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thedispossesed's review
4.0
It took me a while to get into it, the first couple hundred pages are infested with countless references to Latin American literature which get quite tiring. However the novel quickly gathers pace and once familiarized with Bolaño's narrative style it makes for a great read, demanding the reader both make his own evaluations on the characters and reach his own conclusions of where the truth actually lies.
underdog30's review
1.0
Six signs that you are reading a bad book: 1) you are on page 500, and you only have a slight idea what the book is about; 2) you find yourself skimming several pages, because you know the whole point of a passage is contained in the last line, which is simply a rephrased version of the sentence that ended the previous three passages; 3) you don't care about any of the characters; 4) you don't know who the hell the narrator of a particular section is (you may have come across him or her before, but (see #3) you didn't care about him or her, so you don't even remember; 5) you find yourself in a bad mood, because you're on page 500, you still have about 150 pages to go, and you feel like you've gone too far to give up now; 6) you keep discovering more signs that you are reading a bad book while you are writing your review after (FINALLY) finishing Roberto Belano's THE SAVAGE DETECTIVES.
I'll spare you anymore details. Suffice it to say, I think this is a bad book.
I'll spare you anymore details. Suffice it to say, I think this is a bad book.
rc_hopgood's review against another edition
5.0
One of the greatest books of all time. Visceral Realism.
traveltounravel's review
One of the better written novels I've read. Drags at times as perhaps it is longer than it needs to be. Nothing like what the title suggests. But overall, incredible.
“Being alone makes us stronger. That’s the honest truth. But it’s cold comfort, since even if I wanted company no one will come near me anymore.”
“You can woo a girl with a poem, but you can't hold onto her with a poem. Not even with a poetry movement.”
“Poetry and prison have always been neighbors.”
“Being alone makes us stronger. That’s the honest truth. But it’s cold comfort, since even if I wanted company no one will come near me anymore.”
“You can woo a girl with a poem, but you can't hold onto her with a poem. Not even with a poetry movement.”
“Poetry and prison have always been neighbors.”
bedcarp's review
4.0
the savage detectives is immense. it’s a sprawling, panoramic vision of an entire generation forever on the cusp of revolution — revolution of the aesthetic, the political, the personal. it’s a messy, polyphonic collage of the seemingly quotidian details of artists’ lives that underscore a bitter and unrelenting search for a larger purpose when the world around them seems paradoxically stagnant in its perpetual turmoil. it takes the golden ideal of youthful bohemianism and subjects it to the inexorable passage of 2 decades’ worth of experiences, oscillating between corrosive and tender, often unflinchingly heavy but never without moments of levity.
for a book whose style is generally conversational and straightforward, bolaño's prose betrays the quality of a poet whose craft has been refined, chiselled, perfected over the years. he operates most within the literary mode of realism, but crafts scenes with such subtle intricacy that when they race towards their inevitable emotional climax you're left to wonder how the image of someone getting off a train, of two men conversing on a park bench, or a car driving into the distance not only transcends their mundane sentimentality but surge into an apotheotic wave of feeling, how every seemingly unremarkable, plainwater conversation betrays the most heartbreaking portrait of artists both young and old ever put to the written word.
yet for how universal its portrayals of artists are, the savage detectives is rooted in latin american identity to its core. and perhaps why i love this book so much is that it's a book that feels truly revolutionary and epoch-defining when the idea of "national literature" in the populist taste has largely become diluted, watered down new age tripe with obligatory flourishes of insignificant localisms and bids for contemporary relevancy. bolaño hardly disguises his disparagement of poets à la pablo neruda's "lyrical effusions", of writers derivative of the latin american boom, writers pandering to the critical establishment, and writers poised against the critical establishment for lack of any definite vision. the response is an anti-novel that deliberately makes no grand statements on the art of literature, that resists easy categorisation as elegiac autobiography, as mystery novel, as historical quasi-epic. bolaño simply chooses to depict the world in all its chaos and irresolution, a panorama exponentially expanding outwards into the unknown, a brutally honest portrait of latin america and its literary tradition that says nothing by saying absolutely everything in equal measure.
for a book whose style is generally conversational and straightforward, bolaño's prose betrays the quality of a poet whose craft has been refined, chiselled, perfected over the years. he operates most within the literary mode of realism, but crafts scenes with such subtle intricacy that when they race towards their inevitable emotional climax you're left to wonder how the image of someone getting off a train, of two men conversing on a park bench, or a car driving into the distance not only transcends their mundane sentimentality but surge into an apotheotic wave of feeling, how every seemingly unremarkable, plainwater conversation betrays the most heartbreaking portrait of artists both young and old ever put to the written word.
yet for how universal its portrayals of artists are, the savage detectives is rooted in latin american identity to its core. and perhaps why i love this book so much is that it's a book that feels truly revolutionary and epoch-defining when the idea of "national literature" in the populist taste has largely become diluted, watered down new age tripe with obligatory flourishes of insignificant localisms and bids for contemporary relevancy. bolaño hardly disguises his disparagement of poets à la pablo neruda's "lyrical effusions", of writers derivative of the latin american boom, writers pandering to the critical establishment, and writers poised against the critical establishment for lack of any definite vision. the response is an anti-novel that deliberately makes no grand statements on the art of literature, that resists easy categorisation as elegiac autobiography, as mystery novel, as historical quasi-epic. bolaño simply chooses to depict the world in all its chaos and irresolution, a panorama exponentially expanding outwards into the unknown, a brutally honest portrait of latin america and its literary tradition that says nothing by saying absolutely everything in equal measure.
Spoiler
a final note. "what's outside the window?" lands up there with "it was clarissa. for there she was." and "they also speak of everlasting reconciliation and life without end..." as my favourite ending to any book ever. a star, a sheet, an illusion of depth.sharimeyer's review
I put it down and couldn't find the desire to pick it up again. I gave it a good 260 pages, but I really wasn't digging Part Two, despite having loved Part One.
marianbarlage's review
4.0
There is no doubt that Balano can tell one hell of a story. Though due to the whirlwind of characters and events, dude, I couldn't tell which way was up at times. I'm still at a loss for all that happened in that novel.
rcallus210's review
4.0
Okay wow FINALLY finished this. Overall this is most certainly a skillfully written book, full of wild adventures and devastating irony. But it is soooo dense, I really almost gave up like 7 times. Glad I didn't though!
magic_miles's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
javaniceday's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0