Counter Arts Book Club Review: ‘Last Evenings on Earth’ (Roberto Bolano)

A little sprinkle of pepper and not enough salt

Photo by author

How peculiar for a book titled Last Evenings on Earth to evoke so little of either time or space.
Life can be stranger and more exciting than fiction. As news of scientific indications (not yet evidence) of past life on Mars grows stronger, I spend some evenings with Roberto Bolaño’s short story collection, which, unfortunately, leaves me mostly underwhelmed. The stories are by no means without merit. In fact, in anticipation of a review I had promised for Counter Arts, I was positively biased by the first story in the book. A little story should not be burdened with responsibility for its successors’ qualities; alas, this one was.

No one should expect a book to be as exciting as the possibility of extraterrestrial life on a neighbouring planet, but many readers will tell you there is at least one book that shook them enough to deserve such a comparison (hello, Piranesi). Bolaño’s collection doesn’t quite achieve that, but while I didn’t expect it to, I did wish for a little more than the cold feeling of having the next story waiting for me at night, resting expectantly on my bedside table.