2666 (Part I): THE PART ABOUT THE CRITICS by Roberto Bolaño

Buy me a coffee: ko-fi.com/leafbyleaf
This is part of a 5-video series on 2666.
• 2666 Group Read
I am happy to be reading this in tandem with The Recognitions Book Club.
Check them out:
/ therecognitionsbookclub
/ trbcmag
/ the-recognitions-book-...

[@defnlife1683]

One thing that I thought was underappreciated was that you could read the first part as a critique of intellectuals, and how separated they are from reality. They’re not even writers, they’re critics in academia. They’re multiple layers abstracted. These people go on an adventure and end up way over their head facing a brutal reality that’s almost bordering on cosmic horror. They are woefully unprepared.

[@navidson3162]

It's finally happening! I remember how shortly after our main characters make it to the dark city how subtle the terror of the murders are shown. It is this terrible shapeless thing that is hiding between the pages that never gives up. Just a masterpiece of writing.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Very well put!

[@christopherpaul7588]

Actually the title comes from the novella, Amulet, where he describes a road looking like a cemetery in the year 2666. Now I want to read this again! Such a great novel!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Me, too!

[@michaelrhodes4712]

"Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the superman - a rope over an abyss."

[@mitchringenberg6087]

Amazing review! Just finished the first part of 2666 (also my first Bolano!), and this video really helped me digest everything I had just read. I was a bit turned off at first by the sort of self-important nature of following all these people who are so fanatically devoted to such esoteric literature, but as things turn increasingly harrowing, I ended up loving the way their "cultured" education ends up having very little relevance in places such as Saint Theresa.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks, man! Glad you got something out of it. Yeah, “Santa Teresa” doesn’t care about your intellectual level.

[@TheMuffinManIsHappy]

Hey Mitch, I know this is two years old now, but I just wanted to say I agree. I tried reading this book about a year ago and quit near the end of the first part. I thought it was so pompous and insufferable, but I’m currently giving it another chance (halfway through part 4 rn) and now I’m like “Oh! That was the point” lol. Especially with the later themes of misogyny that come up I also understand part 1 a little bit more now; I still think part 1 is a bit of a slog but I’d say overall I like it now.

[@bend0matic]

The part where he describes Hans Reiter getting a bath in the sink is sublime. I want that prose tatooed on my chest.

[@menelvegor]

This was majestic. Cannot wait for the next four parts! Have been meaning to read 2666 for so long now. I have been reading One Hundred Years of Solitude these days, and there's a nearly two-page sentence in it as well that I encountered today and by which I was swept-off completely! A recommendation: check out Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts. In many ways it can be called the Indian equivalent of 2666. Just please check that book out. One of the finest, if not the best and most heart-wrenching books on India ever written. The part that's crazy is that it's partly autobiographical. Gregory David Roberts has had a bonkers life and is simply a genius for writing it down in such a manner. Take care/

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much, Harul! I love recommendations, especially when they are BIG books! From what I'm reading, this looks solid. Just ordered a copy. I've logged your recommendation on my spreadsheet so I can follow up once I've read it.

[@menelvegor]

@@LeafbyLeaf awesome! You will NOT be disappointed. There's a second part to it as well called 'The Mountain Shadow', which I've not read so I cannot say anything with conviction. But of course it'll be great! Just waiting for things to get back to normal here in the Southern Himalayas so I can order some much needed books.

[@Pretzels722]

2666 has a reputation as a Big Scary Book, but so far I haven't found that. I inhaled this part of the book - brilliant so far.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I agree; it does not deserve that stigma. The first 3 sections are a delight. The fourth you survive. And the fifth is the reward of the whole journey.

[@therecognitionsbookclub8673]

I love that you brought in chaos theory. Helps me think about all the metamorphosis and crumbling, corroding, broken containers and vessels that pop up throughout the novel--at least in what I've read so far

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Indeed. Very astute observation/connection. I thought this brokenness was over, but, in the final part Bolaño once again backs up the timeline and gives us another epoch of chaos. What a book!

[@elisavetaliddicote2211]

Thank you so much for your personal insights on the first part of the book. I am thoroughly enjoying this book so far. I was hesitant to read this for such a long time but I’m finally here.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hooray-congratulations!

[@rickharsch8797]

Could literally not wait. Watched on phone on balkon. Utterly brilliant.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

You are too kind, Rick. Glad you enjoyed it. Now try to get some sleep!

[@rickharsch8797]

@@LeafbyLeaf NO Kindness intended. you've gotten extremely good without losing the least bit of your person. It was a 5 in the morning thrill.

[@georgepetroff867]

Great review. You have made me appreciate part 1 more. A book to reread. 2666 is a very memorable, thought provoking, important novel.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Glad to hear, George! I agree-definitely a book on the rereading roster.

[@iuseitToo]

Man, such great stuff! I want to to keep watching the rest of this series right now but have some reading of my own to do... but the quality here is top-notch and and feels like a kind of deep reading in itself. Keep 'em coming!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Glad you're getting something out of the videos! Happy reading!

[@dcdc139]

I recently began re-reading this book and I finished The Part of The Critics last night. I decided to come and see if you had ever made a video about it. Love your analysis. What I love about Bolano, is that I forgot how funny he can be, and I also love that he is very forgiving to the reader. I love the big, brainy maximalist books, but often times, its hard to get a proper foothold, not the case with Bolano.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Bolaño certainly wants to guide his readers along, no question. The same happens with Jim Gauer’s Novel Explosives. I’ve been getting the 2666 itch again here recently.

[@dcdc139]

@@LeafbyLeaf Well, you're not alone. Re-reading 2666 has given me the Novel Explosives itch. Both novels deal with similar themes in their own way and both take place in Mexico.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Indeed. My reread of Novel Explosives was particularly rewarding!

[@christopherpaul7588]

I loved 2666. But the Savage Detectives is my personal favorite. I highly recommend it!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Definitely my next Bolaño!

[@Ryan-hz9cg]

Just purchased Savage

[@susanwinter2896]

I've been wanting to read this book for so long. I have owned the book for a few years and I now feel I should pick it up and start reading it. Thank you for inspiring me to finally get round to starting this book.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

That’s what I’m here for! I bought my copy in 2015 and am just reading it.

[@beyondtheepilogueagnes]

I'm glad you like it, and I'm looking to following your journey through this book. The Part About The Critics is perhaps not the most remarkable, but probably my favourite part of 2666.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! I thought it was a strong part in its own upright!

[@eldrisb421]

Damn, I want to re read this book now! Great video, keep it up.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Do it! 😜 Glad you enjoyed the video!

[@WhatKamilReads]

That was fantastic.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Dziękuję!

[@larryriley8802]

I've read a lot of Bolano. By my notebook on what I've read that's 16 books and includes Between Parentheses too. 2666 is the outstanding one of all but also the longest. He has some poetry, short story collections, novellas, the essay book, a book of interviews. Not sure when exactly he began writing in earnest but the output is astounding for the quality of writing he does. His first two books were By night in Chile and Distant Star--both speak in their own way to the Pinochet coup. The Savage Detectives is his next longest and his next best. Bolano's back story is interesting in an almost mythical way. Whether or not true his escape from the soccer stadium--an exile, often an 'illegal' immigrant and I don't like using the word illegal for people who are just doing what they can to survive, working shit jobs on at least three different continents for some years. Bolano shows up as well in Javier Cercas's first published work Soldiers of Salamis which in large part is about the Spanish Civil war and an anti-fascist who saves the life of a fascist and that's kind of another theme sometimes with Bolano--and not just his first couple works but also the fictional caricatural biographies of South American right wingers in his Nazi Literature in the Americas.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for all this input! You're right--the more I'm reading about his background, the more impressed I am. I will definitely be reading through everything he has written. I knew that just from reading through Between Parentheses (even before starting 2666). Thanks for taking the time to share your comments!

[@larryriley8802]

@@LeafbyLeaf There are a lot of other books that Roberto wrote that I haven't read still. Just a massive output in a short period of time. Anyway returning to the Cercas book Roberto becomes a character in it as an off and on conversationionalist with Cercas on writing and where to go next with his searches and stuff like that. I liked a lot of Roberto's opinions on literature as well. Like on the Chilean poet Nicanor Parra who is my favorite poet of all. I also appreciate your insightful rundown of the books. It had been years for me and it jogged my memory on it again. 2666--great great book.

[@jonaguilar88]

Great review. I really enjoyed and learned new things I didn't pick up the two times I've read this book! Cheers!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! Glad you found value in these videos.

[@chrisbeggars6267]

By the way I absolutely love your channel and watch your stuff weekly and also use it quite often when choosing what to read next, if I don't have some giant list already (recently decided to read everything Hemingway published ever after everything bolano published again)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much! I've liked Hemingway ever since the first story of his I ever read ("Up in Michigan") many years ago. In many circles it's cool to hate on him, but I love that whole lineage of minimalists from Sherwood Anderson to Hemingway to Raymond Carver.

[@r.k.theartist9189]

Great video as always! Really looking forward to your series on this one. I've been watching your channel since sometime before lock down and I still can't believe how closely your interests and taste in books matches my own. I'm really looking forward to returning to videos you have already made after finishing the same books on my shelf (Mason & Dixon, Vollmann, The Recognitions, etc.) Keep it up!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! Always a treat to find kindred spirits. Which Vollmanns do you have on deck?

[@r.k.theartist9189]

@@LeafbyLeaf Looking to begin Seven Dreams with the Ice Shirt, and really looking forward to learning from Carbon Ideologies. I've read his condensed Rising Up and Rising Down, but my university library actually carries the full seven volumes (!) and I'll just have to get to those before graduation.

[@thomasfranche6770]

I really like this book. Read it in French.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Super !

[@TheCollidescopePodcast]

As it happens, this is also my first Bolaño and I feel fine just diving into the abyss as you said. Great observations. One thing I'll make note of is that Archimboldi is treated like a religious figure, almost a kind of Messiah, and Pelletier and Espinoza get a feeling of satisfaction or other just by being in the same city where (want to) believe Archimboldi is. They analyze his mind by way of his corpus and admit that they can't fully understand it or that the meanings shift and transmute, particularly with each re-read. And then there's the other Archimboldi sect that they vociferate against. The slight juggling of narrative near the end of part 1 reminded me of later on in Underworld (DeLillo did it best, of course).

[@LeafbyLeaf]

A winning and deepening observation, George! Makes me rethink through all that happens under that lens. Thanks for taking the time to throw this out here.

[@lalitborabooks]

Great review. Will add it into my tbr list.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! Let’s work together to keep our TBRs healthy!

[@lalitborabooks]

Leaf by Leaf sure and thanks for your contributions to the literary community. It is so rare to find someone who talks about serious literature in a serious way. No disrespect to fantasy, pop or commercial literature/channels but we have got enough of them. What what we need are channels like yours who tackle the real heavy literature and inspire readers to go after it.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Your comment means more to me than you can imagine. Thank you.

[@avolynfisher]

Wonder how many people make it through the series because it's bundled but would have maybe dropped off before the end if they went book by book and had to re-up each time. Haven't read, just hypothesizing. Bought this tonight, excited to start!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

That would be an interesting metric to observe! For what it’s worth, I am glad for the single volume.

[@lizarda87]

Fantastic vid

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks!

[@liquidpebbles7475]

Glad you liked it and looking forward to the next vid, some nice insight and you made me realized i sort of didnt notice quite a few things and themes,liked this part a lot even though iI liked every other one even more (except fates part, and i still liked that) but i knda read it very fastly without letting it set in, was too excitef hehe But yeah, the pacing here is amazing and it gets crazirr as he maintains it thorought thousand fking pages, and the dread too! And nothing has even happened yet, but it begins to happen bit by bit until you reach the last two books and it gets too much From what ive heard thr book was gonna be sold in 5 books due to economic reasons, and bolaño's daughter decided to put his bolaño's literary legacy first amd just sell it as a whole, losing a bunch on money with that move Anyway, looking forward to amalfitanos part, loved that one even more than this one!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for that insight into his daughter's decision. That makes it even better. I'm currently midway through the final part (Archimboldi), and I've got videos completed for the first four parts. This has been a GREAT reading experience (way more on that in the next videos)!

[@liquidpebbles7475]

@@LeafbyLeaf omg youre at the end basically, glad to hear you liked it!!!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

It is a miracle of a book.

[@carmenquezadahernandez4622]

The family decided to publish the 5 books together because it made more sense with the story, not because it made more money. Please get informed.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I’m not sure what I said in this video but I don’t think it was that. I recall reading that Bolaño’s plan was that publishing them in five installments would make more money for his family (he knew he was dying)-but the family and the executor decided to publish the books together.

[@PerrosRomanticos]

"La gente ve lo que quiere ver y nunca lo que quiere ver la gente se corresponde con la realidad. La gente es cobarde hasta el último aliento. Se lo digo confidencialmente: el ser humano, hablando grosso modo, es lo más semejante que hay a una rata." 2666. TRANSLATE: "People see what they want to see and never what they want to see corresponds to reality. People are cowardly to the last breath. Confidentially, I tell you: the human being, speaking broadly, is the closest thing there is to a rat."

[@EderAlbertoContreras]

You are doing right reading Bolaño ;)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks for the affirmation! Now that I’ve finishing reading 2666 (for the first time), I look forward to reading the test of what he’s written.

[@EderAlbertoContreras]

Leaf by Leaf test or rest? Hahah anyways I recomend you Los detectives salvajes and Estrella distante (no idea of its english translation). Greetings from Chile :)

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Rest! Haha. I have The Savage Detectives and Distant Star at my disposal. Can’t wait! Ahhh, and a Chilean nonetheless. Thanks for connecting with me!

[@EderAlbertoContreras]

Leaf by Leaf

[@marioknoll469]

Great work!! I would be very happy if you could do such a serie also for "against the day" which i'm planning to read. I like your channel very much.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! I’ve got Gravity’s Rainbow and Against the Day in queue for re-readings and videos. I just recently did Mason & Dixon which was the only remaining Pynchon I hadn’t read. What a writer!

[@marioknoll469]

@@LeafbyLeaf great, so i' m looking forward for your re-reads. Yeah, what a writer. My goal is to spend much of the year with at least 5 books of him.

[@therecognitionsbookclub8673]

Great review! I definitely need to get Between Parentheses

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks! It is certainly a worthy investment.

[@therecognitionsbookclub8673]

It's going to so hard to choose what book to buy first once I lift my self-imposed buying freeze

[@LeafbyLeaf]

I remember when I once did a self-imposed book-buying freeze. It lasted a full month. Then, I bought 15 books in a week. LOL!

[@xgryphenx]

the reference to the date 2666 is present also in The Savage Detectives and Amulet.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Indeed it is! Check out the Instagram post for week one on The Recognitions Book Club. Lots of good conversation there.

[@xgryphenx]

ok, was just correcting your info when you said 'the only link they can find' to the title is from Last Evenings on Earth. Since this is your first Bolaño it makes sense you wouldn't know the other references--just trying to be helpful.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Ah! You’re right. Made that video before the discussion started. Thanks for posting this correction!

[@travisheldreth5021]

I think 2666 is a year mentioned in Amuleto also.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Correct.

[@chrisbeggars6267]

Hey dude, this could be totally way off, but do you at all get a house of leaves vibe? Like a sort of nameless black shapeless thing? Like pelletiers' dream with the bathers on the beach, how he feels they are sort of waiting for something terrible to happen, and finally they leave the beach and he sees it, and we don't even get a description of the statue that emerges from the author? I'm a huge HoL person, even have "this is not for you." Tattooed on my arm, so I could just be like wanting to see HoL all the time but I feel like MZD had Definitely been reading 2666 a few times before creating HoL

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Those likenesses are certainly there, but I don't think MZD read 2666 before HoL, because HoL was published 4 years before 2666 in Spanish and 8 years before 2666 in English. :)

[@AllendeEtAl]

I'm really happy watching your channel grow, it is more than deserved. Greetings, my friend. P.D: What Echevarría says about the title isn't exactly true. In the Savage detectives, about the end of the novel, the poetess Cesárea Tinajero anwers "2666" when she is asked in which year the Socialist Revolution will arrive.

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Thanks so much, my friend! And thanks for the input!

[@gacantiswastika6027]

Thinking of why not doing 2 versions: as per artist’s wish and one big chunk of book. I personally prefer 1 book. Is it possible with a publisher doing it like that?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

When it comes down to it, the publisher is all about making money. They're not going to pay for anything that isn't a guaranteed sell. And in this case, that was the single volume. Picador did, however, bring out a boxed set with it broken into 3 volumes (not exactly the artist's wishes, though).

[@marinamaccagni5253]

I've only read the savage detectives even if I own almost all his books. But I didn't enjoy it. So I am a little puzzled by Bolano. Ps. I am struggling for finishing the first book of don quixote. It's not my kind of book. I think I'll give up before ending the first book. For me it's a sort of defeat and I'm feeling a little depressed. Awesome video anyway!

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hey--don't beat yourself up. Sometimes a book and its potential reader just don't click. Move on and come back when you feel ready. I tried Look Homeward, Angel (Wolfe) twice and only made it about 75 pages before tossing it aside. Then, one magical day, I picked it up, there were fireworks, and I read it through. I love that book now!

[@marinamaccagni5253]

@@LeafbyLeaf , thanks for your kind words!

[@telephilia]

Don't be put off by the length of this book. Equivalent to two regular novels. Better than most any two novels combined. And I will admit these "critics" in the first section do come across as Eurotrash over-educated trust fund baby boors. Folks don't jet around Europe and eat in fancy restaurants making a living being obscure German literature scholars. Even so, read on.

[@yokota61]

Seems really interesting but can you add french subtitles please ?

[@LeafbyLeaf]

Hmmmm, I'll see what I can do.

[@yokota61]

@@LeafbyLeaf Thanks!

[@ayda2876]

the book is great and i enjoy it a lot but some passages are long and boring and they are not even necessary

[@restaurantprojects4487]

sucks your married :-/

[@LeafbyLeaf]

;P