In a starred review,
Publishers Weekly's Gabe Habash referred to
A Little Lumpen Novelita as "a glittering gem, as maddening and haunting as you'd expect from Bolaño", noting that "even though [it] is not Bolaño's best book, it's still one of the best books of the year." Habash highlights how the book, which is "slightly longer than a chapbook [...,] feels as substantial as a book three times as long, because Bolaño keeps his scope small and frantically explores all the little crawl spaces of the story". Alongside a linear plot, the novel "bends and twists, refusing to be pinned down", which Habash describes as "the book's real draw".
Kirkus Reviews called
A Little Lumpen Novelita "a concise but welcome addition to a major writer's canon", highlighting how "its watertight prose (via Wimmer's translation) and themes of criminality and the treatment of women make it of a piece with the writer's grander works".
Booklist also reviewed the novel. == References ==