Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 isn’t what you’d call an easy read. And I ought to know–as of this writing, I’ve gotten only about halfway through it. Published in Spanish following the Chilean novelist’s death in 2003 and translated into English by Natasha Wimmer in 2008, the book is epic and eerie, at times the sort of nightmare vision you’d expect from Franz Kafka if he were Latin American and read the newspaper. Its subject matter is disturbing, its mysteries often unsolvable, its digressions plentiful, and its page count just shy of 900.
In five acts corresponding to the parts of Bolaño’s book, Santa Teresa is the desert sun around which dozens of interconnected lives orbit. Among the many locals and out-of-towners we meet are four European academics, a literature professor and his teenage daughter, a New York reporter covering a boxing match, the police detectives investigating the murders, and an elderly German novelist—not to mention a cavalcade of secondary artists, thugs, do-gooders, lost souls, obsessives, and creeps.
Through 3/20: Tue-Sat 6:30 PM, Sun 1 PM, Goodman Theatre, 170 N. Dearborn, 312-443-3800, goodmantheatre.org, $25-$55.
