It has finally happened! You may rejoice with me – I have finished Los detectives salvajes (The Savage Detectives) by Roberto Bolaño. I know, right? By the end, I thought I was never going to finish this brick. I did, though – and I will eventually write a review. But I feel like this is going to take some time, because I want to do the book justice. It’s so rich that it deserves a well thought-out review.
Meanwhile, I’m leaving you two fab quotes from the book – in the original and (my) translation.
The first one goes out to all my Latin American and Latin Americanist friends:
Bueno. En Latinoamérica pasan estas cosas y es mejor no quebrarse la cabeza buscando una respuesta lógica cuando a veces no existe una respuesta lógica.
{Well. In Latin America these things happen and it’s better not to rack one’s brains looking for a logical answer when sometimes there is no logical answer.}
The second one made me laugh out loud on the train:
En fin, éramos los típicos dos muchachos latinoamericanos de cuarenta y pocos años que se encuentran en un país africano que está a borde del abismo o del colapso, que para el caso es lo mismo.
{Well, we were two typical Latin American forty-something guys who happen to be in an African country that is on the brink of an abyss or collapse, which in this case is the same thing.}
There are many more gems in this novel; these two are just appetisers.
That said, I now need to read a short, much simpler book to recover from my Bolaño marathon.
Books, Bikes, and Food 
Pingback: Kirmen Uribe: Bilbao-New York-Bilbao (2009) | Liburuak
Pingback: Once You Pop, You Can’t Stop (Bolaño Edition) | Liburuak
Pingback: Roberto Bolaño: Los detectives salvajes (1998) – Group Read | Liburuak