Wow, I believe this was a great start to this long book, and it’s left me thoroughly intrigued as to what comes next! Sadly, but not that sadly, I will restrain myself for another week, since this next week I’ll be returning to The Savage Detectives (which I also really enjoyed reading and the reason why I say “not that sadly”). If I had to pick, I would say so far I’ve enjoyed reading 2666 more and I’ll get into why a bit later. Before I get into my thoughts and impressions of 2666, I feel like I’ll have to give a little bit of background about what exactly is going on. I’ll try to keep it as brief as possible without missing any important details, but I’m sure I’ll miss a few and there will also most likely be some details that I will have left out thinking they were unimportant now, but realize that they were very important later. So please bear with me.
(SPOILER WARNING FOR THE FIRST PART OF 2666) As I mentioned in last week’s class, the book’s very beginning is a bit slow, simply introducing the group of four academics that our first part centers around: Pelletier, Morini, Espinoza, and Norton (from France, Italy, Spain, and England, respectively). They are all deeply invested in the works of a mysterious German author named Archimboldi and they all meet and become good friends while attending conferences and sharing their papers and research surrounding Archimboldi and his works (they have also translated many of Archimboldi’s works as well). Despite the initial slow start, things begin to pick up pace, Norton (who is the only woman of the group, again, bear with me please) begins separate sexual relationships with both Pelletier and Espinoza. A large portion of this first part of 2666 revolves around Pelletier and Espinoza’s love for Norton and their desire for a deeper relationship, however, Norton isn’t quite on the same page as them and of course it’s also quite complicated since she’s having relationships with both of them. Surprisingly, they all remain good friends despite knowing about each other’s relationships. Eventually Norton says she needs some time to think things over.
Besides all the love shenanigans, let’s take a moment to talk about Archimboldi, the author that our group is so very obsessed with. Besides the profound analyses of his books over the years, they only have a vague physical description of him being quite a tall, thin, old German man from his publishers. Despite Archimboldi’s (maybe some would describe as niche) popularity (he’s even been nominated for a Nobel), nobody has really ever met or seen him, until one day our group meets a Mexican who tells them that a friend has actually just met him not long ago. They were told that Archimboldi was going to the border city of Santa Teresa (important!). So the group of Pelletier, Espinoza, and Norton of course head down to Santa Teresa (not Morini who makes up a health excuse not to go, by the way, Morini has multiple sclerosis and is permanently wheelchair-bound, again, please bear with me) where they meet another Archimboldi fan (though nowhere near to the same extent), Amalfitano, in hopes of finally finding the mysterious author. However, their search leads to no avail, although Espinoza and Pelletier are both convinced that Archimboldi is there, just that they cannot find him. Also, Norton left Mexico earlier and emailed both Espinoza and Pelletier telling them that she and Morini actually love each other (Morini and their relationship is also quite interesting I must say)! (END OF SUMMARY)
Hoo boy, okay, after rereading my summary I can firmly say that I’m not that happy with it but it’ll have to do for now. I’m somehow already over the word count without giving my thoughts and impressions yet so let’s just say the summary doesn’t count, deal? Anyhow, I doubt that I’ll give such a long summary in future parts (even though I skipped a ton of details), but for the first part at least I feel like I kind of have to give you guys the gist of what’s going on. The very first thing that stuck out to me and I think basically anyone else who has read 2666 is the five-page long sentence. Yes, you heard me right, a sentence that is nearly five pages long from pages 18 to 22 in the English version. What was that sentence about you may ask? Well that leads into my next observation, 2666 contains many short stories within the larger narrative, which honestly, I’m kind of a fan of (although maybe not the five-page long sentence because that was a doozy). While maybe not all of these short stories told by some of the characters “move the plot forward”, it’s nice reading them and hey, who knows, maybe I’ll find some meaning to them later. Kind of like the epigraph which I really took a fancy to “An oasis of horror in a desert of boredom” by Charles Baudelaire.
Speaking of epigraphs and other parts of the book, just like The Savage Detectives, I basically went into this book blind except for what the professor mentioned about it being in five parts and the little blurb on the back of book. Now I will say that this blurb has kept me very intrigued, it reads “Three academics on the trail of a reclusive German author; a New York reporter on his first Mexican assignment; a widowed philosopher; a police detective in love with an elusive older woman–these are among the searches drawn to the border city of Santa Teresa where over the course of a decade hundreds of women have disappeared.” Well nothing about a New York reporter, widowed philosopher, or police detective yet, but bam, there it is, the border city of Santa Teresa. Oh boy, how I was grinning in anticipation of what was to come next when I read that this mysterious author Archimboldi was going to Santa Teresa (although the earliest mention of the murders in Santa Teresa was on page 43 when Morini reads about them in an article). It’s that a-ha moment where you think “okay, okay, now we’re really getting started.” Which reminds me of another thought I had, Pelletier and Espinoza going to Santa Teresa gives me a slight whiff of the beginning of a “hero’s journey” where they just set off on their adventure. I do hope that when they return home they come out changed or transformed in some way because similarly to The Savage Detectives, they are by no means flawless characters (yeah…I may have left out a part where they nearly beat a taxi driver to death and then go on their own sexual escapade filled with prostitutes). Going back to the point at hand, the titles of the five parts of 2666 are also pretty interesting:
- The part about the critics
- The part about Amalfitano
- The part about fate
- The part about the crimes
- The part about Archimboldi
You may have noticed that I haven’t referred to our group of academics as “the critics” but yes, in fact, they are the critics, not sure exactly why though. Actually the first time I noticed they were referred to as the critics was on page 114 which is quite far out into the first part. Anyways, I really look forward to the future parts, the next part seeming to be about Amalfitano which I mentioned earlier. Fate, I really have no clue about. Crimes, I can guess will be about the women who have disappeared in Santa Teresa. And in the final part, the man, the myth, the legend, Benno von Archimboldi! As for my discussion question(s) this week, I want to ask you guys “What do you think about the little blurb on the back of books and the title of chapters/sections? Do you think reading them beforehand adds value as you read and do you find yourself enjoying figuring out how/when they tie in? Or do they just spoil the surprises?” That’ll be it from me this week though because this blog post is way too long already, even longer than last week’s, but I hope not to continue this trend!
P.S. I also would have loved to get into how much I am enjoying the characters and how they interact with each other just like The Savage Detectives, but that’ll have to wait until next, next week at least!