distant Star" is my favorite Bolaño's book. I highly recommend it.

One of my favorite books. Poets, writers, and lovers of literature will adore it. It made me read everything Bolaño wrote.

I really enjoyed this novel. It's so sweeping and such a love letter to literature. I enjoyed this book immensely. I wanted to call it a "post-modern novel," "thriller novel" or something else, but I find that trying to classify this defeats the purpose. Just as elusive as the visceral realists is the novel itself, and that harmony between content and form makes me smile. It was indeed challenging, but I loved it.

I've read 2666 by Bolano, it was disturbing, which means I enjoyed it. I will have to try this next.

Great review, Mattia. Bolaño has always been a favorite of mine. His novels are amazing. This one especially. As a proud latin american, he was a great example of our literature. It's really sad he's no longer with us.

easily one of my favourite books of all time. I still think about it from time to time.

It is strange, Bolano is one of the writers I really read everthing of, including his poetry - with one exception: The Savage Detectives. I bought the book three or more years ago and it is on my tbr-pile since. Why? When I took a look inside I had (maybe the wrong) impression that it is very different from his other writings, I enjoyed reading a lot, and wasn't shure if it was as good. I didn't want to spoil my "Bolano-experience" on the last meters of the track. Your review encouraged me now to take it up finally.

I never read Bolaño, but based on what I heard I thought I was going to love this. I got like 150 pages through and it was the first book I’ve put down in a long time. Could not stand it. Then I read Chile By Night and loved it. The part where (spoiler but not really because it happened in history) Allende comes into power and the narrator reads works of antiquity was probably one of my favorite moments in literature

I enjoyed your take on this book and was glad it made you reevaluate and/or deepen your appreciation of Kerouac. I loved Savage Detectives as I had loved On the Road, although they are very different. Often times reading a book that deliberately tries to alter the ¨shape¨ of the novel can be tedious. Here, the structure follows the need of the story and makes good sense. I would recommend Woes of the True Policeman and The Unknown University (beyond 2666) for more Bolaño.

A very good review. Thanks for giving me a very good idea of the reading experience.

My friend told me to read this book about 7 years ago. I loved the beginning and hated when the story switched. I re-read it 3 years later and loved it. I loved this review and cant wait to watch more of your videos.

I JUST started Savage detectives, now I'm really excited to continue! I bought 2666, started it but put it down not far in. It's staring at me from the shelf.

I think the term you're looking for is writers writers, meaning that it takes someone who knows about writing to truly love the authors writing - now I write that down I realise how pretentious that is. Great video. I'm gonna read this next, although I've already read a few extracts to syke myself up, when I finish cathedral and read it over Easter as one of my big books of the year. Really enjoy his short stuff, his stories basically read like extracts from this. Would highly recommend Cesar aira, a writer who bolano really admired.

I loved it. It was one of my first "big" novels I read and it's still one of my alltime favorites. Liked the middle section way more than the frame narrative. To this day I pick up the book every few weeks and reread a random chapter. It's awesome and I will finally start 2666 next month

Wonderful review Bookchemist! You have a fantastic ability to create enthusiasm about literature that I would not normally be aware of. Thank you!

Hey, I really like your reviews. You should try The Darkroom of Damocles by Willem Frederik Hermans.

Read The Book of Chocolate Saints by Jeet Thayil (Also read Narcopolis by Jeet Thayil).

I would love a review of "The Dharma Bums" by you.

I started seriously digging fiction with DFW. But since I found Bolaño I must say he tops David! SD is so amazing; you should read Nazi Literature next. Two things about The Savage Detectives that are worth mentioning: all characters have a more or less poetic life. I think the biggest achievement of Bolaño is to create a poet-populated world that doesn't seem far-fetched, Second, his literature is best when he tells. He puts so much information in one or two pages with such skill that he's been regarded as a maximalist. His books are proof that showing not telling is a rule to be broken when you are a good writer. My favorite parts are when those faux-interviews get into describing someone or something in a vague sentence that somehow triggers our imagination into something beautiful.

Finally, a Bolaño review!

After reading 1st 71 pages I threw book in the trash. I’m an old dog who lived 50 years in San Francisco. I have already lived lived with what is saying in order to break down traditional mental ideas for the purpose of freeing oneself to real life. I’m no longer a young guy. I definitely don’t need to be reminded or conjure up stuff that is going to make life in this senior center difficult.

Do 2666 or Nazi Literature in the Americas next; other than Pynchon, Bolaño is easily my favorite fiction author of the last 50 years or so.

wow..i can't believe you've convinced me that i might enjoy "the savage detective"..thanks.

Great review again, I really appreciate your work. There is a cafe frequented by Spanish and Latin American people in my street, which I haven't checked out yet, though. Perhaps I try reading the book there, as it seems to me that it might benefit to increase the vibe of the experience, although I generally prefer to read in my room. I'm not sure whether I should read it in English or my native language German. Mostly I read English/American authors, but I somehow have the impression that my experience of books that have been written in other languages can somehow be affected by reading them in English. I think the reason for that is that by reading a book in English translation I unconsciously link it to my perception of English/American 'culture', while reading the German translation enables me to approach it from a more neutral perspective. It would be interesting to know what you think about that.

Great to see you read TSD! As someone who has studied Latin American Lit, I can tell you that not all the names are real. Some of the authors are made up. Just FYI. I liked the book, but I found part two confusing. I understood it, but there were some nuances that I missed. It was too nuanced for me, but overall still a good read.

Thanks for recommending this book, it is an absolute tour de force, it gets better with every page

Good reviewer....explains the hard to explain,feels the humanity....great novel in 10 different ways....gives great perspective to all our imaginary first world problems and the eternal hungry heart of a poet....what a walk thru Bohemia,what a stumble towards the stars,what a long cool drink of youth and those pure at heart being raped by this cruel ,corrupt world....and what a love story of poetry and literature....

Thank you!!!

I DNFed it. Now I'll have to go back and reread it. It wasn't a bad reading experience it just didn't grip my attention. It's a very neat phrase "discover sexuality" sounds so much better than the one I would use:)))))

I read it a few months ago, and it was a strange book for me. I could really tell it was well writen, but I did not find it engaging. The prose was great, but the meat of the story did not appeal to me, some parts were enjoyable, but others I had to struggle to get over them.The thing is, I understand why a lot of people loves TSD. I didn't, but I have a lot of respect for this book.

I like book.

uno dei miei libri preferiti, bellissimo

Monsuier Paine by Bolano. Dope.

read 2666 .. fantastic !

Hey Bookchemist, love your channel. Ive never heard you talk about Haruki Murakami and wondered if youve read him? I reccommend Hard Boiled Wonderland, its a true labyrinth of a story with a satisfying ending.

bolaño was also a board game fan. Specially strategy games

hey! Your shadow of the wind video brought me here. I loved the Zafon book and have only seriously gotten into reading again for the first time since I was in my teens. I wouldn't really consider myself a reader of readers books....not yet anyways; but I'm enjoying reading thrillers that I find interesting and I do enjoy the self involved styled narratives.Just wondering if you could recommend similar books or series that I might enjoy? Perhaps something you consider to sit somewhere in between The Shadow Of The Wind and this one?

Grandissimo romanzo,fra i miei preferiti in assoluto.Io ti direi di andare di 2666 senza timore,quando vorrai.Certo,è lungo,difficile e abbastanza disturbante,ma pensa che in confronto a Gravity's Rainbow è una puntata di My Little Pony (come del resto tutti i romanzi del Pianeta Terra,con la probabile eccezione delle opere di Vollmann). Potresti provare anche con Amuleto,se ti interessa leggere un libro di Bolaño breve ma intenso,anche perchè è molto collegato a Los Detectives.Ti avverto,è estremamente criptico,ma è anche mooolto affascinante.Una vera esperienza.

Okay Okay you want a confession is that It? Here it is : I haven't finished Gravitys Rainbow ( years now- its last few pages (!) my therapist suggests to just let go and read them..what does she know, I'm paying her tons of money. Now it's Bolano, and guess what (?) I have 2666 and yep..its waiting to be read...laughing. Some day Some day....peace from Texas

Hey, I know both English and spanish and want to get into Italian literature (especially Italo Calvino). Do you suggest I read the English translation or Spanish translation (since Spanish and Italian are similar)? You probably haven’t read the translations (because why would you?) but if you have an opinion...

Great review! Who are the people on the photographs in the background?

So I'm a huge Wallace fan, and I just finished Savage Detectives. Aside from girth and sheer number of characters, I don't quite see the Wallace/Bolaño connection. The lack of cohesiveness was slightly frustrating, as was the endless name-dropping of all of those obscure/esoteric Latin poets. That's not to say there it didn't have it's charm. I feel like there wasn't much of an arc or resolution, just a bunch of short somewhat-related stories strung together. And I guess it was somewhat autobiographical in that Arturo Belano was somewhat of a representation of the author (kinda like how Charles Bukowski wrote about himself as Hank Chinowski or whatever), but like, he was super self-deprocating about the whole Viceral Realist movement, so in that way, it wasn't overly pretentious.

I m sorry but did u say u read the book in 4 hours?

It's one of the most disgusting books I've ever read 🤢

I honestly don't see what people see in Roberto Bolano. A more overrated author there has never been. I read 2666 and it is tied with Naked Lunch for worst book I've ever read. The writing was terrible, the characters were flatter than Charles Dickens', and to top it all off the whole thing was rabidly misogynistic. Literally any time a female character is introduced she will have sex within two pages. Worse than all that though, is the pretentious air the book possesses. The reader constantly wants to believe that there's some subtext, some point to the whole thing, but there's not. It's literally just hundreds of pages of rambling nonsense written by an egotistical tool with diarrhea of the mouth. While it is sad that Bolano died so young, I have to say that the literary world didn't lose much.