The most recent addition to the complete review is my review of Roberto Bolaño's A Little Lumpen Novelita, now available in English from New Directions.
Yet another Bolaño ? Yes -- but it's not a posthumous one dug out of some drawer: it was published in 2002, when Bolaño was still alive. Why it took so long for it to appear in English is unclear, but at least it now has (or is about to) -- in a truly lovely-looking volume, by the way.
Left until now, and padded to just over a hundred pages you might suspect it's minor stuff; you'd be wrong. Yes, it's a thin volume, physically, but it's a mature and substantial work, and well worthwhile for an audience far beyond just Bolaño-completists. The best work of fiction of his to appear in English since 2666, even, I'd say.
(Bizarre sidenote -- and I'd avoid this until after reading the book, if I were you: there's a film version, Il Futuro (2013), directed by Alicia Scherson -- and featuring ... Rutger Hauer as Maciste. But if you must, you can get the DVD at Amazon.com)
Yet another Bolaño ? Yes -- but it's not a posthumous one dug out of some drawer: it was published in 2002, when Bolaño was still alive. Why it took so long for it to appear in English is unclear, but at least it now has (or is about to) -- in a truly lovely-looking volume, by the way.
Left until now, and padded to just over a hundred pages you might suspect it's minor stuff; you'd be wrong. Yes, it's a thin volume, physically, but it's a mature and substantial work, and well worthwhile for an audience far beyond just Bolaño-completists. The best work of fiction of his to appear in English since 2666, even, I'd say.
(Bizarre sidenote -- and I'd avoid this until after reading the book, if I were you: there's a film version, Il Futuro (2013), directed by Alicia Scherson -- and featuring ... Rutger Hauer as Maciste. But if you must, you can get the DVD at Amazon.com)