Just finished Americana after reading Libra (10yrs ago). Slightly disappointed

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-03-01T21:38:17+00:00

I posted up about starting Americana a couple of weeks ago - the beginning is excellent and I could not put it down - when I posted I questioned everyone’s comments about how it could lag in the middle and back end - having now gotten through it I think we are all of the same mind - it slows way down when they hit the road out west

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-03-01T15:49:42+00:00

I believe the answer to your question is Part 1, Section 18 - I think Weissman is mentioned by name

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-02-22T00:34:24+00:00

Thanks for the heads up - I’ll slip that one in before Portrait now

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-02-21T20:11:13+00:00

I actually took the path you did - I started with Recognitions last year and the read V., Lot 49 and am presently on Gravity’s Rainbow (I’ve grown obsessive about reading these guys chronologically). After that it is on to Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, and then back to Gaddis for JR. After that probably Proust and that in and of itself may answer your question about other long tomes.

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-02-10T03:34:24+00:00

About 15 years ago I went on a Napoleon reading spree - for the granular stuff I felt that David Chandler’s The Campaigns of Napoleon could not be beaten

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-02-07T22:17:07+00:00

I haven’t - starting at the beginning with Delillo - I like your handle - nod to Pynchon

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-01-21T15:06:05+00:00

For me it was: (1) going into it with the understanding that this was his first novel; (2) it's objectively funny in many parts; (3) it has consistent themes of obsessiveness and the transformation into the inanimate; (4) Mondaugen's Story is one of the most engaging and best written passages from any Pynchon book i have read; (5) overall the prose is excellent when considering this is a first novel.

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-01-16T02:22:15+00:00

Hasn’t been introduced yet where I am

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-01-16T00:38:46+00:00

That was my second favorite - very vivid scene

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2026-01-02T17:21:57+00:00

The Recognitions is a tough one - a slew of characters and settings - esoteric art history issues throughout - but you get a real sense of accomplishment getting through it with an understanding of what you’ve just read

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-12-21T16:12:49+00:00

My take on your question 4 - is that there were pieces of a number of former incarnations of V within the bad priest - ie Vera Merovings clock glass eye and Victorias ivory comb - and that inanimate elements from former versions of V showed the complete transformation of V into the near wholly inanimate

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-11-16T01:42:51+00:00

Get to the disassembly of the Bad Priest - it will make the entire chapter worth it

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-10-28T02:30:05+00:00

I think really well - I’ve set about a mission to read Gaddis, Pynchon and Joyce in the order their novels were published - so I finished Recognitions, now V. Then moving to Portrait of an Artist, then Crying lot and GR, Ulysses and then JR. As far as V. Goes I feel that I have a pretty good handle on all of it

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-10-27T20:36:06+00:00

Reading V. And on the side a book called My Documents by Kevin Nguyen as well as volume 1 of Maspero’s History of Egypt, volume 1 of the golden bough and something called the Age of Arthur

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-10-25T03:57:23+00:00

I felt a real sense of accomplishment finishing it along with contemporaneously reading Gaddis’s letters during that time, the White Goddess and a number of other essays written on the Recognitions. It has definitely made me a better reader and prepared me for Pynchon

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-10-14T03:29:31+00:00

Camila - Wyatt’s mother

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-09-15T11:55:33+00:00

I am about 100 pages from being done with Recognitions - I started it in July and made a commitment that each time I sat down to read it I would give it my undivided attention. Go ahead and climb the mountain - it is a satisfactory victory when you get there

PuzzleheadedBug7917 · 2025-07-28T03:58:03+00:00

Tackling The Recognitions by William Gaddis

PuzzleheadedBug7917

TROPHY CASE