Woes of the True Policeman - Roberto Bolaño - TRUE ENDING

I finished the last few chapters of Woes of the True Policeman on the ride home. Much of my predictions are...wrong.

I know I ramble but don't think this one will be that. I found the last back and forth stories of Padilla to Amalfitano extremely heartbreaking. In spoiler reveal, Padilla's health debilitates because he is losing his immune system. He meets a random girl and creates a codependency based off sexless sex. Amalfitano continues writing him as if it will change things, but it doesn't. It never does and the novel puts Amalfitano in the total wrong.

I think the interesting is that most everything before is left to die on the page from the moment Padilla's last letters start onward. It becomes a game of desperation of Amalfitano to find something loving across the sea in the once young squeeze he had that he cannot even share the experience of dying with (he gets tested and comes out negative and it feels like a loss to him that he can't share the death of his once-partner as he sees him almost replace him in a way with Elisa, one that debilitates his sense of self further mostly because of how Padilla sees it as brother and sister but is more the intimacy that Amalfitano is incapable to have last or given him).

Details of the letters being writ on postcards of varying subjects is also very good. It's also kind of silly and vulgar at a lot of those moments at the same time. I need to read the last chapter before the letters, because it talks about police bringing a suspect across the American border aiming to torture him for his actions. There's some reason it's in the book, and border talk doesn't happen in Woes too often - unlike 2666 - and yeah. There just has to be a reason it pops up right before the end.

In any case, I think this book would be best enjoyed as a non-Bolaño fan to be read as if they are a small chunk of related short stories. Certain sections are super short and just interesting tidbits more than they are useful to know in the context of the story. Frankly the single book he could have writ would just be about Amalfitano and Padilla's letters written as letters even. But he doesn't like to do that and I respect it. I still stand by the fact that this was never meant to be released even if it has some really good parts that I'm glad I found out.