Most people who read literary fiction in the U.S. get recommendations from word of mouth, or read reviews of books. I read “The Savage Detectives” because it was so enthusiastically reviewed by the New York Times, the Nation, the Village Voice, the New York Review of Books, and other reputable sources. I read it because it was supposed to be a great book, not because I’d seen an author photograph of Bolaño with long hair. And as I read the book my mind was filled with its characters, story and themes, not Bolaño’s biography. Of course, once I was finished, I wanted to know more about the author, but every piece I read made clear that he wrote all his fiction during the last, settled ten years of his life — a fact that Moya says “No North American journalist (has) highlighted.” And if Bolaño’s death adds to his legend, it’s because he managed to write “2666″ while fatally ill, not because of what he died of.

Moya may legitimately complain that North American readers tend to pick a single author or movement and take it as the whole of a regional literature. But this sounds to me like people who are worried that a child’s enthusiasm for reading will end when he’s finished the Harry Potter books. In my opinion, it’s more likely that reading Bolaño will lead to reading the authors who influenced him, like Julio Cortázar. Geez! Give people some credit.