|
I've been reading through Gaddis this year and am enjoying him quite a bit. His are not the easiest of books to get into, no dialogue is attributed, time skips aren't advertised, telephone conversations are one-sided. Gaddis intended this to force a collaboration with the reader, so that the personality of the characters is drawn out and created through the reading and eventual greater understanding of them. It took a bit to get used to at first, but isn't really a problem for me now. The main challenge now is simply seeing and understanding the references and allusions crammed into the books, but I suppose that's what re-reads are for. Art and the corrupting influence of the various facets of society is the major theme running through all of the novels. In each book you'll find art or an artist devolving, distorted, corrupted within the swathe of characters and virtually non-stop dialogue. JR is my favorite, but Carpenters Gothic is probably the easiest to get into. It's the shortest and has a more limited cast of characters. And since we're talking about Delillo, Gaddis preferred Libra to White Noise... William Gaddis posted:Dear Don DeLillo.
|
#
¿
Jun 27, 2014 13:19
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:09 |
|
|
dogcrash truther posted:Gaddis is great. My preference is for funny books and his books are very, very funny. You didn't mention A Frolic of His Own, but that's my favorite one. I haven't read it yet. That one's up next!
|
|
#
¿
Jul 4, 2014 04:47
|
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:Possibly my fave too, though I've yet to reread JR. It's the one that Franzen picked on in that loving awful New Yorker article where he renounces all this, which just goes to show quite how bad he is. It's also one of the books that I want to recommend to the folks asking for unreliable narrators as what's actually going on in the story is concealed from you. My understanding of why his bogus law-suit is rewarded is copied from an essay in Hints and Guesses, a book of Gaddis criticism which also spoils such mysteries as why did she die at the end of Carpenter's Gothic. So you're reading background material by/about Gaddis, anything else you'd recommend? I've got to read Frolic and Agape first, but Hints and Guesses looks interesting.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 5, 2014 01:53
|
|
|
Reading Frolic of His Own and Oscar's play is just a trial for me. I'm sure there are allusions and junk that I need to pay attention to, but it's boring and I kind of just want to get to more judgments, because the lawyer/legalese stuff is amazing.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2014 04:36
|
|
|
I read it while watching football and such which I don't normally do, and Oscar mentioned coming up on Act 3, so hopefully it's over soon. It was just a jarring experience going from the brilliance of the statue opinion to blargh.
|
|
#
¿
Sep 12, 2014 12:31
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 05:09 |
|
|
Mr. Squishy posted:It's necessary to the book, and you need to have it there exactly for it to be legally deconstructed later on, but it's not that great. Gaddis was just too drat thrifty to throw anything out. I finished Frolic a bit ago. Ended really strong. I still think the play, necessary as it is, is the weak point of the book. Perfectly captured life and fantastic judgments otherwise. Really pissed me off that we never got the final decision on the sculpture fiasco.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 13, 2014 09:39
|
|