Very, very good but not quite great
4 stars
I had this book on my list for quite a while and had decided to give it a miss until I saw that someone I know had just finished it. As I was at that point where I needed a new book to read I decided to get a copy.
The book is basically in 4 long sections. I understand that before he died the author had asked his publisher to release it as 5 books but it was published in a single volume. I think that was a good decision because if I'd started to read it as a series I would not have finished it.
The first part concerns a group of 4 friends, university lecturers who are obsessed with a German author and who had not been seen for many years. The four go on a series of adventures to try to find the German.
The second …
I had this book on my list for quite a while and had decided to give it a miss until I saw that someone I know had just finished it. As I was at that point where I needed a new book to read I decided to get a copy.
The book is basically in 4 long sections. I understand that before he died the author had asked his publisher to release it as 5 books but it was published in a single volume. I think that was a good decision because if I'd started to read it as a series I would not have finished it.
The first part concerns a group of 4 friends, university lecturers who are obsessed with a German author and who had not been seen for many years. The four go on a series of adventures to try to find the German.
The second part is about an American journalist who is sent to Mexico to report on a boxing match but gets involved in a very Lynchian situation with drug cartels and people smullging.
The third section is very, very long and probably could have benefitted from a bit of editing. It's about the murders of women in Mexico and the failure of the authorities and police to make any headway in solving the (still ongoing) crimes.
The fourth part is about the life of the author who is being searched for in the first section which for me is the best part of the book and the part that has the most consistent and coherent plot.
As the plot unfolds there are hints in the text to the following sections for example a very brief news report about murders in Mexico - but these can be very fleeting and if the reader skips parts they could easily be missed.
In many ways there are no links between the stories but there definitely are. I was wondering whether if the author had not died when he did it might have ended up being a slightly different book.
For a 900 page book it definitely whips along (strangely I found the last 50 pages a little heavy going). I would recommend it to readers who enjoy a complex structure and can cope with a plot that meanders all over the place and does not provide many answers.