Posted by Steven on 4/1/2012, 14:55:10, in reply to "The Savage Detectives"
76.186.47.15
I'm about halfway through the book.
The narrative changes form about a fifth of the way into the novel and ceases to be the chronological diary of Juan García Madero. It takes on the form of a documentary, as though people were being interrupted in the course of their daily life by an interviewer. It jumps around in time and place, but isn't hard to follow.
It reminds me a lot of On the Road, The Tropic of Cancer, and--especially in its form--Hopscotch.
It seems in Mexico City in the 1970s you couldn't throw a rock without hitting a poet. Guillermo, are the bookstores mentioned in the novel real, and are they still around?
Natasha Wimmer's introduction to The Savage Detectives is my idea of the perfect introduction. It tells you what you want and need to know about the author and the environment in which he wrote, but it doesn't spoil or prejudice your enjoyment of the novel itself.
--Previous Message--
: I am reading it. I am at November 19. Interesting group
: of young people
:
: Those of you who have started to read it, what do you
: think?
:
: The author died at the age of fifty.
:
: L.
:
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