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alexaperdomo's review against another edition
3.0
Un libro que, por su título, el lector creerá que se desarrolla en Alemania o que, al menos, es sobre nazis. Y aunque tiene algo de alemanes y una que otra referencia sobre nazismo, el título alude a un juego de guerra.
Está escrito a modo de diario. El periodo que transcurre es de un poco más de 1 mes (entre el 20 de agosto y el 30 de septiembre). En él Udo, nuestro protagonista, relata sus primeras vacaciones con su novia Ingeborg. Decide llevarla a la Costa Brava, en Cataluña, al mismo hotel donde frecuentemente vacacionaba cuando era un niño, junto a su familia.
Udo es alemán. Es el campeón nacional de Tercer Reich. Durante las vacaciones, conocen a otra pareja de alemanes, con quienes empiezan a pasar tiempo, quizá más del indicado. También conocen a personajes sospechosos y uno, en particular, solitario y un tanto extraño… el Quemado, quien tendrá un protagonismo importante, hecho que se deja entrever desde un principio.
Siento que tiene demasiado relleno innecesario. En algún momento se teje un embrollo demasiado grande capaz de hacer perder al lector el interés. Esto hizo que, de la mitad en adelante, el peso de cada página se sintiera, aunque había una sensación de que algo se iba a tornar interesante en algún momento.
Y lo hace. Hay que entender que todo lo referido a las vacaciones, la playa, el verano, es el relleno, aburrido a veces, monótono, repetitivo. Lo interesante está en el juego, que era, además, una pasión real de Bolaño. Pero no en los movimientos del tablero como tal, sino en cómo la primera parte del juego, cuando Udo va ganando, se relaciona directamente con su noviazgo, y luego, la segunda parte del juego, cuando el Quemado toma un rol dentro de él realmente importante, se relaciona con Frau Else (a quien dejaré que el lector descubra solo) y la perdición que empieza a experimentar el alemán.
Al final no sé si recomendarla. Es una lectura interesante. Aburrida en algunos tramos, pero interesante.
Está escrito a modo de diario. El periodo que transcurre es de un poco más de 1 mes (entre el 20 de agosto y el 30 de septiembre). En él Udo, nuestro protagonista, relata sus primeras vacaciones con su novia Ingeborg. Decide llevarla a la Costa Brava, en Cataluña, al mismo hotel donde frecuentemente vacacionaba cuando era un niño, junto a su familia.
Udo es alemán. Es el campeón nacional de Tercer Reich. Durante las vacaciones, conocen a otra pareja de alemanes, con quienes empiezan a pasar tiempo, quizá más del indicado. También conocen a personajes sospechosos y uno, en particular, solitario y un tanto extraño… el Quemado, quien tendrá un protagonismo importante, hecho que se deja entrever desde un principio.
Siento que tiene demasiado relleno innecesario. En algún momento se teje un embrollo demasiado grande capaz de hacer perder al lector el interés. Esto hizo que, de la mitad en adelante, el peso de cada página se sintiera, aunque había una sensación de que algo se iba a tornar interesante en algún momento.
Y lo hace. Hay que entender que todo lo referido a las vacaciones, la playa, el verano, es el relleno, aburrido a veces, monótono, repetitivo. Lo interesante está en el juego, que era, además, una pasión real de Bolaño. Pero no en los movimientos del tablero como tal, sino en cómo la primera parte del juego, cuando Udo va ganando, se relaciona directamente con su noviazgo, y luego, la segunda parte del juego, cuando el Quemado toma un rol dentro de él realmente importante, se relaciona con Frau Else (a quien dejaré que el lector descubra solo) y la perdición que empieza a experimentar el alemán.
Al final no sé si recomendarla. Es una lectura interesante. Aburrida en algunos tramos, pero interesante.
arilaurel's review against another edition
5.0
This was a friend recommendation who told me to read The Third Reich if I was curious about Bolaño because it was his shortest novel, and many of his other works are like 500-600 pages. I was an English major but I'm still intimidated by books with many pages. It's not an uncommon story. That being said, this book was a lot of fun. The narrator, Udo Berger is a typical gamer. Wonderfully obtuse and entitled. A loser. I've come to love reading feckless narrators. The story is one of trying to hold on to rational thought while getting pulled into impulse and dream logic. I sometimes found myself laughing because something was funny, but I also laughed sometimes because I was uncomfortable and didn't know how to respond otherwise. This story perfectly walks the line between funny and foreboding with its characters. A German visiting Spain, it puts Udo (and you the reader) in that situation of hanging out with people that you'd never spend time with in your home country, but by consequence of being abroad at the same time, you find yourself spending many moments together. The game passages are wild. They're so intense and specific, and even from the 80s, the obsessiveness of modern gamer culture as I know it is perfectly captured. I thought while reading that Bolaño was describing a fictional game, but found out later that Third Reich is a real board game, which puts those passages in a different light, as now all those sentences have meaning that is tied to gamer culture in this universe (which I find funny but also kind of horrifying).
redeyedandhungry's review
1.0
Almost didn't finish this one and, to some extent, I wish I hadn't. The book initially starts off with a rather intriguing premise, but something doesn't seem right when almost nothing has happened between pages 100 and 250, and then nothing happens, and then the book hints at something more interesting happening, and then that doesn't happen and literally all of that intrigue that was built up is thrown into an ending that goes "oh, that happened, but it wasn't that important." 2 stars instead of 1 for a great first 100 pages, but anything interesting that the book did has been done better elsewhere. I think Bolano was right with his intentions not to publish this one, it's a shame the publisher had. Wouldn't recommend it, but I'll probably end up reading some of Bolano's "actual books" like The Savage Detectives in the future.
narcon_27's review
1.0
Almost didn't finish this one and, to some extent, I wish I hadn't. The book initially starts off with a rather intriguing premise, but something doesn't seem right when almost nothing has happened between pages 100 and 250, and then nothing happens, and then the book hints at something more interesting happening, and then that doesn't happen and literally all of that intrigue that was built up is thrown into an ending that goes "oh, that happened, but it wasn't that important." 2 stars instead of 1 for a great first 100 pages, but anything interesting that the book did has been done better elsewhere. I think Bolano was right with his intentions not to publish this one, it's a shame the publisher had. Wouldn't recommend it, but I'll probably end up reading some of Bolano's "actual books" like The Savage Detectives in the future.
mjanssen's review against another edition
4.0
This was my third book by Bolaño, and as with the second book of his I read ("2666"), I started it worried that I wouldn't like it as much as I liked the last one. But I did. This may actually be a better book to start with if you haven't read Bolaño than either 2666 or The Savage Detectives, since it's shorter and more compact. But it's a trade-off, because it lacks some of the freewheeling energy of the others (particularly Detectives) that made them so enjoyable. He's just such a great writer. I'm already looking forward to reading another book of his.
findingthefantasticstory's review
1.0
I really did not like this. Nothing interesting happened. I think I will probably give this book to my Mum as I will not be reading this again.
megancholic's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
This reminded me of Death in Venice, without the pederasty or cholera: a humid fever dream of a very tense vacation.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
supreeth's review against another edition
5.0
The Third Reich stays in sync with 2666's theme of this never ending sinister sense of foreboding. There's never enough room for anything to happen, but clock keeps ticking, and that is all there is, a constant ticking, tick-tick-tick, Chekov's gun left unfired.