Derek

2666 feels like one of the most important books of the 21st century. I previously read Savage Detectives and enjoyed it but wasn't captivated. With that in mind, I let 2666 sit on my shelf for several years before finally picking it up.

2666 is entertaining, beautiful, and funny. At the same time, from the very start, there's a sense of something sinister hiding around the next page / corner - though it resists the reader pinpointing that dread. It's not a character, per se. It's not (just) the vivid abuse and body horror. Instead it's a sense that all of society is pounding, driving toward obliteration.

That drive to obliterate is everywhere. Some aimless academics beat a cab driver to a pulp. Oscar Fate drinks himself into a scary situation. Amalfitano hangs a book on his clothesline to let it cook in the hot sun. A vagrant breaks into churches and soils the holy spirit. A Romanian general is crucified, left only with bits of tattered uniform. And women keep showing up dead.

All the while I felt like a creature crawling across the vast desert floor with the vulture of the black Peregrino dipping in and out of sight.

I read this while re-watching Twin Peaks and playing Disco Elysium and I found a lot of harmony between the works. Twin Peaks' story is of a woman crying for help and those around her numbing themselves to the horror (compare, Florita Almada). Disco Elysium establishes a world so complex that it has collapsed in on itself and destroyed us all in the process. In both, characters bounce off each other like atoms, often oblivious to the destruction they leave in their path.

There's so much to love about 2666. Part 4 is heartbreaking. The women given a bit of justice in Bolano's memorial, before the police and public glam on to the next shiny object. I really appreciated the backdrop of Santa Teresa - full of maquiladoras and sex workers and cartels and so many people just trying to make it to a better tomorrow.

I hope I get the chance to revisit this book some day. I think it will stick with me for a long time.

Kem Nunn is fantastic at setting tone. Tapping the Source is dark and brooding and full of violence in the murky waters. A twisted Beach Boys fantasy land. Like Ike, you don't know if you want in or out.

That said, this is clearly a first novel. I found the pacing off and that some plot turns did not make sense. I was looking forward to this after The Dogs of Winter - which is an all-timer - but it fell a little short.