That’s not to say we’re going to be putting together anything majestic here on The Mookse and the Gripes. This was the book that converted me fully to Bolaño’s work, the book that made me realize Bolaño’s work was not just some passing fad but genuinely important, worth reading definitely, and also worth rereading and studying. I first read By Night in Chile in 2009 ( here), after I’d already read and been ignorantly dismissive of 2666. That said, there is quite a bit we can pull from By Night in Chile to help us understand 2666 better - well, ” to help us understand” is perhaps wrong - how about this: to cast shadows and light over 2666. Unlike much of his work of the 1990s and even 2666, it is not particularly linked to any of Bolaño’s earlier plots or characters, though Pinochet makes an entrance. But Bolaño also explored his perspective in smaller works, such as this little masterpiece he published in 2000. That perspective is grand, and is explored in the giant 2666.
What is it about some authors - or artists of any kind, really - that makes us want to see everything? I don’t know for sure, but there must be something in the equation about the artist’s perspective. Bolaño definitely had a unique, powerful perspective from which he examined this world in our times.
Consequently, inevitably, we’ve decided that, when the mood strikes us, we’ll reread some of our other favorites and perhaps finally hit a few of his works we have yet to read. But I know that Lee and I are not the only ones who have started something by Bolaño and, perhaps without even knowing why, have wanted to venture into everything else the man wrote. Our first long post for the 2666 read-along is this Friday (don’t forget to join us with Part 1).
* I am grateful to Corey Goldberg, who took the original photograph of the weathered cherub (see it on his Tumblr here) and gave me permission to use it in this artwork.
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