Slight spoiler.... This is a marvelous, marvelous book -- throughout most it, I felt it was a book of genius. The final third was not quite as strong, though the most extraordinary passages of the entire volume are in this sectioin. I'm referring to the section on Belano in Africa, with its echoes of Céline's 'Voyage', and to the marvelous passage on Time and Criticism and Galaxies... on p. 513. The foundation for 2666 is also laid out here, in the final pages.
The title story in Last Evenings on Earth is pure Hemingway -- (Sun Also Rises); there are numerous allusions in this book to Catullus (delicias), and many references to archaic Greek poetry and arcane Greek meters -- how did a pot-head like Bolano learn so much Greek and Latin..?
And there is, hovering over all of it, the ever present intimations of death...
I am a big fan of Bolaño now...