Antwerp is a novel written by Roberto Bolaño when he was 27 years old but withheld from publication until shortly before his death. The novel is a fragmented tapestry of 56 titled sections, woven with shifting tenses, perspectives, and even genders, often within the span of a single sentence. It exists in a dream state, acutely conscious of the horror and appeal of waking life through its magnification and dissolution. The book defies conventional classification and is difficult to describe in terms of plot, though it is clear that a girl was murdered, a body was found, and somebody saw it. This book is for readers who enjoy experimental, non-linear narratives that challenge the conventional rules of literature. ( )

Haven't read this one yet, but thumbed through it. Seems a lot like a zine, but finely written. ( )

Nope. That's not for me.
2stars rather than 1 as I'm not a completely awful person. ( )

The most difficult and least rewarding Bolaño I've read yet. Still, he sure know how to put a sentence together and frame a moment in time. ( )

“An ah, an oh, and postcards from whitewashed towns. The hunchback strolls down the empty pool, sits in the deep end, and lights a cigarette. The shadow of a cloud passes, a spider pauses next to his fingernail, he expels smoke. ‘Reality is a drag.’ I suppose all the movies I’ve seen will be worth nothing to me when I die. Wrong. They’ll be worth something, believe me. Don’t stop going to the movies.” ( )