My favorite story in this collection is the one about Pepe, the young nephew of Kafka's Josephine the Singing Mouse. The nephew is a rat, and works as a cop. ( )

En los cuentos que incluye El gaucho insufrible destacan el uso magistral de la ironía y algunas de las claves fundamentales de la obra de Bolaño: la literatura como argumento, las tramas policiacas, el arte como obsesión, la búsqueda de una verdad que solo parece ineludible para aquellos que la persiguen, la desmitificación de la realidad y la muerte. Dos textos discursivos, preparados por Bolaño para sendas conferencias, completan este volumen. En «Literatura + enfermedad = enfermedad» una anécdota sin importancia da pie a la reflexión sobre la enfermedad y la muerte. «Los mitos de Cthulhu», por su parte, ofrece una interesante visión personal y crítica del panorama literario contemporáneo.

The five short stories that start this collecting were excellent. The two essays that follow were somewhat inaccessible to me. Overall, I liked it and will have to find more Bolaño to read. ( )

I was worried when I ordered this book that I was making the mistake of many completists - would this be a good Bolano, like Distant Star, or a barrel-scraping like Woes of the True Policeman?

Fortunately, this book offers some true, classic Bolano, and serves - in places - as an almost perfect introduction to his style. "The Insufferable Gaucho" is an excellent meditation on identity and madness; "Police Rat" is a police procedural set in the sewers; and "Alvaro Rousselot's Journey" is a Borgesian delight. There are missteps - subjectively speaking - such as "Jim" and "Two Catholic Tales", although the latter is worth rereading to figure out the overlap between the two pieces.

Bolano did not achieve acclaim for his essay writing, which besides does not always survive the translation away from Spanish. But "Literature + Illness = Illness" proved quite fascinating, especially with its focus on the interplay (and importance) of sex, books, and travel.

All in all, an excellent collection that deserves its place on the bookshelf next to 2666 and By Night in Chile. ( )

Cuentos cortos de Bolaño, muy buenos ( )