Status Updates From Novel Explosives

Holy shit just end the story already please I’m begging you

Home stretch on this one. I change my mind on this book every day (mostly depending on which narrator I get stuck with for the day’s 80 pages), but today was a good stretch and I’m excited to see how things wrap up, or if they even do. Wish it wasn’t so long though, it feels like a lot of these sections could have been cut down without impacting the experience at all

Halfway through and I’ve been enjoying this quite a bit, but also I’m not sure if it’s going to justify its length. I can see myself getting sick of Gauer’s refusal to get to the point after another 350 pages, but hopefully I’ll be proven wrong

Every time I think I’m not enjoying this, I hit a chapter that really grips me. I don’t care much about what’s happening plotwise, but I’m loving all of the tangents and digressions full of righteous political anger. Chaotic book so far.

Things are getting much better now that all 3 storylines have been introduced. I’m still not in love with Gauer as a writer, but I’m beginning to find the rhythm in his long, clunky sentences. Most importantly, I find myself genuinely wanting to keep reading, so I’m sure I’ll blow through this one in no time

Initial impressions: I’m not crazy about Gauer’s prose so far but I’m interested to see where this story is heading. The first few pages gave me Solenoid flashbacks, which is something I do not ever want to repeat, but by the end of chapter 2 I can tell that this will most likely be better than that one was

I picked this one up for several reasons, Michael Silverblatt adores it, Steven Moore blurbed it, Chris Via has an afterword, George hates it, &c. I am having a *BLAST* 70 pages in. It really nails Guanajuato, Guanajuato like Peter Greenaway's Eisenstein in Guanajuato.