I've noticed there are a lot of things that are supposed to be really good that didn't do all that much for me. Even when I think the book is great on some technical level, or enjoyable at parts, I think it's been oversold.
Now I read Joyce's Ulysses a few months back. There were some pretty funny parts, but on the whole I've spent more comforting hours in my dentist's chair. Probably more than half of the book I spent wondering what in the hell he was talking about.
I've heard people talk about it and few lit majors seemed pretty impressed, but I read it because Robert Anton Wilson said no one had entered the twentieth century until he'd digested that great lump of tree flesh. I'd never read anything of RAW's, but a guy I respect has a high opinion of him. So I thought, what the heck. This must be 'a great book.' And maybe it is. But if I had to describe my experience with it in one word, it would have to be "agonizing."
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