Someone sent me a link to this article in the New Yorker about Roberto Bolano.
The Savage Detectives is one of the best books I have read so far this year...
Two comments by Mr Bolano particularly caught my attention:
"Bolaño’s fury toward the literary mainstream—deeply felt and bordering on puerile" - remind you of anyone?
And he called Isabel Allende a “scribbler” whose “attempts at literature range from kitsch to the pathetic.”
Tell Roberto Bolano to remove his head from his arse, from me, member of the literary mainstream, and already sick of apologising for it.
ReplyDeleteAlways comment first, then read the article. He's dead, isn't he? In that case I reckon he can leave his arse where he likes. Still, enough already.
ReplyDeleteThe latest New Yorker's worth a look too, by the way:
ReplyDeleteShort story from Platonov;
an unusual article in favour of recent abridgements of over-long classics (e.g. Moby Dick pruned is the book it would be had a good/modern editor got to it) - not something I'd necessarily agree with but interesting angle;
an article about a new Charles Schulz (Peanuts) bio;
something about hollywood (e.g. Clark Gable was a prostitute frequenting do-badding nightmare but under the old studio system these things kept secret, compared with present infatuation with seeing Brad Pitt grocery shopping)...
Anyway, always worth a read if you have the time.
Rich