Rumpus Exclusive: Three Excerpts from AFTERWORDS
Three exclusive excerpts from …AFTERWORDS, a new series of distinctive commentaries on great works of contemporary literature from our friends at Fiction Advocate!
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Posts Tagged: 2666
Saying What Shouldn’t Be Said: A Conversation with Julie Buntin
Julie Buntin discusses her debut novel, Marlena, why writing about teenage girls is the most serious thing in the world, and finding truths in fiction.
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The Rumpus Interview with Bruce Bauman
Bruce Bauman discusses his latest book, Broken Sleep, why rock isn’t dead (yet), how humor makes life bearable, and why we should reinstate the draft.
...moreBinge-Watching Bolaño
The latest installment in the trend of adapting the unadaptable is none other than Roberto Bolaño’s 2666, a sprawling, digressive novel to which director Robert Falls has allotted five hours of mixed-media stage time. Performances will begin at Chicago’s Goodman Theater on February 6. Bring snacks.
...moreThe Fractal Structure of Finnegans Wake
Some very intelligent scientists recently published a study showing Finnegans Wake—among other novels, from The Waves to 2666—to have a structure comparable to mathematical fractals, in which each fragment (here, the sentence) has a structure resembling the whole. Jury’s out on whether or not this makes Finnegans Wake make more sense.
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The Rumpus Interview with Francisco Goldman
Francisco Goldman talks about the Narvarte Murders, Ayotzinapa, and the stories he feels most responsible for telling now.
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The Saturday Rumpus Review: Güeros
It’s a literal confrontation of his metaphorical fear, a visual take on Rilke’s words: to view Güeros is to see a “thing poem” on the screen, to witness something like “The Panther” materialize.
...moreBolaño Hits the Jackpot
What kind of fantastic twist of fate would it take to instantly finance an epic stage production of a thousand-page Bolaño novel? As it turns out, it only took a retired stage manager turned monk winning a 153 million dollar Powerball jackpot. The Goodman Theater in Chicago intends to mount its dream production of Roberto […]
...moreFame and Literature, Irreconcilable Enemies
Reflecting on what might become of Roberto Bolaño, and his fame, John Yargo covers two biographies of the Chilean writer for the Los Angeles Review of Books, noting that these scholars had to “face a unique problem”: The seductive popular image of [Bolaño]—something like a better-read Burroughs—is at odds with the voice of his fiction […]
...moreBolaño: The Last Interview
“M.M.: What do you wish to do before dying? R.B.: Nothing special. Well, clearly I’d prefer not to die. But sooner or later the distinguished lady arrives. The problem is that sometimes she’s neither a lady nor very distinguished, but, as Nicanor Parra says in a poem, she’s a hot wench who will make your […]
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The Last Poem I Loved: “Made Flesh” by Craig Arnold
I met the poet Craig Arnold only once. It was late February or early March of this year.
...more“A Bolaño Syllabus”
Have you read (or are you reading) Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 yet? We may have mentioned it once or twice here at The Rumpus, but only once or twice. Needless to say the book has been, rightfully, getting a lot of hype. Over at The Millions though, Garth Risk Hallberg worries that the hype may be […]
...moreVerbophobia: About the Phobias in Roberto Bolaño’s 2666
“An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom,” by Charles Baudelaire, 2666‘s epigram
...moreThe Beautiful Nightmares of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666
Prior to launching The Rumpus, during our test phase, we ran this incredible, thorough, and thoughtful review of Roberto Bolano’s 2666 by Michael Berger. Today seemed like a good day to bring it back. – SE
...moreAmerican Apocalypse: The Wire and 2666
The name “Baltimore” can be traced to an Irish phrase meaning “Town of the Big House.” “Juárez,” when traced back to the Visigoths who overtook Spain in the 5th Century AD, means, roughly, “Army of the South.”
...moreRobert Mailer Anderson:The Last Book I Loved, 2666
The last book I loved was Roberto Bolano’s 2666. His powers as a narrator are staggering. His abilities to both deconstruct the novel, while also somehow meeting the brutality and humor of his subject and characters head on is amazing and tremendously inspiring for me, renewing the argument that the novel is the best art […]
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