For those of you who read German, the FAZ (Frankfurter Allgemeneine Zeitung) has a good dossier on Littell’s novel: http://lesesaal.faz.net/littell/. In it I find confirmation of my doubts wrt the literary quality of this big novel — considering that it still is a major work.

Another thing — and this regards the comparision between 2666 and Les bienveillantes — is that during the first 200 or 300 pages of the book, images from 2666 and especially of the character Hans Reiter as a soldier during WW II in the Oekraine, kept haunting me, so much that sometimes Aue became more like Reiter. The image of Reiter was stronger than that of Aue. While reading Littell I was wondering about Reiter, and the Sonora murders from 2666. The characters fuse maybe up to a certain extent because both Bolano and Littell use aspects from Ernst Jünger (and his novels) for Reiter and Aue. (No: I was reminded in both instances of Jünger, that’s more correct; they do not use concrete aspects from Jünger’s biography, rather they seem inspired by a certain distanced aesthetized look at the world that I identify with Jünger).

Reading Bolano I want to reread Bolano to come closer to understanding ‘life’. Reading Littell I want to do research and find out more about the history of WW II.

Hmm. Am I making myself clear?