I'm thinking we need to figure out some sort of game plan for this, like a schedule and whatnot. What I thought was maybe we'd just put our working ideas up as we go along (particularly for a longer book like this), and then maybe also have a set time to "talk about our feelings" via chat. Also if someone starts a post that you care to add to or comment on, well, do so.

I just finished part one today and am a few pages into part two, and without giving anything away (if you're not there yet), I think it's rather interesting to look at the way Bolaño has chosen to portray his female characters in the book. I started off thinking I didn't really like Norton but then I realized we almost never see anything about her except as interpreted through the eyes of Espinoza or Pelletier. And yeah, these guys are in love with her so it should be somewhat favorable, but it is a pretty flat perspective and arguably has nothing to do with who she is on her own. I don't think we have too complete a picture of the other characters, either, but since we're with them more and hear more about their feelings regarding Liz and life in general, it seems almost as if it's their choice to withhold or only reveal certain aspects of their lives. I would also suggest that though their character development is slightly limited, that may be due to the fact that their lives in fact are fairly limited to their devotion to Archimboldi and someone else who they are deeply in love with and won't here be named in case you're not there yet. The book leaves me feeling as if there's more to Norton's story than is being expressed, and I don't much feel that's the case for the two doofuses who only care about the woman of their dreams and some dead German guy.

Anyway, I'm trying to figure out where Bolaño is going with all this because I expected with a theme like the mass murders of women, the book would have some strong female characters - or at least ones that we don't hear about through the thoughts of the men who love them, which is the case not only of Norton but as well of a Mexican girl named Rebeca and Amalfitano's ex-wife and daughter (who to be fair I've only recently met and maybe I'll be eating my words a couple chapters on). This is not a run-on sentence at all.

Here we go

I'm so happy to be starting book club with you chicas again. I forgot how much I enjoyed it (but as a comparison, I was briefly a member of another book club here in New York, and most of those bitches didn't even read the books, so I left. Lame).

I guess I'll start by telling you why I wanted to read this book (apologies to Megan, who I sort of already told). I came across an old campaign story in my magazine's archives that mentioned Ciudad Juarez and referred to it as the "female murder capital." I didn't know anything about this, so I did some Googling and some Wikipedia-ing, asked Megan some questions, and have since been haunted by what I've learned. I know there are other places where women are more vulnerable to violence (Congo comes to mind first), and I've read my share of horror stories in the news, so I'm not sure what it is about this place that bothers me so much. Maybe it's just that at this particular moment in my life, I've started to actually think about these problems on a deeper level.

A wanted sign went up in my neighborhood a few days ago for a man who raped a woman and has attempted to rape several more. Since moving to Brooklyn I've loved this neighborhood and have always felt safe here. I love how diverse it is, and I love running into friends on the street. It makes me angry that this man can cause me and my female friends to feel afraid in our own neighborhood. I'm not trying to compare South Slope to Ciudad Juarez, but I was thinking about how in Juarez it's not just one man, it's god knows how many, and there are no wanted signs, no police searching for the men responsible, no security measures taken to protect those women, who are afraid for their lives, not only their bodies. You're right, Megan - the world's problems can seem so abstract, so distant. It's difficult for me to imagine such a horrible reality.

All that thinking and Googling led me to 2666, which focuses on the disappearing women of Ciudad Juarez (called Santa Teresa in the book). After reading a little bit of it I'm also wondering how the story will end up in Mexico.

One of the things I love about books is they do help you imagine other realities - as best as they can, which is nowhere close to solving anything, but maybe it's a place to start.

Bienvenidos to my homegurlz

Yay!! Super excited to read and have been missing you two and your highly intellectual badass selves for far too long. I read just a bit of the book so far and at first I thought maybe I'd downloaded the wrong one because it's set in Europe and goes on and on about this German writer, so I'm interested to see how this all comes back to el gran Méjico.

The other thing I wanted to mention is that on Saturday my bf found out that another one of his old partners was killed. There were six of them working together as military spies in narco-trafficking and now he's the only one left. Made me realize how very abstract the world's problems often seem - even for people like ourselves who are obviously interested in them (hello 40lb book). I can't even imagine how I'd cope if that were my reality. I'm picturing lots and lots of booze.