2666

Undoubtedly last year's most hyped novel, 2666 is bound to be one of the least finished. It's long - 892 pages in the single hardcover volume, stomach-turningly gruesome, and, challenging. The book is composed of five parts which revolve loosely around a fictionalization of the Ciudad Juárez murders in Northern Mexico, but this is not a plot-driven work. It is, rather, a tapestry of literary and philosophical musings which portrays what we must, given that Bolaño died in 2004, assume is the author's view of the world's spin into moral entropy. Whether these bits of profundity accumulate into a coherent statement is something you'll have to judge for yourself.

Here are a few more extensive reviews of 2666:

Slate.com by Adam Kirsch

The New York Times by Jonathan Lethem

New York Magazine by Sam Anderson

The Guardian by William Skidelsky