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So this is clearly a tapestry of lives and voices. I can’t figure out if it’s interconnected except by weirdness. Some laugh out loud moments

What the hell is going on in this book

How does cousin Helen get 300 pages and Mr bonebreaker only gets a lousy 15 pages? What kind of artistic choice …how did that happen?

Finally done with the Mr Spitzer part

Currently blown away and speechless by how good this is

This book should be called Mr Spitzer, My Darling. It’s been about him for the past 500 pages, and it was probably 1/4 about him during the first 250. This is a book about Mr. Spitzer.

I don’t know if I’m gonna make it

This is an insane and exhausting journey. There must be 10,000 metaphors and similes in this book.

Incredible so far…what more can I say? Not exactly a page turner but worth the effort without a doubt

Incredible so far

Fascinating and gorgeous book

I just finished Dog Years and anticipated this one to be easier and while it is easier, it is still a very dense and challenging book that requires full focus. First 100 pages were confusing but I think it’s picked up and the story is flowing. It’s quite an interesting little story, this boy with his drum and his screeching that breaks glass.

I’m at the start of part 3, and it’s been a slog. Deep concentration is required I. Wish I started with the Tin Drum to prepare me for this. This is not the type of book you can put down for an extended period and pick back up. I took a few weeks off to read other books and I may need to restart part 3. I wish I liked this book more.

I think Steve Katz must have done a lot of psychedelics. Not in a bad way, I don’t mean he’s burnt out or cognitively impaired, in fact the opposite. They’ve made him more fun and interesting. His creativity is running wild, and most of the time it’s pretty hilarious. Unfortunately there’s stories that just don’t make any sense to me and it’s challenging.

This can be very frustrating and disorienting even with the chronology and genealogy to reference. Faulkner’s sentences are so long (very very long), and my vocabulary isn’t great which means I’ve had to re-read a lot of passages, but patience is paying off. Once I understood the broad outlines of the story, around the page 100 mark or so, it is really paying off. I’m really loving it now.

I thought the gory parts of American Psycho, the absurd weird sex from Naked Lunch and the Nova Trilogy, and the horrors from 2666, (as well as reading Dhalgren) would have sufficiently prepared me for this.

Not even a little.

There’s a lot going on in this book (and in my life) and while mostly enjoyable it often feels like a slog. It’s definitely a fascinating tapestry of economics, business, culture, and history of Indian and Pakistan, but to an outsider with limited knowledge of Indian history I am not able to have a full comprehension of what may be a brilliant book. If I don’t read it every day I’m lost when I pick back up.