The Parts of 2666, Part 7

How you read a book
is sometimes
as important
as the book itself.

For instance,
the version of
2666

that I bought
for myself
was the book
split into
three volumes,
which helped me
to digest
its five sections,
to feel undaunted
by the challenge.

Later,
when I devoured
all Belano's short books,
it was in hindsight
only natural
to break it down
to smaller sizes.

This is how I would recommend it
to everyone,
although if you're one
to be impressed 
with bulk,
you can purchase it that way, too.

2666 is,

after all,
the gift that keeps on giving.

The Parts of 2666, Part 6

Belano left
2666 incomplete.

Today I still have no clue
what this means,
if like The Canterbury Tales

he literally didn't finish writing it;
but to my mind
it's perfect as it is;
or if he somehow had
further layers of this onion
to wring tears from,
which would be fascinating
to see peeled.

Perhaps someday
we'll know more
but I am content
with what we were given
from what he gave us
as is.

The Parts of 2666, Part 5

As with most Belano stories,
the final part
revolves around a Nazi,
and for Belano,
this is the part
that of course explains everything,
and it's maliciously cyclical,
and all the parts connect,
an ouroboros,
like the world around it,
some dark reflection
set somewhere in the mythical future,
which is to say, the ever-present today,
forever wallowing
in original sin.

The Parts of 2666, Part 4

The fourth part
is the most difficult read,
a coldly clinical
listing
of all the terrible murders,
the heart of the story,
the part that matters,
the part that is most reflected,
sadly,
in the real world,
the part that was a crisis
nobody cared about,
although sometimes I wonder
if anyone really cares
about any of them
or simply reaps the benefit
of pretending...

The Parts of 2666, Part 3

The third part
is elusive
in the sense
that if you're 
a bad reader
you will think
it's about a journalist
who is in Mexico
to write about boxing,
but it's really about
the state of journalism,
how it's too easy
for journalists
to be led astray,
which is to say
cultural observers,
book critics, say,
who can't understand
what's really important,
political commentators,
persons on social media,
perhaps,
too busy chasing their own tails,
like that movie
in that decade
with all the movies about American presidents,
Wag the Dog,
something we have certainly
not learned at all,
not in twenty years,
not in a hundred,
all the while promising ourselves
to never, ever repeat
the mistakes of the past,
even while obsessing
over reporting
the minutiae of the present
as if it matters
as if we have finally found

some perspective.

Anyway, Belano's journalist
is smarter,
which is to say,
Belano is;
that's why Belano
is so important
to our times,
and why he was a prophet,

same as they ever were.

The Parts of 2666, Part 2

The second part
was where a lot of critics
lost the plot,
since Belano plotted
the book in
seemingly unrelated sections,
although of course
the second part makes complete sense

once you've read all of them;

This is the part where the missing girls
begin to mean something
and the book means nothing
unless you care about the missing girls;

I daresay you're not much of a reader
unless you understand that
or much of a human being,
for that matter.

The Parts of 2666, Part 1

2666 opens with the part about the critics,
who find themselves
in an obsessive quest 
to find all the books extant

from their favorite writer.

I confess,
in the early going,
when I decided to do the same
with Belano
it was with a certain sense
of irony
that I knew I was doing the same.

But eventually it was because

I loved Belano.

So I guess the circle
became complete.

Ravage & Monte Cristo & Belano

I just read a book
called Ravage & Son
and before that
The Count of Monte Cristo
and Ravage & Son
had me thinking
Count of Monte Cristo
even before
Ravage & Son
referenced
Count of Monte Cristo,
but even before that,
Count of Monte Cristo,
being the first time I read it,
had me thinking
Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco,
in terms of immersive world literature,
but also Belano,
always Belano,
who was the writer 
who best explored the world,
in terms I could understand,
felt as if I had done so already

even when I read him for the first time.

So while it's true that
Ravage & Son
had me thinking
Count of Monte Cristo,
even while I read
Count of Monte Cristo

I was realizing
all over again,
how Belano
right from the start,
felt like classic literature,
and that's really
how I fell in love with him.

Books About Belano

Yesterday
I ordered
my first book

about Belano.

I've had 
a bunch of those
on a wishlist
for years
but never got around
to buying one
until now.

Belano became
my favorite writer
upon the instant
of reading him
for the first time,
and I started buying
all his books
as I found them.

I don't have any author
better represented
in my collection,
and yet
aside from online articles
(far too many 
far too comfortable
asserting this obsession
with Belano
is undeserved)
I guess

I was reluctant
to read about him
in a book
rather than read
Belano himself.

It puts him further
into history
and he was already
snuggly there
when I found him.

Which is to say
in a few weeks

I will have one,
and I will have read it,
and another threshold
will have been crossed.

Alas.