Imagine a supermassive blackhole, surounded by superheat gas and dust, and a couple planets, capable perhaps of surporting life. This is "2666". A thousand ancedotes, creulties, off kilter characters, and pieces of poetry, swirling around, revealing, some deeper truth that cannot be put into prose.
"2666" as a title represents some far off date, when the children of our children will be long dead. Yet, where the horrors might collese into something that, by the wobble of it's rotation in relation to the truth, will elucidate further this truth.
An excellent read.
I’m partway through the part about Amalfitano (so not very far) and the black hole metaphor feels very apt! There’s so many small and great cruelties that human light and attention seem to slide off of. I initially read the title as both a year and the mark of the beast, that even in the far-flung 21st century, the wounds we inflict are against the same people they’ve always been, are as deep and bloody as they’ve always been. 2666 (so far) seems like it couldn’t have been written any other way.