Last night I finished reading Roberto Bolano's great, epic novel "2666" - 893 pages (2004). A major work, no doubt. So yeah, it's safe to say, one of the greatest novels I've ever read. I don't really want to "review" it. I mean, it would be like reviewing a mountain range, or a waterfall, or a volcano, or a rainforest, or a lightning storm.
I do think just the reading altered my consciousness. It is a total experience; engaging my imagination, influencing my dreams, forcing me to rethink my life, and to reexamine my beliefs on what life is all about. It's dazzling, horrifying, thrilling, funny, weird, amazing. What's in it? Everything. Really. There were a few times I wanted to put it down; too real, too consuming, too much, but I never seriously thought of abandoning ship.
Renews my faith in Art. And in the power of the novel. It is an art-form unlike any other. Expands your consciousness, expands your human-ness. You can't ask for anything more than that. Bolano etched his heart, his soul, his blood, his prodigious imagination into every page. Life-altering work.
