Monday, October 14, 2013

Ten top literary doorstops

Alex Clark tagged her top ten long reads for the Observer. One title on her list:
2666
Roberto Bolaño, 2004

Published after the Chilean novelist’s death in 2003, this vast novel – 912 pages – had critics salivating in anticipation. He envisaged that each of its five sections could be read separately – but they add up to something unclassifiably brilliant. The story begins with a literary puzzle – the whereabouts of German novelist Benno von Archimboldi. Four critics head to a Mexican border town on his trail, whereupon the novel switches focus to become a fictional recreation of the unexplained mass murders of young women in Ciudad Juárez.
Read about the other books on Clark's list. 

2666 appears on Gillian Orr's reading list of top unfinished novels; it was #1 in one tabulation of the critics' consensus book of the year for 2008.

--Marshal Zeringue