Thursday, February 05, 2009

Non-economic Perusals

It seems that we've been to much discussing uncool stuff like general election or the US economy. It's time to chill out a bit and talk about literature.

Critics are going gaga over Roberto Bolano's 2666. After The Savage Detectives, that I never finished, this 900 something pages has just been posthumously published. I've just checked it out from the library. Of course, god knows when I will have time to read that, but from first several pages, I'd say it'll be better than the Detectives, albeit its length.

The last novel that I just finished is The Taqwacores --a recent underground hit. Think of JD Salinger plus Hunter Thompson plus Salman Rushdie, all blend into this radically blasphemous small book. So bad that it's good, so wrong that it's honest, so hopeless that it's hopeful. A genius work of Orwellian controlled insanity at maximum level.

Two strong conditions for readers: be very, I mean very, open minded and willing to dig and read between the lines. Otherwise I bet you will be excruciatingly mad, feel grossly offended, and probably want to hang the author. The smallest possibility this book may have is to be legally published in Indonesia.

No comments:

Post a Comment