I feel like I might’ve posted this 50 pages back when I first read it, but just reread Pale Fire by Navakov and was floored again. I love the extent to which he goes with the unreliable narrator premise and the footnotes, index, etc. are hilarious and I imagine influential upon DFW. I loved Lolita too but as far as I’m concerned Pale Fire is his best book.
Pale Fire is so good. There’s so much going on. I’ve read it three times now (twice for two different classes in college) and the interplay of layers is awe-inspiring. Every re-read really reveals more and more. Nabokov is just a madman in a fantastic way. I re-read
Glory on vacation, which I think is one of his underrated gems. They way he plays with time to do jumps back and forth in the main character’s life and to mask transitions is super fun. I remember having my mind blown when I pieced together what he was doing the first time I read it.
Can’t find the posts but there was a discussion between DFW and Pynchon and while I still have yet to read
IJ, I can endorse DFW’s non-fiction collections (maybe except his most recent posthumous one) as worth reading. Avoid
The Broom of the System, which is just trite and pretentious with little to enjoy in my opinion.
GR is much more enjoyable in my opinion but I definitely did not have the time in my schedule to devote to it so it took me forever to finish it. So I’d say just be aware that it is dense, hefty, and confusing. But man is it fun and the ending is intense. It also has my favorite opening lines in all of literature.
I tried to read Knausgaard’s monograph on Mvnch a little bit ago but could not absorb any of it. I think I’m still reeling from finishing Volume 6 earlier this year and the toll that took so I’m shelving that for a little bit.
Aside from
Glory, I’ve been in a reading rut lately. I tried getting into
The Mars Room but couldn’t, I haven’t been super pleased by the past few things I’ve picked up, etc. so I gave myself a break and binge read like 20 recent X-Men comics this week which has been a nice palate cleanser haha. I’m going to start reading this sociology book on MFA programs by this fantastic ethnographer. I’m hoping getting away from literary fiction might reinvigorate me.