2666

By: Roberto Bolaño

Narrated by: John Lee, Armando Durán, G. Valmont Thomas, Scott Brick, Grover Gardner

Length: 39 hrs and 15 mins

Publisher's summary

National Book Critics Circle, Fiction, 2009

Composed in the last years of Roberto Bolaño’s life, 2666 was greeted across Europe and Latin America as his highest achievement, surpassing even his previous work in its strangeness, beauty, and scope. Its throng of unforgettable characters includes academics and convicts, an American sportswriter, an elusive German novelist, and a teenage student and her widowed, mentally unstable father. Their lives intersect in the urban sprawl of Santa Teresa—a fictional Juárez—on the U.S.-Mexico border, where hundreds of young factory workers, in the novel as in life, have disappeared.

©2004 the heirs of Roberto Bolaño (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

This winner of the 2008 National Book Critics' Circle Award for Fiction is the master work from "one of the greatest and most influential modern writers" (New York Times Book Review)

"...think of David Lynch, Marcel Duchamp (both explicitly invoked here) and the Bob Dylan of Highway 61 Revisited, all at the peak of their lucid yet hallucinatory powers." (New York Times)

"It is safe to predict that no novel this year will have as powerful an effect on the reader as this one." (Publishers Weekly, starred review)

BORING

I bought this in Jan/2010 and have tried to get thru it at least 3 times and have never heard the last of book 1 (or part 1). The narrator makes me sleepy and is so boring in his pedantic style of reading that he is as bad as the author. Wish I could get it exchanged for something better....this in my opinion does not deserve the 1 star I gave it.....jd

boring

Forced myself to listen to the first 2 cds and finally hollered, "WHO CARES???" at the cd player.

Disappointingly Fragmented

What would have made 2666 better?

I kept waiting for a cohesion, a story with a beginning, a middle and an end. The audio reading was quite good and the expectation palpable yet in the end, in the long end, disappointment.

Terrible Book I Could Not Get Into It!

Usually I know if I will like a book within the first hour.
I listened for over 2 hours and I still couldnt understand what the book was about.
I feel stupid and I am disgusted that I cannot enjoy this huge book.
I was really looking forward to this. Bummer.
I guess I will just listen over and over and over so that I can get my thick mind to wrap around the story?

Not worth the time to listen

At the beginning and then at the end it was clearly stated that the Author demanded that the five books that comprise 2666 be publshed separately. The author knew best. Each story is a stand alone that happens, vaguely, to touch upon the others. In each of the 2666 "books" Bolano delves deeply .. possibly too deeply .. into the lives of selected characters. It is possible that, taken alone, at least 2 or 3 of the tales would have been captivating, but taken altogether it is wearisome. I wouldn't ever recommend it to anyone else because I woudn't know what to tell them made it worth reading. The "narrators" for the most part were excellent except for Scott Brick who imparted his normal sardonic tone thus rending the narration a joke .. and since the subject was the murder of many women it was a bit too irreverent for my taste. I listened to the whole thing, and I'm not sure this is a feat to be proud of, or ashamed because I wasted so much time.

Gratuitous violence outweighs any merit

I had been excited about listening to 2666 since it had received much acclaim, some of it from literary reviewers I respect. My problem with this audiobook was not with the readers, all of whom in the four parts I listened to were capable; rather it was with the novel itself. The violence is pervasive and graphic, and yes, gratuitous. Although I made it through over half of 2666, I deleted this audiobook from my mp3 player tonight.

The worst book EVER!

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

Someone who has a.d.d., the story jumps and at some times is incoherent.

Would you ever listen to anything by Roberto Bolaño again?

no

What three words best describe the narrators’s performance?

standard, regular, boring

What character would you cut from 2666?

all of them.

Better as separate books

What did you like best about 2666? What did you like least?

There are really 5 separate books. The relationships between each are tenuous at best. I found myself looking for the threads rather than enjoying the story.

Would not recommend

2666 (Unabridged)

I'm sorry, but I found this book very boring. I couldn't get through it even 25% of it before I gave up.

I would not recommend it.

Irritating

1st book in 12 months I just could not finish. Finally gave up and quit listening after about 8 hours of pure agony.