This book will sit with me for a while.  I’m not sure how to address it, or sum it up.  It’s not a book to sum up.  It sprawls.  It takes the reader through surreal landscapes.  It hones in on details and humanity.  It leads nowhere, only to backtrack, and forge on.  2666 is a journey through life and death, dreams and reality.  The five parts loosely relate, though some stand out more.  Are we supposed to focus on the murders in Santa Teresa?  It reminds me of the Romanian veteran in the fifth part of the novel talking about being unable to dig defensive trenches because of all the buried bodies.  Do those deaths relate to the deaths in Santa Teresa?  Is there a correlation to the Nazis killing Jews and the unknown people killing women in Mexico?  Reading the second, third, and fourth parts of the novel, all I could think about is how the citizens of Santa Teresa are complicit, and in effect, the reader is complicit as well.  Then, when I read about the part where Zeller/Sammer tells Reiter about the Jews he was accidentally shipped, and how he was instructed that the easiest and best thing to do would be to dispose of the Jews, it makes me think how the Germans were also complicit in murder.

Most of the characters seem haunted by dreams.  At first, I thought it was the city, Santa Teresa, affecting the characters, but now I’m not sure.  Could Archimboldi be affecting the city?  Is it possible for his dreams to spill over into reality the way Ansky’s notebook/dreams spilled over from death and into Archimboldi?

You can read all my 2666 ramblings, if you’re interested.  I enjoyed the book, but may not be done with it even though I’ve read the novel.