technical tour-de-force, written entirely in dialog ( )

I didn't read this book i experienced it. It got into my dreams. It is the funniest classic book i have ever read, laugh out loud funny. The settings were indelible. At times it annoyed the hell out of me. There are pages and pages of people talking on and on while someone tries but can't get a word in edgewise. In some ways it is a 700+ page Bob Newhart on the telephone skit.
I don't think it was as hard to read as i have heard. It's like a lot of more modern books if it was a film no one would complain about it being difficult. The difficulty of most modern fiction would even be commented on if it were in a film. People are a lot more sophisticated when it comes to decoding film.
It shines out in the wasteland that is american fiction. One has many more fingers than necessary to count the number of books written in america since this was published that deserve to be read more. ( )

- Review: https://www.thisissplice.co.uk/2020/10/19/hey-you-listening/
- Video ramble: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuwiFeIbPKs

- Group reading on Instagram with @therecognitionsbookclub this October-November.
- Group reading on #BookTwitter with #Gaddis2020 this October-November (thanks, @ReemK10). ( )

One of my all-time favorites. You have to learn how to read it as you go along. The first half of it I spent wondering why I was putting myself through the torture of it, and the second half I spent belly-laughing. An amazing accomplishment to have written, and a pretty significant one to have read and enjoyed (if I do say so myself).

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I wrote the above blurb when first adding the book a few years ago. I just reread it for what I believe was my fourth full reading of the book. It's still a marvel, but I found it less thrilling this time through, perhaps because I knew most of the gags already and had less of the "I'm solving a puzzle as I read" feeling that makes the book so fun the first few times through. I found a lot of the repetitiveness tedious this time. It's still among my top favorite books because of the achievement it represents, but I think I'll wait a good long time before reading it again. ( )

Gaddis is a challenge. Phenomenal, too. ( )