2666

As a fan of boxing I always enjoy when the sport finds its way into the story I’m reading. Which happens a lot. Aside from baseball, there is no other sport that is used more by writers of the 20th century.

If you are interested at all Bolano nails how the people of Mexico are desperate for a dominate heavyweight from their country. This past year they pinned their hopes on Mexican-American Christobal Arreola (seen above on the right) much like they did with Lino Fernández in 2666. Both finding basically the same fate.

I did a little digging as to why Bolano was comfortable using boxing as a tool in this story (you might remember he mentions it a few times before section 3). Some writers find the sport and its competitors fascinating (Joyce Carol Oates), some believe they could have been boxers (Hemingway), Bolano was simply around the sport throughout childhood.

I found this quote from him, ”My father was a heavyweight amateur boxing champion. His unchallenged reign was restricted to southern Chile. I never liked boxing, but had been taught since I was a kid; there was always a pair of boxing gloves in the house, whether in Chile or in Mexico.”

Interesting to me at least.