I found its “Blunt power” to be extremely effective, and enjoyed being unsettled by the pathological worldview it reflects at times. Equally, I think the comments about the flat nature of the prose are fair, in a discriptive sense, but again I found it did have a sparse beauty to it. The “Part about the killings” is a hugely unpleasant read, but that surely is exactly the point. Throughout the book, I like the way the Bolano uses carefuly selected detail to make his points rather than elaborate ‘writerly’ language.

Its interesting that while we have so clearly read the same book, we were obviously looking for such different things.