How is that possible when in part three it's clear they spend all of January 1976 outside of Mexico City? This bothered me, as it was kind of a crucial step on their search. One last inconsistency/nitpick: The conversation Belano and Lima have with Amadeo Silvetierra (sp) is said to occur in January 1976 in Mexico City. Certainly they don't lose all their mystique (Belano's duel on the beach? Lima filling the nets with fish? Belano in Africa, period?)īut Garcia Madero's change in attitude towards the 2, which took about all of 400 pages of part 2 for me to develop, really took me off guard, I didn't feel like I was coming back to the same young man.

You learn about their heartaches, experiences, failures, and friendships. The movement and its 2 leaders were magical in the first section, popping up here and there, but during The Savage Detectives, they stop being so mysterious and become very human. Even Garcia Madero in his second account seems increasingly disenchanted with it/Lima/Belano. It was just a scene, just an identity for these characters, for most, a lost or pathetic cause. She's still the 'mother of all visceral realists.' I don't really think the visceral realist poetry was ever the point, which is why you never see it. Her stature, her demeanor, her final actions. Personally, I loved the meeting with Cesarea. They weren't disappointed at the end, at least I don't think so.

Like the Lima and Belano's search for Cesarea. To me, that's about perception and what you learn/observe when you're looking for something. I don't know what's outside the window, and I don't really sweat it. I'm so eager to hear what others have to say about the ending, as i don't know anybody who has read this book (though i'll be recommending it now!) By the way Anne, i've had exactly the same experience with this book, i was completely lost in it! it was only right that she appeared like an immense (figuratively and literally) being at the end of the novel, saving our young visceral realists.

she still maintains the mystery that i had grown to expect from her after the intense and prolonged build-up i couldn't have bared her acting like any other character in the book. The anti-climatic meeting with Cesarea is baffling, yet somehow seems fitting. What is outside the window? what does this mean? is this all we get to read of Cesarea's poetry? is this even her poetry, or one of Garcia Madero's games? why don't we get to read any of the other characters poetry? it's an absence that i didn't fully realize until i was almost finished with the book, all i want is an example of Visceral Realism! Ok, so finished the book and have been trying desperately to figure out the ending.

The savage detectives