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dllh's reviews
679 reviews
Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
2.0
I thought this was soap operatic, terribly telling (vs. showing), over-historic (lots of "his uncle's grandmother's dog had done X, leading via some long-winded and mostly tangential set of circumstances to some outcome that caused Y"), very contrived, and not at all deft. I expected something heavy on style and got something heavy on cumbersome setup of plot connections that frankly weren't all that interesting. It read to me like a middle draft of something in need of much condensing and rewriting for style. There are literary gestures, but I've panned other books (e.g. Joe Meno's The Great Perhaps) that are rough but whose literary gestures are better). This is not what I expected from the guy being billed as the savior of American literature.
C by Tom McCarthy
3.0
This was sort of like Pynchon (and specifically Gravity's Rainbow, with hints of V) lite. For the small investment the book required, it was by and large pretty worth it, neither as difficult and ambitious nor as baffling and frustrating as Pynchon.
Ulysses by James Joyce
4.0
One of the hardest, most confounding books I've read. Brilliant in places, maddening and silly and boring in others. Like good medicine that tastes bad; I see why it's great literature, but there are very large chunks of it that I can't say I like very much at all. I can't really say I liked it, but I recognize its worth.
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
3.0
Formative when I was younger, embarrassing now to have liked so much.
Dracula by Bram Stoker
2.0
Kind of a snoozer. The parts that cross over with Irish history are fairly interesting, but it's really kind of haphazard and Keystone Coppish.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole
4.0
Haven't read this in ages but have found it amusing both times I've read it in the past. It's one I pass along to friends.