2666 [Ungekürzte Ausgabe] [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

Wow, was für ein Roman!

Dies war mein Gedanke, als ich nach einem einwöchigen Kraftakt Robero Bolanos Roman "2666" aus der Hand legte. Das Wort "Kraftakt" ist hierbei durchaus wörtlich zunehmen, denn die mehr als 900 Seiten, in denen 80 Jahre Geschichte menschlichen Übels (das Massenmorden im Dritten Reich und die Entführung, Vergewaltigung und Ermordung mehrerer Hundert Frauen im fiktiven mexikanischen Santa Teresa - wohl das reale Juárez) behandelt werden, sind quantitativ eine Menge zu bewältigen, qualitativ kein Stoff für den sensiblen, kurzatmigen Leser.

Ohne zuviel von dem (enormen) Inhalt preisgeben zu wollen/können, kann ich Folgendes berichten: Das Buch handelt vordergründig von der Suche vierer europäischer Akademiker nach dem mysteriösen, pynchon-esken deutschen Romancier Benno von Archimboldi, der zuletzt eben in Santa Teresa, Mexiko, gesichtet wurde. Dieser Arnimboldi war im 2. Weltkrieg Soldat der deutschen Wehrmacht in Russland und wurde danach Schriftsteller. Bolano verwebt die Suche der vier, das Morden der Mexikanerinnen und das Grauen im 2. WK geschickt in vier Teilen, von denen jeder leicht ein eigener Roman hätte werden können.

Was mich an diesem Roman fasziniert, beeindruckt oder schockiert, ist, dass er nur scheinbar Antworten bietet. Doch weder Bolano noch von Arnimboldi vermag das Grauen in Santa Teresa noch das massenhafte Morden im 2. WK zu erklären. Insofern beschreibt er eine menschliche Zivilisation, die scheitert - die in all ihrer Größe scheitert.

Also, wer in diesem Winter Zeit, Atem und Mut hat, soll sich mit diesem Roman auseinandersetzen. "Genießen" im herkömmlichen Sinne (Belletristik!) kann man ihn wegen seiner Länge (nicht Längen!!!) und seines schwerverdaulichen, im Ganzen doch düsteren Blicks wohl nicht. Ich hoffe, dem 2003 verstorbenen Autor nicht Unrecht zu tun, indem ich nur 4 Sterne vergebe.

Hoffe, dass es hilfreich war.

Einfach wunderbar, dieses Buch.
Da die bisherigen Rezensionen schon recht ausführlich waren, hier meine Kurzform:

- Ganz schön dicker Wälzer, für die tägliche Dosis Literatur im Zug also nur schwer zu verwenden.
Das war's auch schon an Negativem.

+ Wunderschön geschrieben, große Literatur, ein toller Schriftsteller.
Leider konnte ich wegen meiner dafür nicht ausreichenden spanischen Sprachkenntnisse das Buch nur in der englischen Übersetzung lesen, aber wenn es da schon so klasse ist, muss das Original göttlich sein.
+ Packende Handlung.
Die häufig wechselnden Textabschnitte/Absätze/Kapitel legen ein ganz schönes Tempo vor, und man möchte das Buch am liebsten gar nicht mehr weglegen (was bei dem Umfang aber leider hin und wieder sein muss). Immer wieder Unerwartetes, Neues, Schockierendes wie Berührendes, und man ist als Leser immer mittendrin. Fesselnd von der ersten bis zur letzten Seite.
+ Interessante Charaktere, hoher literarischer Anspruch und dennoch sehr angenehm lesbar!
Die mysteriöse Geschichte um Benno von Archimboldi (die ich hier nicht vorwegnehmen will) besiedeln viele sehr vielschichtige Charaktere. Neben der im Moment viel zu großen Liebesgeschichten-/Vampirroman-/Krimi-Anhäufung in deutschen Buchläden ist 2666 eine sehr anspruchsvolles und doch wunderbar angenehm zu lesendes Stück Literatur.

Alles in allem: Kaufempfehlung für alle, die beim Lesen gerne mitdenken, und sich nicht nur berieseln lassen um dann auf die (kitschige) Verfilmung zu warten...

I have a hard time imagining that any new novel I read this year will fill me as completely as 2666 did. I encourage you to read the book with interest, but without the expectation of perfection.

In 2666, the monumental novel that has brought so much joy to readers since the 18th and 19th centuries returns in the twenty-first century. Roberto Bolano displays enough breadth of vision to give Dickens something to think about. It's hard to describe this book without giving away details that might spoil your pleasure, but it's clear that everything and everybody are connected. That's also part of the attraction . . . because you want to know what all the connections are.

Bolano's 2666 provides a perspective that we don't get often enough in monumental novels, that of a novelist. In Part 1 "The Part about the Critics" we meet four academics who build careers (and indeed personal lives) around a little-appreciated German novelist, Benno von Archimboldi whom they have never met. The author's name alone will give you a clue that not all is as it seems. This story is by turns wicked satire, patronizing descriptions, tendentious morality tale, and hilariously warped view of the academic part of the literary establishment and its goings on. Only the obvious escapes them in their desire for privacy, comfort, career, and avoidance of loss. Before this part ends though, you'll feel like a strong magnet is pulling you and the characters towards an important appointment, one that will initially resist your understanding.

In Part 2 "The Part about Amalfitano" you will get to know Amalfitano who lives with his daughter Rosa in Santa Teresa, Mexico, a border town south of Tucson where sweat shop factories draw willing young workers from all over Mexico. You might think of Amalfitano as eccentric (after all, he has a book pinned to his clothes line based on something that Duchamp had once recommended), but it eventually turns out that he is a man in close contact with himself and reality. He is an educated man (a professor) from Europe who finds himself in a dusty town where the values are the opposite of any culture that he values. Like many of the characters, he has interesting dreams that help tell the story and enjoys the world of ideas. Some will see him as a stand-in for Don Quixote.

In Part 3 "The Part about Fate" you meet Oscar Fate (born Quincy Williams), an African American who is pulled away from his normal reporting to cover a boxing match in Santa Teresa. Fate doesn't have a clue about boxing and knows perhaps less about Mexico. Once there, he meets Guadalupe Roncal, a reporter from Mexico City, who wants to write about the many women who are being sexually attacked and killed in the Santa Teresa area. After the fight, Fate meets Rosa Amalfitano and eventually her father. Fate becomes our eyes into a culture that is terribly dangerous for women. Before the part's end you meet a mysterious blond giant.

In Part 4 "The Part about the Crimes" you will read in nauseating detail about what has been happening to women in and around Santa Teresa. Bolano buries you through repetition into being numb about the horrors, the callousness of those who prey on the women, and the attitudes of the police and other officials in the context of a very male chauvinist culture. By the end of this part, you'll piece together what's going on . . . which is more than the investigators do. I advise you to read this segment when you are in a good mood and in small doses.

In Part 5 "The Part about Archimboldi, you get to look behind the author's legend to meet the man and his family. It's the best part of the book and reminded me a lot of reading what Gunter Grass had to say in Peeling the Onion about emerging as a writer. Bolano adds power by dropping in little stories and events that complete and magnify other parts of the book. I savored this part right up to the final shoe dropping.

Bolano has an amazing ability to pile story on top of story on top of story so that you are seeing the subject (or the world) through an endless series of mirrors that display all dimensions simultaneously. His imagination to do this is immense. Due to his untimely death as he raced to finish this work, I don't think that these complex structures always received the polish they deserved. For instance, there are a few facts of 2666 that are never finished. Clearly, a good editor would have helped Bolano to flesh out such chinks in the reflective surface.

The translation often seems rough. You can tell because other parts are extremely smooth and well developed. It's not clear how much of this is due to the original not being fully polished or the translation being rushed.

To me, a monumental novel has to convey a sense of what the world is really about. You see that in a work like Crime and Punishment. Bolano also shares his worldview through the actions his characters take and their fates. The philosophy is clearly summarized by John Donne in that we are all connected and the loss of any one is a loss to all. Much of the story's development can be seen in the context of Catholic theology with many of the references unavoidable (such as the crucified general). Bolano's view is also that every thing we think or do affects everyone else. Ultimately, he sees us as all tied together because we are attracted to one another (even if the attraction is sometimes a perverse one). Behind all of these connections is a strong force drawing us to right wrongs, even when there seems to be no chance to succeed.

Although you can feel that the book spends too much time on the tawdry, its ultimate message is a very positive and life-affirming one . . . you can make a positive difference, if only you make the effort.