Distant Star

This ended up being a great, short novel, even though the writing is not as good as 'The Savage Detectives' or '2666'. Bolaño is famous for leaving you hanging at the end, but this book wraps up relatively neatly. The implications of the book are not clear. Bolaño is obviously opposed to Pinochet, but there is no straight forward ethical argument here about art and dictatorship (the fascist poet is eventually tossed aside by the dictatorship, the socialist poets are incapable of defending themselves).