2666 by Roberto Bolano (2008); "2. The Part about Amalfitano" and "3. The Part about Fate"

I reassert my opinion that this book is very uneven. I enjoyed parts of each section but skimmed through others.

Part 2 focuses on Oscar Amalfitano, who appeared briefly in Part 1 as a tour guide of sorts for the critics, and his family. Here I must, again, complain about the fact that women's voices in this novel are not regularly heard except through letters to men with whom they have abruptly severed sexual relationships. Amalfitano's wife, Lola tells her life's story through letters to him after she has left him and their daughter, Rosa. Lola's life is interesting and parallels the search for an author in Part 1 as she goes in search of a poet but we don't get her story first hand. Because this is the second instance and echoes the silencing of Liz, it bothers me all the more. The remainder of the section follows Amalfitano as he moves with his daughter from Spain to Mexico and as he goes through something of a mental break. Not incredibly interesting

Part 3 focuses on Oscar Fate (a little trite given Amalfitano's first name is Oscar . . . not to mention Fate as a last name . . . . ) who is an African-American journalist working for an Af-Am-centric publication. This section gets very boring very quickly as Oscar is working on a report about a founding member of the Black Panthers--the entirety of a speech the man gives is documented and I find that incredibly boring and unnecessary. Bolano seems to lack a certain grasp on the idea of brevity and synopsis. Anyway, Oscar then gets recruited to cover a boxing match in Mexico in Amalfitano's city (the same city to which the critics chased Archimboldi) and gets tangled up in some dubious dealings involving Amalfitano's daughter Rosa and her shady friends. This section is interesting but ends on a strange note with narratives bouncing back and forth between times and possibly points of view, not a narrative strategy in the book so far. So far, this is the best book in terms of consistency and being concise and honestly making me want to continue the book (after the Black Panther speech that is). Maybe the rest of the book will follow? I look forward to seeing how these narratives come together, or don't. At any rate, I've only read 349 pages of 898 so a lot is left to happen.