Still here . . .

I've been catching up on grading, which has kept me away from here. One more week, then spring break . . .

A couple of weeks ago, I finished 2666, which I talked a little about here. I'll post something more substantial about it later, but here's my starting point: It was about midway through that I realized that this novel is detailed enough that if I were so inclined, I'd be able to create a fairly accurate map of Santa Teresa, the fictional border city in Mexico where most of the novel is set--much as one can do with Ulysses. But then I realized that, whereas Joyce's novel allows you to map Dublin via the characters' movements through the streets, with Bolaño's novel I'd be mapping the city via the locations of the bodies of murdered women.

2666 is the anti-Ulysses. It is also a truly fine novel.

Nor have I forgotten about this (and this), and this.