The Unknown University

June 1, 2013

Bolano's fiction (e.g., the National Book Critics Circle Award winner 2666) has met with great critical acclaim and enjoys a devoted, almost cultlike following, but poetry was his first love. Now for the first time, his complete poetic works are offered in a handy and well-crafted bilingual edition. Previously published collections (Tres and The Romantic Dogs) are included here; some individual poems have already appeared in anthologies and literary journals. All these poems are the product of Bolano's early and prefiction creative life, the first dating from 1978 and later ones from about 1994, nine years before his death. To maintain fidelity to Bolano's original manuscript, the poems have been arranged in an order that does not coincide with how they were previously published. Even the 56 prose poems of Antwerp, which appear here as a novel, are heavily edited and renamed "People Walking Away." The poems are often fragmentary and somewhat dark, but the subject matter foreshadows themes of Bolano's later and more fully developed fiction. VERDICT This volume has the advantage of combining all of Bolano's poems in one volume, but it makes clear that they are products of an earlier time. For fans who can't get enough or readers who want to delve beyond his unique fictional world, this collection will showcase the author's more reflective side.--Lawrence Olszewski, OCLC Lib., Dublin, OH

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.