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🦋 Lost in Mexico

Making my way through part I of Savage Detectives I am being reminded strongly of a question that bothered me when I was first reading the book. The meat of the book seems to be in part two, which follows the visceral realists in their diaspora from 1977 - 1996; that is sandwiched between the much shorter parts I and III, excerpted from García Madero's diary in 1975 and 76. I had trouble relating the two books to each other the first time around -- this time I am trying to keep an eye out for clues...

Another thing I wondered about: Who is the author who (in the fictional world of the book, in 1996) compiled all these bits of writing -- is it García Madero? He would have access to the diaries of course. I am forgetting now whether the pieces in Part II are supposed to have been written by García Madero or by the various characters. Another thing to look for hints to.

In Bolaño Group Read news, Rise has a new entry at Bifurcaria bifurcata on Rodrigo Fresán, book thief -- Rise links to Fresán's 2007 piece The Savage Detective and his 2010 Notes toward the memoirs of a book thief, both translated by Wimmer.

posted evening of Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
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Natasha Wimmer's Notes towards an annotated edition of 2666 includes the statement, "Note that the narrator of the central section of The Savage Detectives is also an unidentified figure, a faceless interviewer whose presence is only hinted at by the tone of the many characters who testify to their involvement with Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima."

posted morning of November 9th, 2011 by Jeremy

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