ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½

Galleys of Bolano’s Nazi Literature in the Americas have been circulating for a few months now, and everyone I’ve talked with absolutely loves the book. has the first actual review I’ve seen of this, and the reviewer tends to agree:

The title chosen by Bolaño (1953ÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½“2003) for this slim, fake encyclopedia is not wholly tongue-in-cheek: given the very real presence of former (and not-so-former) Nazis in Latin America following WWII, this book, despite being fiction, still had jÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™accuse-like power when first published in 1996. The poets described herein, though invented, seemÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”even at their most absurdÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”plausible, which is the secret to this sly bookÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s devastating effect. [. . .] The wild inventiveness of BolañoÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½™s evocations places them squarely in the realm of BorgesÌÇÐÄ´«Ã½”another writer who draws enormous power from the movement between the fictive and the real.