Week 14: Deaths

by Nicole Perrin

p.771 — Reiter learns that Ingeborg’s father died during the war

p.827 — Reiter and Ingeborg stay with a man rumored to have killed his wife by throwing her into a ravine, which he denies

832 — Reiter discovers two dead border guards in their cabin

Week 12: Deaths

by Nicole Perrin

p.638 — unidentified German soldier — age unknown — World War I –“the mummy,” a patient next to Hans Reiter’s father, dies in the hospital at Düren

p.661 — Füchler — around 40 — 1936 — Hans Reiter’s roommate; dies of a vague disease

p.670 — unidentified Polish soldier — age unknown — 1939 — the
Polish soldier punched one of Hans Reiter’s comrades, then was shot
running away

p.674 — Gustav — 20 yrs — 1940 — one of Hans Reiter’s fellow soldiers; went mad, escaped from the field hospital, and hanged himself from a tree

p.676 — unidentified German soldier — unknown — 1940 — according the the story Hans Reiter heard, the soldier was lost in the tunnels of the Maginot line and sold his soul to God in a dream; four days later he was hit by a German car

p.688 — a Romanian mathematician — 71 yrs — 1936 — at the Romanian castle, Popescu tells the story of a mathematician he once knew who “saw something [he] shouldn’t” and ended up in a madhouse; cause of death unknown

Of course, there are also the numberless unmentioned dead of the war Reiter is fighting.

Week 10: Deaths

by Nicole Perrin

68 — p.513 — Guadalupe Elena Blanco — 17 yrs — July 1996 — found near the border, strangled, raped
69 — p.514 — Linda Vásquez — 16 yrs — July 1996 — beaten and
stabbed by her boyfriend and his friends, who are jailed
70 — p.516 — Marisol Camarena — 28 yrs — July 1996 — found in a drum of corrosive acid after being kidnapped by seventeen men
71 — p.516 — Marina Rebolledo — 13 yrs — August 1996 — found behind a school
72 — p.516 — Angélica Nevares — 23 yrs — August 1996 — found near a sewage ditch
73 — p.516 — Perla Beatriz Ochoterena — 28 yrs — August 1996 — found hanged in her room, an apparent suicide due to the femicides
74 — p.517 — unidentified — 16-18 yrs — August 1996 — found in a field, stabbed and raped
75 — p.518 — Adela García Ceballos — 20 yrs — August 1996 —
stabbed in her parents’ house by her boyfriend, who confesses
76 and 77 — p.520 — Lola and Janet Reynolds, sisters — 30 and 44
yrs — September 1996 — shot, possibly related to drug trafficking
78 — p.520 — unidentified — possibly young — October 1996 —
decomposed, probably stabbed
79 — p.522 — María Sandra Rosales Zepeda — 31 yrs — November 1996 — shot while leaning into the window of a black Suburban, probably with a Czech-made Skorpion submachine gun
80 — p. 524 — Luisa Cardona Pardo — 34 yrs — November 1996 — found in a ravine, beaten
81 — p. 526 — unidentified — unknown — November 1996 — found by Lalo Cura in the same ravine as victim 80
82 and 83 — p.527 — Estefanía Rivas and Herminia Noriega, half
sisters — 15 and 13 yrs — December 1996 — kidnapped from outside the younger sibling’s school, the girls are later found tortured and killed in an empty house; Herminia died of a heart attack while Estefanía was shot
84 — p.545 — Guadalupe Guzmán Prieto — 11 yrs — March 1997 — strangled, battered, likely raped; date of death in the first half of
February
85 — p.546 — Jazmín Torres Dorantes — 11 yrs — March 1997 — died of hypovolemic shock after more than 15 stabs, raped; had been kidnapped 20 days before
86 — p.546 — Carolina Fernández Fuentes — 19 yrs — March 1997 — five stab wounds to the neck
87 — p.547 — unidentified — 16-20 yrs — March 1997 — strangled, mutilated
88 — p.547 — unidenfified — young woman — March 1997 — strangled; skeleton found by a group of Americans
89 — p.548 — Elena Montoya — 20 yrs — March 1997 — stabbed, beaten
90 — p.549 — Irene González Reséndiz — 16 yrs — March 1997 — found in El Chile, died more than a year before after running away from home
91 — p.559 — Michele Sánchez Castillo — 16 yrs — April 1997 —
severe head trauma, not raped
92 — p.564 — unidentified — 28-33 yrs — April 1997 — body in
advanced state of decomposition, massive cerebral contusion

Other deaths:
p.522 — Six members of the Las Caciques gang are killed in prison, in revenge for the murder of Linda Vásquez, whose family had money. Klaus Haas witnesses two of the victims being castrated before they are murdered. The prison guards also witness and photograph the killings.

p.540 — There are no women killed at the begining of 1997, but deaths included a longtime thief, two men with ties to the drug trade, and a dog breeder: “uncinematic deaths, deaths from the realm of folklore, not modernity: deaths that didn’t scare anybody”

p.557 — Rafael Expósito, a family member of Lalo Cura’s, murders the bullfighter who raped his sister. This is part of the story of Lalo
Cura’s heritage, in which each female family member is raped. Most of the characters in this section have died of natural causes by the time The Part About the Crimes takes place.

Link Roundup

There are still some brave souls out there trekking through the Sonoran desert with us.

First and foremost, Infinite Zombies is absolutely packed with insight and analysis. If you care at all about 2666, it is required reading. http://infinitezombies.wordpress.com/

Frequent Zombies contributor Steve Brassawe also has his own blog of 2666 commentary: A Solipsist’s 2666
http://solipsismexperiment.blogspot.com/

There are always tons of great posts over on The Daily Snowman.
http://thedailysnowman.blogspot.com/

I Just Read About That includes some of the best summaries and opinions of the group read. Check it out!
http://ijustreadaboutthat.wordpress.com

Christine over at Naptime Writing has strong opinions about Bolaño’s project—and she finds some of the most intriguing quotes in the novel.
http://naptimewriting.wordpress.com/

Dan at Bleakonomy has a great blog that also includes posts for every week of the group read:
http://bleakonomy.blogspot.com/

There is some excellent discussion of the novel underway over at Alone With Each Other:
http://alonewitheachother.blogspot.com

We still have some discussion going on over in the forums as well:
http://www.bolanobolano.com/forums/

If you are following along, leave a comment and let us know! Ready to quit yet? Loving it? Hating it, but reading anyway? And leave a link if you are posting your thoughts elsewhere.

Hat tip to our own Nicole at bibliographing (one of the best lit blogs out there, btw) for the roundup idea this week.

Week 8: Deaths

by Nicole Perrin

23 — p.406 — Lucy Anne Sander — 26 yrs — spring 1994 — American tourist who disappeared from a plaza, stabbed, raped, mutilated, dumped near border fence; her death instigates an unofficial investigation by Harry Magana
24 — p.411 — America Garci­a Cifuentes — 24 yrs — spring 1994 — strangled, no signs of rape, dumped near Hermosillo highway
25 — p.412 — Mónica Durán Reyes — 12 yrs — May 1994 — kidnapped from school in a black Peregrino or MasterRoad, strangled, raped, dumped near highway
26 — p.412 — Rebeca Fernández de Hoyos — 33 yrs — June 1994 — strangled, “probably not” raped, found in her own bathroom
27 — p.417 — Isabel “La Vaca” — around 30 — August 1994 — beaten to death by two friends
28 — p.423 — unidentified — 15-17 yrs — October 1994 — strangled, raped, found at the new city dump
29 — p.424 — unidentified — around 30 — November 1994 — strangled, raped, dumped on the second floor of a construction site
30 — p.425 — Silvana Perez Arjona — 15 — November 1994 — stabbed, raped, burned; her lover confesses to the crime
31 — p.449 — unidentified — unknown — January 5, 1995 — skeleton found in a field; impossible to determine cause or time of death without sending the remains to Hermisillo or Mexico City
32 — p.449 — Claudia Perez Millán — 31 yrs — January 15, 1995 — strangled, raped, left in a white blanket in a dumpster; her husband strongly suspected
33 — p.450 — María de la Luz Romero — 14 yrs — February 1995 — stabbed, raped, beaten and dumped by the highway after being kidnapped on her way home from a nightclub
34 — p.451 — Sofia Serrano — around 35 — April 1995 — cocaine overdose, found in hotel room registered to Alejandro Peñalva Brown
35 — p.452 — Olga Paredes Pacheco — 25 yrs — April 1995 — strangled, raped, found next to a trash can with her skirt on backwards
36 — p.454 — Paula García Zapatero — 19 yrs — July 1995 — strangled, raped, found in the yard of an auto repair shop
37 — p.454 — Rosaura López Santana — 19 yrs — July 1995 — raped repeatedly, found along the highway
38 — p.459 — Aurora Muñoz Álvarez — 28 yrs — August 1995 — strangled, beaten and whipped, found on the pavement of the highway; had been seen getting into a black Peregrino
39 — p.460 — Emilia Escalante Sanjuán — 33 yrs — August 1995 — death due to strangulation or alcohol poisoning, with multiple hematomas on the chest and neck, found in an intersection
40 — p.460 — Estrella Ruiz Sandoval — 17 yrs — August 1995 — strangled, raped, found next to the highway
41 — p.460 — Mónica Posadas — 20 yrs — August 1995 — strangled, possibly “raped three ways,” mutilated; found in a vacant lot; her stepfather confesses to the crime
42 — p.462 — unidentified — 16-23 yrs — August 1995 — shot, found on the highway
43 — p.462 — unidentified — unknown — August 1995 — state of decomposition made it impossible to determine cause of death without sending the remains to Hermosillo or Mexico City; found near victim 41
44 — p.462 — Jacqueline Ri­os — 25 yrs — August 1995 — shot in the chest and abdomen, found next to the highway
45 — p.463 — Marisa Hernández Silva — 17 yrs — September 1995 — had vanished in July on her way to school; strangled, raped and mutilated

Other deaths:

Harry Magana, the sheriff from Huntsville, Arizona who goes to Santa Teresa on an unofficial mission to investigate the death of Lucy Anne Sander, disappears, most likely murdered. Miguel Montes, whom Lucy
Anne met when she was visiting Santa Teresa, is also likely dead, and Magana likely walked in on his killers disposing of his body.

Also, at the end of this section Epifanio tells Lalo Cura about the notebook he stole from the evidence related to the case of Isabel Urrea (death #4 in week 7), noting several things in it that were “a mystery,” but saying, “I could have done something. I could’ve called some of the names I’d found and asked for money. But money doesn’t do it for me. So I kept the notebook, fuck it, and didn’t do anything.” Another sign of the “do nothing” attitude of several of the (male) characters in the novel.

Week 6: Deaths

by Nicole Perrin

12 — p.292 — Fate is discussing September 11 with the Mohammedan Brotherhood; one member describes the death of Mohamed Atta (and the other hijackers) as part of a Klan conspiracy.

13 — p. 297 — Guadalupe Roncal tells Fate about her predecessor on the story of the femicides; “He was killed, of course. He got in too deep and they killed him. Not here, in Santa Teresa, but in Mexico City. The police said it was a robbery that went wrong.”

14 — p. 319 — Chucho Flores tells Fate about how Merolino’s sparring partner Garcia “went crazy and killed his sister” several years previous, then spent eight years in prison after claiming temporary insanity.




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