2666

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to sexual assault, rape, murder, child abuse, death by suicide, and mental health conditions.

Part 1 centers on a group of four literary academics from Europe: French Jean-Claude Pelletier, Italian Piero Morini, Spanish Manuel Espinoza, and British Liz Norton. They share an obsession with the mysterious, reclusive German author Benno von Archimboldi.

Pelletier discovered a love for Archimboldi in the early 1980s. After reading D’Arsonval, he set out to find Archimboldi’s works but struggled to find other novels. Eventually, he began translating his work, becoming one of the foremost French scholars on Archimboldi. He is a professor of German in Paris. Through this position, he meets the Italian Piero Morini. Archimboldi was more widely read in Italy, so Morini did not struggle to find his other novels. As a person with multiple sclerosis, Morini uses a wheelchair. He teaches German literature at the University of Turin and, like his fellow critics, is recognized for his translations of Archimboldi’s works.

Manuel Espinoza dreamed of becoming a writer. After negative experiences with other writers, however, he accepted that he would never succeed as a writer. Amid this bitterness and resentment, he forged a career as an academic of German literature. Unlike the other academics, he has never translated Archimboldi’s novels. British Liz Norton is younger than the other academics. Compared to them, “her discovery of Archimboldi was the least traumatic of all, and the least poetic” (9). She read one of his novels and was intrigued by the mystery around his identity.

The four critics first meet as a group at a conference on German literature in 1994, though they had met before individually. During this time, rumors that Archimboldi will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature circulate. This rumor reappears across the years of their friendships, though Archimboldi never wins, nor is his identity revealed. At the conference, united against the German-speaking professors of Archimboldi, the four critics form an alliance in which they speculate about “the secret of the great writer’s whereabouts and life like people endlessly analyzing a favorite movie” (13). All four critics are single and career-oriented. They talk regularly on the telephone, and they dine together at conferences. After returning from a conference, Pelletier realizes that he is in love with Liz. Espinoza simultaneously realizes that he is in love with her.

At the next conference, the four academics are intrigued by a hint from a secretive writer—known as the Swabian—regarding Archimboldi’s identity. The Swabian claims to have met and dined with Archimboldi in South America. The four critics cannot get any more information from him. They pursue the hints in the Swabian’s story, leading them to a German publisher named Schnell, and then to the owner of a publishing house named Mrs. Bubis. Mrs. Bubis met Archimboldi while publishing some of his novels, the critics learn, and she remembers him as tall. She shares little else, however, disappointing Pelletier and Espinoza. Mrs. Bubis cannot help them get in touch with Archimboldi. The faltering search for the author prompts Pelletier and Espinoza to pursue romantic relationships with Liz.

Pelletier and Espinoza each begin visiting Liz regularly. These visits are romantic and sexual. Meanwhile, Pelletier and Espinoza forget about Morini, who fades from their attention. Liz tells Espinoza that she was married once but is now divorced from her cruel ex-husband. Pelletier and Espinoza discover their competing romances and decide to “leave it all in the hands of fate” (35). The four friends meet again at a conference in Salzburg, Austria, where a renewed rumor about Archimboldi’s candidacy for the Nobel Prize prompts interest in the author. Morini also encounters a news story about hundreds of women who have been murdered in Sonora, Mexico.

Liz reflects on her relationships with her two friends. She does not know who she loves more, Espinoza or Pelletier. Morini has a strange dream, which prompts him to visit Liz in London. He has a strange encounter with a threatening man in a park and visits a recently gentrified neighborhood with Liz. She tells him about the history of the area, which was previously rundown. A painter named Edwin Johns, who famously severed his right hand as part of a self-portrait series, moved into the area. The act propelled him to fame, increased prices in the neighborhood, and resulted in Johns being sent to a mental healthcare facility in Switzerland.

A Serbian critic publishes new information—much of it unconfirmed or vague— about Archimboldi. Liz, feeling the need for a change, abruptly ends her affairs with Espinoza and Pelletier. She gathers them for a meeting and jokes about all three of them having sex together. Pelletier returns to France, reflecting on “the real possibility of a menage a trois” (61). During this period, the four critics spend less time with each other.

Liz, Pelletier, and Espinoza meet in London. The two men are perturbed when they meet a young man named Alex Pritchard in Liz’s apartment, who vaguely warns them to be careful. During another visit, the three take a taxi driven by a Pakistani man. As they talk frankly about sex in the backseat, the driver seems irritated. He accuses Liz of being a “bitch or slut or pig” (73). Espinoza attacks the man, beating him to a pulp. They take his taxi and drive away. Over the next few days, they scour the media for any news of the attack, but nothing results from it. The violent incident plagues Espinoza and Pelletier. They begin visiting sex workers frequently, both together and independently.

After some time, the academics resume their conferences and their contact with Morini. When they meet up, Espinoza, Pelletier, and Morini share a story about a visit to “a civilized and discreet lunatic asylum” in Switzerland (87), where the one-handed artist Edwin Johns was residing. Liz understands Morini’s fascination with Johns, while the other two men relate the story as an anecdote. During their cordial visit, Morini asked Johns directly, “Why did you mutilate yourself?” (91). Johns whispered the answer in Morini’s ear. Then, they left. For several days, Morini could not be contacted. While Espinoza and Pelletier worried, Morini visited Liz in London. He told her that Johns claimed to have cut off his hand for money and asked her to keep his visit a secret from their two friends.

A young Mexican writer named Rodolfo Alatorre claims that one of his friends in Mexico City met Archimboldi recently. The critics travel to Mexico and meet a man known as El Credo, who tells a story about how he spent several hours driving around the city with a man who may be Archimboldi. He was traveling to the town of Santa Teresa in Sonora. Pelletier, Espinoza, and Liz search for Archimboldi. Morini opts to stay in Italy due to his health. In Mexico, they learn about “a kind of war between taxi drivers and doormen” (109). They search the hotels and universities for any hint of Archimboldi but find nothing. They meet Amalfitano, a professor and supposed expert on Archimboldi, whom the European academics regard as a failure. In the neglected hotel, they have strange dreams. Amalfitano helps the three friends in their fruitless search. At the hotel, Liz invites Pelletier and Espinoza to her room, “where she made love to both of them” (124). She cannot sleep after, and she thinks of Morini. With the search bearing no results, local universities offer the critics lecturing positions and guest appearances. Pelletier and Espinoza go with Amalfitano to see a German magician named Doktor Koenig, a circus worker who is actually an American.

Liz tells Pelletier and Espinoza that she is returning to Europe. That night, she sleeps alone. Pelletier and Espinoza linger in Mexico. They spend their days drinking and reading Archimboldi novels. Espinoza befriends a young girl in a local craft market. He purchases rugs from her and seduces her. During this time, Amalfitano seems increasingly exhausted. Liz emails Espinoza and Pelletier, ending their romantic relationships. Pelletier rescues Amalfitano, who collapses in the pool. Espinoza sees Rebecca, the girl from the market, many times. He promises that he will return from Spain in the future to marry her. Liz’s email to the two men reveals the truth: She does not love them, as she is in love with Morini. She visited Morini after returning from Mexico. Though Pelletier and Espinoza are certain that Arcimboldi is in Mexico, they accept that this is “the closest [they will] ever be to him” (159). They leave the city.