If you have not read 2666, do not read this. If you have read 2666, read this. (The Arcimboldi of this novel is very different and not as interesting. I don't know how to evaluate this book as a stand-alone novel [as that, it's probably a failure - though, of course, that's not fair because it's unfinished] because I didn't read it as a stand-alone novel: I read it as an addition to the literary world of Bolaño. In that regard it was excellent. The style is somewhere between 2666 and Savage Detectives without being as accomplished as either one. But if you're a Bolaño fanatic - aka a reader with a pulse - you will read this no matter what I write here, so...)