Bibliography
Dec. 23rd, 2012 06:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_lady_lilyThe Savage Detectives - Roberto Bolaño
I can't remember why this made it onto the list, but I blame The New Yorker. Bolaño is one of those Latin American authors around whom there is a bit of a cult, deeply intertwined with the politics of the country in which he lived, but also flavoured by the constant interaction between Latin America and Europe, particularly Paris and Spain. The Savage Detectives tells the story of two poets who are committed to a rather odd movement called visceral realism, and tracks their lives first over a period of a couple of months in the 1970s, and then over the next two decades through the mouths of various narrators, fellow writers and movers in the artistic industries whose paths they happen to cross. It's a world where literature is the be all and end all, but you slowly start to see the shifts in personality in Lima and Belano (the latter a clear stand-in for Bolaño himself).
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure I would have slogged through this if I hadn't felt an odd obligation to do so - it's that kind of book. Despite the fact it's hard going, it makes you feel like it will be worth it in the end, even if you remain unconvinced. I think it's a literary thing - but don't have at it unless you've got the time to get into it. If I hadn't spent the last few days really hacking away at it, I don't think I would have made it to the end. It's that sort of rather meaty book, I'm afraid, and very much a product of its cultural context in a way that I'm sure I don't quite get.
The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
Having finished making my way through the Blandings books, it only seems right to move on to Jeeves. I think I have seen bits of this in the television rendition by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, but never mind - Wodehouse's prose is sublime, and captures a certain type of society and social activity that is no more, alas. Just right for the weekend before Christmas, if you ask me.
I can't remember why this made it onto the list, but I blame The New Yorker. Bolaño is one of those Latin American authors around whom there is a bit of a cult, deeply intertwined with the politics of the country in which he lived, but also flavoured by the constant interaction between Latin America and Europe, particularly Paris and Spain. The Savage Detectives tells the story of two poets who are committed to a rather odd movement called visceral realism, and tracks their lives first over a period of a couple of months in the 1970s, and then over the next two decades through the mouths of various narrators, fellow writers and movers in the artistic industries whose paths they happen to cross. It's a world where literature is the be all and end all, but you slowly start to see the shifts in personality in Lima and Belano (the latter a clear stand-in for Bolaño himself).
Frankly, I'm not entirely sure I would have slogged through this if I hadn't felt an odd obligation to do so - it's that kind of book. Despite the fact it's hard going, it makes you feel like it will be worth it in the end, even if you remain unconvinced. I think it's a literary thing - but don't have at it unless you've got the time to get into it. If I hadn't spent the last few days really hacking away at it, I don't think I would have made it to the end. It's that sort of rather meaty book, I'm afraid, and very much a product of its cultural context in a way that I'm sure I don't quite get.
The Inimitable Jeeves - P.G. Wodehouse
Having finished making my way through the Blandings books, it only seems right to move on to Jeeves. I think I have seen bits of this in the television rendition by Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry, but never mind - Wodehouse's prose is sublime, and captures a certain type of society and social activity that is no more, alas. Just right for the weekend before Christmas, if you ask me.
