2666: Made it through The Part About The Crimes

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Whenever I read about this book I consistently heard how brutal and relentless this section is, to the extent that some people recommended skipping it entirely. Having finished it, it didn't really seem as bad as I was expecting? Obviously the descriptions of the bodies were gruesome, along with the pervading sense of hopelessness and futility in the face of such evil, but I wasn't expecting actual plot and character studues interspersed throughout. The descriptions of the murders were very clinical and detached in a way that you start to become kind of numb to them which I'm sure was Bolano's intention. Honestly the most disturbing part of this section was probably the genealogy of Lalo Cura, five or six generations of women concieved from rape, as well as the descriptions of violence that Hass witnesses in prison.

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Either way I can't imagine skipping this part (or any part of a novel for that matter). It seems so essential to the whole of the book. Especially towards the end with the Congresswoman's story which seems like the closest we'll get to understanding the 'culprits'. Although I haven't finished the book yet so who knows.

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That being said, The Part About Archembauld has, so far, felt like a very welcome breath of fresh air after spending 600 pages in Santa Teresa. It feels like stepping in to a Gunter Grass or Nabokov novel after wandering in a desert for weeks. I've occasionally forgo which book I'm reading because it's so stylistically and subjectively different than the previous parts. Quite whimsical and funny. I'm still pretty early into it (Hans just got to a castle in Romania) but I've heard it's many people's favourite part of the book so I'm quite looking forward to it.

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All told, 2666 is incredible for many different reasons, Bolano is a fantastic writer and I'm very excited to finish this and read his other work.