One of the problems with reading renowned authors that write in a language other than your own is that you are dependent upon translation. Leaving aside the issues of quality of translation one problem that I've come across is availability of translations. If an author becomes renowned early in their career then the translations come along early and you'll generally find all, or at least most, of their work in translation, but if it's later then typically only their best work is translated and, if that sells well, then their lesser work is gradually drip fed into the translation market.
When I first read Roberto Bolaño around 15 years ago it was mostly only his best work that was translated - 2666, The Savage Detectives, By Night in Chile and one or two others. I started with, arguably his greatest novel, 2666 and it was a staggeringly great novel. Some might say The Savage Detectives was his best, and this I read second and so on. So effectively I was cherry picking by availability of translations (even where other works might have already been translated they weren't necessarily still available). As his popularity increased so did the translations, always best works first, so that eventually they are scraping around in the back of his desk drawers and hidden corners of his old computer files. Many of these works are probably only of significant interest to academic scholars of Bolaño; there is usually a good reason why artists choose not to publish much of their work (Terry Pratchett famously told his family to run a steam roller over his hard drive after his death). Sadly I'm not an academic and, whilst I find some interest in these sort of recovered works, they generally end up disappointing. As is the case with my most recent read Cowboy Graves. It's interesting, but compared to his stuff I've read before it's is nowhere near as rewarding. Much of Bolaño's work tends to be more about the journey than the ending and his endings are frequently ambiguous; getting there is where all the fun is. That works fine with big novels like 2666 but it doesn't work so well with short stories and Cowboy Graves is essentially a collection of loosely linked short vignettes many of which are clearly sketches for characters and events that occurred in his later and more significant work. So sadly this was just an OK read.
When I first read Roberto Bolaño around 15 years ago it was mostly only his best work that was translated - 2666, The Savage Detectives, By Night in Chile and one or two others. I started with, arguably his greatest novel, 2666 and it was a staggeringly great novel. Some might say The Savage Detectives was his best, and this I read second and so on. So effectively I was cherry picking by availability of translations (even where other works might have already been translated they weren't necessarily still available). As his popularity increased so did the translations, always best works first, so that eventually they are scraping around in the back of his desk drawers and hidden corners of his old computer files. Many of these works are probably only of significant interest to academic scholars of Bolaño; there is usually a good reason why artists choose not to publish much of their work (Terry Pratchett famously told his family to run a steam roller over his hard drive after his death). Sadly I'm not an academic and, whilst I find some interest in these sort of recovered works, they generally end up disappointing. As is the case with my most recent read Cowboy Graves. It's interesting, but compared to his stuff I've read before it's is nowhere near as rewarding. Much of Bolaño's work tends to be more about the journey than the ending and his endings are frequently ambiguous; getting there is where all the fun is. That works fine with big novels like 2666 but it doesn't work so well with short stories and Cowboy Graves is essentially a collection of loosely linked short vignettes many of which are clearly sketches for characters and events that occurred in his later and more significant work. So sadly this was just an OK read.
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