Anyone else read this (or any Bolaño?) I'm getting ready to re-read this. I thought The Savage Detectives was also quite good. Books like this make me want to learn to read Spanish (as do the issues of Arqueología Mexicana that come my way, where I can enjoy the images and make out some of the text, but not nearly enough).
I think it's brilliant. I don't want to spoil any of it - it's basically a five part novel, where the parts both stand on their own and work together as a whole. It's a great example of what can be done with the novel, and well worth reading (as is everything I've read by the man).
I'll have to check it out. I remember first seeing the title on a best novels list, and that's when I first heard of Bolaño. Like you, I wish I was better at Spanish. There are so many amazing works written in Spanish. I feel like I'm missing out.
This is sitting on my bookshelf mocking me at the moment. I have read a bunch of other Bolano and I loved all of it. Still too daunting for me to take this on right now.
I read it way back when the recent publication hype was dying out. I remember the book as being very easy to read despite the repetitive police reports on the atrocities committed in a US-Mexico border town. I haven't gone back to it, however, but I may to get the most out of the book which I paid the full hardback price for.