Right, so, just finished it three minutes ago. Hmm. -- At about page ~200? (400 on my pdf), I wasn't particularly enjoying myself and the book, while not a chore, was something that I thought I'd seen before, I treated it fatalistically, my eyes began to blur and so on. The Gravity's Rainbow effect. But the sequence after Norton left Mexico for London was spellbinding to me. I read it in 20 minutes and could've kept going for an hour. I feel like at that point (or earlier) you begin to suspect where she's going with her relationship (and even you begin to hope, maybe), and the climax was well-written. The way Espinoza and Pelletier deal with her letter (I can't help but think of this book in 19th century terms, no matter how hard I try) is typical and a bit vulgar and I finally began to get a handle on the characters at that point. This was a good, good feeling because up to then I'd been trying to figure out what sort of book I was reading, and to have a sudden epiphany was unexpected and elucidating and made the process altogether smoother. -- And yet I'm still not sure about the bigger picture. I don't know a damn thing about Bolano, so I don't know which culture if any he is misrepresenting or exaggerating. He lived in Chile, Mexico and Spain. Is there anything of him in any of the characters? Espinoza? If not, where did he get the inspiration for them, and how did he settle on the exact manner in which they act? As others have pointed out, there's precious little plot, which I was expecting, but as there's precious little characterization as well, we're left with ... normally we might be left with introspection, a magnified self-imagining like The Old Man and the Sea or A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. But I don't know if we got that here. Also Bolano died before polishing this novel, I think. I read that he wanted it released serialized in order to maximize the profit it would make and provide for his family. That practical sentiment is jarring and seems to fit right in with the events of 2666. What does that say about him/it? -- I'm done for now. I need to digest this, but it's certainly got me thinking, which I didn't think possible at the halfway point.