The book works in a similar vein being split into a number of short stories, set out like this:
1. Llamadas telefónicas
i. Sensini Follows the friendship, through a shared interest in writing competitions, of the protagonist and an older and more accomplished author.
ii. Henri Simon Leprince Centres on a writer of poetry and stories battling against French critics around the time of the first world war and describes his philosophy of helping writers through the resistance. The story is very tongue in cheek. In his heart, Leprince finally accepted his condition as a bad writer but also understood and accepted that good writers need bad writers as alone, they would be but readers or squires. He also knew that by saving (or helping) a few good writers, he had earned the right to blot paper and make mistakes. Also, he knew that he had earned the right to to be published in two or maybe three magazines.
iii. Enrique Martín Here, Arturo Bolano describes a successful poet living in Barcelona who begins to write Science Fiction opens a bookshop and becomes apparently quite paranoid.
iv. Una aventura literaria is a fantastic story about writer, named simply 'B', who is not famous, has no money, and whose poems are published in marginal magazines. 'B' writes a book in which one of the chapters pokes fun at a writer, named simply 'A'. 'A' is the same age as 'B' but is famous, has money, and is well read. This book is well received and 'A' appears in interviews, waxing lyrical about the book. The story follows 'B' and his (or her) thoughts about whether 'A' in fact knows that the book is poking fun.
v. Llamadas telefónicas is again about a character named 'B' and his break up with 'X'. 'X' is subsequently murdered and investigated by the police.
2 Detectives
El Gusano tells the story from a young boy who plays truant, and spends his days buying or stealing books and going to the cinema to watch erotic Mexican films. The boy befriends 'el Gusano' and their relationship is explored.
La nieve is an account by the protagonist, of the story told to him by Rogelio Estrada, whose 'smile seemed permanently stuck between astonishment and mischief', of his life in Moscow working for a rather dodgy Russian businessman, who has a love of Dostoevsky and Chekhov. This plot becomes quite dark, and involves love, death and books.
Otro cuento ruso again takes place during the second world war, this time on the Russian front line and is just exquisite in content and form. I'm not going to describe anything of the plot but have instead translated the short story as it isn't available in English.
William Burns is an odd story about a time in William Burns' life when he had a relationship with two women, one older, one younger and the events surrounding a holiday house in the mountains.
Detectives is a dialogue between two police detectives, driving and reminiscing. The conversation, of course, is very odd.
The third part of the book La vida de Anne Moore, has four more short stories, each centering on a group of people and their lives. One woman goes mad and tries to kill one or more of her friends, while another story focuses in an actress in adult movies. The stories vary in scope and style and seem not to be linked in any way. Friends, family come and go, they seem not to be tied particularly to any one place or time. Many of them seem to enjoy talking into the night, smoking cigarettes and have some connection to writing, though not all. What I'm beginning to recognise as a Bolaño style. This style also accounts for the fact that they all seem to live and breath and seem as flawed and lost as anyone really is.
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