Looking specifically for books I can read in one sitting to take the edge off a tightly packed schedule. For reference, lately, I've enjoyed Annie Ernaux's Exteriors and the Years, both of which I read fairly quickly and enjoyed thoroughly. I also finished Louise Gluck's Theories and Proofs this month which may be my favorite theory book for theory resistant people like myself. Anything in the vein of these is welcome. No Lacan please. It's a lot to ask for a book to be seamless but some are bumpier than others, and I don't have the mental bandwidth right now to wrestle with that kind.

So in an effort to read more indie press not just Big 5 publisher stuff, I subscribe to a youtube channel that goes over new releases of just small/indie press releases. Something in her description of a novel called ALL TRAP NO BAIT by Joseph Worthen interested me--I don't remember what anymore, the back blurbs say variously "a Southern Gothic novel for the cyber age" "the bastard love child of Flannery O'Connor and The Big Lebowski" and "reads like Bolano in Alabama [its dark but not remotely 2666 dark, imho]" so probably something like that. But first I read an excerpt of the author's writing online, as ofc the prose will tell me more than anything else, then I was like lets do this, ordered, and, reader, it far surpassed my expectations. I loved it. It was a romp and a half.

It has a kind of mystery bit (an "internet demon" is harassing our protag, Bev) that made it so I was just excitedly turning pages like reading when you're a kid, a hyper rare phenomenon for me, but that is not even what makes it great. There are so many funny as fuck or heartbreaking lines, penetrating what it means to be alive right now, especially in the South and especially if you're poor. It has a lot of what rsbookclub seems to be looking for: an internet novel, but in a seamless way, not a torturously smug way (sorry, Lockwood), a WORKING CLASS novel (maybe the most exciting part, just spot on in a way I have not seen in fiction), a Gen Z/millennial novel but not in a stupid way, and a de-slumping novel if you are in a reading slump.

You might say the protagonist, perpetually down-on-her-luck Bev, is another variation on the drug-addled alienated young women that have proliferated contemporary fiction since MYORR, but to me, as much as I can occasionally kick it with Moshfegh, Bev (and the novel) has a lot more heart, more idiosyncrasy. And of course, she is poor as fuck, which changes everything.

The whole time I was reading, a part of my brain was like "why the HELL isn't this a big 5 novel?? with the author receiving a fat advance?" In the same way Vuong (insert "stop, stop, he's already dead" gif) is proof that mainstream lit fic publishers are without taste or discernment, the sheer fact that ALL TRAP NO BAIT evidently couldn't get published at one of the Big 5 publishers shows how broken the whole stupid system is. Although it is also possible that being indie-published was a purposeful choice; parts of the novel do suggest that ethos. I hadn't heard of Tortoise Books before but they seem pretty interesting and have a mission to publish "writers who haven't found a niche in the marketplace [...but] will stand the test of time."

Still, if there was any justice in publishing (there is not) this would have Lost Lambs-like rollout. I'm not saying it is a perfect book, I do have some minor quibbles, but considering most contemporary lit fic leaves me annoyed, bored, or cold, this was pretty fucking great. Which is why I decided to write up this whole thing.

Paul Klee - Angelus Novus

>When these stars cast their light, we didn’t exist, life on Earth didn’t exist, even Earth didn’t exist. This light was cast a long time ago. It’s the past, we’re surrounded by the past, everything that no longer exists or exists only in memory or guesswork is there now, above us, shining on the mountains and the snow and we can’t do anything to stop it.

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Summary

We get the birth of Benno von Archimboldi the persona and the writer in this final section. We also see the evolution of his relationship with Ingeborg and their travels until her mysterious death from drowning (?) in a remote village.

Reiter, now Archimboldi for the rest of the section, begins publishing his books with a Mr Bubis, who also happens to be married to Baroness von Zumpe. So that's tidy. Archimboldi has an affair with the Baroness and confesses to spying on her.

We end the section on little sister Lotte, who turns out to be the mother of Klaus Haas the giant and possible killer from the Crimes. She travels back and forth between Germany and Mexico to visit Klaus in prison, and during one flight reads a book by Benno von Archimboldi and recognizes him as her lost brother Hans. We end with Archimboldi on his way to Mexico to "take care of it all" for Lotte.

Some of the details this week:

• How to survive a carpet bombing
• A long digression about Sisyphus
• Le Musee des erreurs
• Archimboldi and Ingeborg stay with a man who killed his wife and got away with it
• More weird sex stuff, notably reminiscing about Entrescu's dick and the soldier who jerks off under a pile of corpses and smells good afterward
• Fürst Pückler's ice cream in three flavors: chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry

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Prompts

Some ideas for discussion (suggestions only, post about whatever you want and feel free to post your own prompts):

Some general end of book questions:

• So did you like this part? Did you like the book overall? Will you be reading more of Bolaño or are you set?
• Please indulge me and rank the sections in your order of preference, given this was so controversial at the outset.
• In the beginning, there was a comment about secret stories, what do you think the secret story or stories of 2666 is? What do you think the thesis of the book is if you had to come up with one?
• If you were reading the FSG version, three different artworks are used for the covers: Gustave Moreau - Jupiter and Semele (the painting most associated with 2666) for parts 1-3, Cy Twombly - Academy for Part 4, and Albertus Seba - Cabinet of Natural Curiosities, Sea Sponge plate for part 5. Now that we've read the book, what do you make of the usage of these artworks, especially Jupiter and Semele?

Some more specific questions about this part:

• Do you think Archimboldi killed Ingeborg? And if so, to spare her from her health problems? something more sinister? something else?
• It's confirmed that Reiter killed Sammer in this section and spurs his name change. What do you think Bolaño is saying about self erasure or reinvention with Archimboldi's evolution?
• In the Part about the Critics, Norton knows Archimboldi has blue eyes through his novels. In this part, Lotte recognizes Archimboldi as her brother. What do you think Bolaño is saying about self expression through fiction?
• Speaking of critics, a critic in this section hedges on Archimboldi's quality to Bubis even when pressed, clearly not liking him. Do you think this is a swipe at critics or something deeper? What does it mean that he cycles through nationalities before arriving at Malaysian?
• Greek figures show up again, notably with Bubis reflecting on Sisyphus at length when visiting Junge. Why? Why do you think they've shown up again and again throughout the book?
• What did you make of Lotte's section and Klaus being Archimboldi's nephew? What did you make of Lotte's biographical section altogether?
• What was up with the ice cream ending?

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Congratulations to everyone who finished! Historically something like <10% make it from the beginning of a read-along to the end, so you're in a highly selective group if you're still around.

Thanks for reading along with me! Next up will be The Magic Mountain hosted by u/Sweet-Bodybuilder250

If you're interested in hosting a read-along, long or short, post an interest-fishing thread or reach out to the mods.

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Previous Discussions

August 3 - Introduction Thread

August 10: Pages 1-80, through "they probably would have killed him." / es: "el taxista se hubiera materializado ante ellos, seguramente lo habrían matado."

August 17: Pages 80-163, through the end of "The Part about the Critics."

August 24: Pages 163-231, the entirety of "The Part about Amalfitano."

August 31: Pages 231-353, the entirety of "The Part about Fate."

September 7: Pages 353-449, The Part about the Crimes begins, through "coming down the hallway." / es: "que avanzaban por el pasillo."

September 14: Pages 449-545, through "according to witnesses, was indescribable." / es: "fue, según los testigos, indescriptible."

September 21: Pages 545-637, through the end of "The Part about the Crimes."

September 28: Pages 637-770, through "Then he remembered who she was." / es: / "rostro dormido. Entonces la recordó."

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It’s very good

I've been marinating on the Netflix adaptation for a bit and one scene keeps bugging me. When Sam Hamilton is delivering Adam and Cathy's twins, the show has him reach in to Cathy's vagina to check how far along she is without asking her, and the show implies that it's a sexual assault. She's clearly not consenting and the director/show runner wants you to feel that. However, in the book it's framed as if Sam Hamilton is saving both Cathy and the twin's life by being the only person around that has experience delivering babies, 9 to be exact, the Hamilton's are a huge family. 

I'm genuinely fine with the show reframing Cathy as a traumatized antihero. That's a valid reading to explore and Florence Pugh does a great job conveying that in the show. My problem is how they got there. In the book, Cathy bites Sam's hand to the bone during that delivery, and it's one of the first moments where Steinbeck lets you see what she really is. Sam is being kind and competent and she attacks him for no reason. If you turn the exam into a violation, the bite becomes self-defense, and suddenly the guilt in that room belongs to Sam.

Sam Hamilton is one of the best archetype of a good but real man, he works hard, he drinks, and he's a great father, in fact he's Steinbeck's own grandfather, written with so much love, and he's basically the moral anchor of the first half of the novel. He's the one who senses something off about Cathy before anyone else. He's in the room for the naming of the twins and the timshel conversation with Lee and Adam. If the audience has been primed to distrust him, all of those core moments lose weight.

And the show barely touches the Hamilton family anyway. We don't get Liza, the kids, the farm, the inventions, any of the stuff that shows who Sam is at home. So viewers who haven't read the book get one major impression of him and it's that he's a predator.

I get that the writers might have wanted to show how little control women had over their own bodies in that era but, pinning it on the one character Steinbeck built as a genuinely good man feels like it costs the story more than it gives back.

Curious whether people who read the book first had the same reaction.