Big hard ones
Part 5

James Joyce- Ulysses
Forced myself to read this when I was a pretentious 15 year old. Much of it sailed right over my head. The beauty is that once you have done that you can dip in and out a section at a time. Each re-reading opens new meaning without the stress of plot and the writing is genuinely breathtaking.

William Faulkner- The Sound and the Fury
The same events recounted by three different characters. The first section is the hardest but persevere. The transformation which comes as the third recounting unfolds is like nothing else I have ever encountered

Lawrence Sterne Tristram Shandy.
This one can drive people nuts. It's rambling, dilatory, often amusing, occasionally dull and very few ever finish it. Give it a go anyway and even if you don't finish it's worth dipping a toe into. You will discover how soon after it's birth the novel became self-reflexive. Many devices which one would expect to be modern have their origin here.

Salman Rushdie- Midnight's Children
A case in point, Rushdie freely admits a debt to Sterne. Genuinely believe this one will have the longevity to make it read by generations to come. Just marvelous. (Oh and to all you book burners out there the Satanic Verses is excellent. It's primarily a satire on England, as you would find had you actually read it rather than taken received opinion as a bounden duty to murder someone. It's called free speech you God-bothering shits, grow up and get used to it.)

Fyodor Dostoyevsky- Crime and Punishment
In translation I'm afraid. Could have picked almost any of his but this was the one that got me started with him. Picked it up with little idea what to expect and expecting the worst imagined a slow grind. Surprised to find that I could only put it down when I reached the end 13 hours later.

I could add more but let's change tack a bit
Big hard ones I read but having read recall almost nothing about

Rabelais-Gargantua and Pantagruel
Wondered what Rabelaisian meant. I now know and it wasn't all bad but I should have just used the dictionary definition.

Thomas Mann- Joseph and His Brothers
Having got something from The Magic Mountain I gave this a go. I can't imagine how I got to the end. It's bloody enormous and almost nothing from it has been retained. If anyone read this and enjoyed it do tell me why.

Again there's a long list of books almost entirely deleted from my cortex. These two can represent them all as a list of near amnesiac recollection would be tiresome.

There's a third category, stuff I never got round to but let it lie for now.
(unclestinky, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 12:46, 5 replies)

Are you Mark Corrigan?

( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 14:09, closed)

No
I'm much more socially awkward than that
(unclestinky, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 14:35, closed)

Never read Tristram Shandy,
but, whenever it gets mentioned, I can't help but assume it's a euphemism for self abuse.

Read Rushdie's Fury (picked up in a 3 for 2) and it was mind-blowingly terrible, and easily the most pretentious thing I'd ever read, so I've not gone near anything of his since, and assume that those who do are pseuds of the highest order. I suppose it's possible that he's actually a brilliant writer, but I'll never know.

Tried reading Dostoyevsky's Brothers K, but gave up half way through, as it was essentially a massive wall of text. Was probably quite young at the time, but it's put me off Russian literature (probably a bit unfair, but life's too short really). Picking up Ulysses gave me the same feeling (but with less punctuation/structure), so I ditched it pretty quick.

Still, you've filed these under Big and Hard (fnarr), so I guess that's fair!
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Sun 8 Jan 2012, 20:10, closed)

I am now rereading Tristram Shandy,
it deals with a lot of things but self abuse doesn't seem to crop up. Thos Mann's the Holy Sinners was good but Magic Mountain was a short story crying out for a massive edit.
The most pretentious book so far; Martin Amis' Times Arrow.
(the other guy not the one that gave you coochie warts, Mon 9 Jan 2012, 2:40, closed)

I have Ulysses on 22 CDs. Used to listen to it when commuting.
Made for interesting journeys. Sounds great read aloud, with all the accents and jokes.
(Juan Quar is clinging to her front teeth on, Tue 10 Jan 2012, 15:28, closed)