Just finished this, please tell me other people here have actually read it. I need to discuss what is definitely the most difficult book I've ever encountered. It's confusing and at many times as excellent as it is confusing but it is also not without its flaws.
>>7312916
I don't think most of us have read it. Isn't it out of print at the moment? You'll probably have better luck if/when that reprint I heard rumors about actually happens.
>>7312916
Share your thoughts. I'd like to hear what the book is about.
>>7312938
I got it from my girlfriends university library and I was the first person ever to take it out since they got it in 1987 it was weird
>>7312954
It was probably too complicated for the time and flew under the radar to a large extent. People are constantly getting dumber and less willing to deal with complex things.
>>7312961
Its also literally titan size and a massive undertaking.
No way in hell anyone smart enough in uni would also have the time.
if you catch my meaning.
>>7312943
It's an intense read, it takes a lot of commitment because it's really erudite but also like the third longest single volume book ever written. It focuses mainly on Jim Mayn a middle aged man who has never had a dream. The book jumps between stages of his life and the stories of his grandmothers youth. These stories are intimately linked to almost everything in the book, particularly Grace Kimball who lives in Mayn's building yet never actually meets.
Mayn also seemingly knows about the distant future and something known as simultaneous reincarnation.
There are also sections known as Breathers that are very complex when first encountered that are narrated by a group of "angels" who face an unknown interrogater. They tell the story in a spiral manner revealing more and then a little more each time if you get the idea. These parts can be nauseating as they change focus numerous times during long run on sentences.
I don't think anyone could understand the book entirely on first reading anyway but it is worthwhile I feel because when it's good it's unbelievably good. Highlights include Mayns relationship with his mother and later his father, the chapter on his failed marriage and Grace's masturbation classes and the end. If you're willing to take the time then it's definitely worth it. A very hard book to summarise for a pleb like me but hope it helps
>>7312984
If you read it over a month of course you do
>>7313019
>masturbation classes
I-is it like penis inspection day?
>>7313096
She's a new age feminist or something and holds groups where everyone masterbates together in this big mirror room she's all into empowerment of self sex or some shit, there's a genuinely hilarious bit when carpet fitters visits the apartment
>>7313019
you literally just paraphrased the Wikipedia page
so basically you got very little out of a 1200 page meme book. sorry you wasted so much of your time, friend.
>>7313108
Well do you want me to tell you what actually happens or do you want to read the book for yourself ?
>>7313112
We want to hear thoughts about the book. Not a summary.
I enjoyed the summary.
>>7313117
I like to think of the interrogator(s) as the reader trying parse the dense double talk of the Angels so called breathers. Particularly when the Angels are forced to give only one answer to a question and everything becomes clearer as a whole.
The fact Mayn's present is also his past is difficult to initially get your head around and even though for large sections his name is only mentioned fleetingly to show how it all comes back to him, he still feels like one of the most fleshed out characters I've encountered. I love the way his memories of past, present and future slide back and forth. His relationship with his father though barely touched upon in comparison to the size of the novel (a sentence about Mel hitting Jim and not knowing how to say sorry and then nothing for hundreds of pages till Jims visit where through very little actually being said in the text you can feel and see their entire relationship. McElroys subtly is superb at times.
The dialogue is also some the best I've seen since Gaddis; Gordon's story to Mayn of the year he missed, Barbara (Jean!) telling Mayn he couldn't have known a torus was the best shape for a space station years before even Sci fi comics as a child or even Grace and the carpet fitters for comic value.
The book does slip with regards to trying to contain too much with some short stories or side plots complicating or distracting for the sake of it, others are sensational: Ship Rock being a favourite of mine.
This is a hard book to put across to someone else it's as I said the hardest book I've come across but like the final line of the book tells you , just take some time to sit and appreciate it. Don't rush it it's not a competition it's an experience.
>>7313126
Thank you anon
ugghh reprint when, I want dis book
>>7313204
Awesome. Thanks.
>>7313251
Where do you live there's a website you can check which libraries near you stock it
>>7313258
What website is that?
More people will have read it if they were actually printing copies of the fucking thing.
I remember when /lit/ petitioned NYRB to reprint this and they put the quash on that because McElroy himself doesn't want it reprinted.
>>7313445
Fucking writers
>>7313445
What his reasoning? I know he's allowed reprints of Smuggler's Bible and Lookout Cartridge.
http://www.josephmcelroy.com
It's being reprinted you fucking nonces
>>7313258
I have checked all my local libraries
>>7313478
"Spring 2015"
>>7313481
Dzanc said on their twitter 2017
>>7312916
There was a goodreads group that emailed Dalkney and Gdanzk asking for a reprint. GDZNK responded and it sounded promising.
>>7312916
>tfw not poorfag and paid 120 quid for it on amazon
>tfw a year later its still sitting on my shelf unread
>>7313497
2017? Jesus fuck are they waiting for him to die?
>>7313478
Such a horrible cover for it.
Shame.
It's sad that I can't find a single person who has read it. It's a shame such a great book has basically been lost
meme book
>>7314222
All of his covers are shitty, for whatever reason. Cannonball is his only decent one
>>7314519what happened with Umo at the end of Cannonball? Was he really dead?
Anyone read any other McElroy?
>>7314885
I've read the collection of short stories Night Soul, it was the only book of McElroy's I could find at my public library, but even that was a victory. But yeah those stories fucking baffled me, some of them I had no idea what was going on.
>>7314885
Lookout Cartridge
It was like being given individual pixels from a movie still and told to sort them out. Kind of engrossing in a purely intellectual way, plus it actually works as a thriller.
>>7312916
I decided to go through McElroy chronologically after reading Night Soul and have not gotten to it yet. Plus is up next.
>>7313066
In my experience reading 40 pages of McElroy a day would be counterproductive if you want to get out of it. After skimming through my copy trying to keep that pace up in Women and Men would be a slog.
>>7313445
I think he's changed his tune since then. This is secondhand but apparently he was mad about the errors in the Knopf and Dalkey printings, which while I understand His style in a book that long is prone to errors. He's now working with Dzanc to reissue ebooks of most of his unavailable stuff with a print run of Ancient History and potentially Women and Men.
>>7314204
The holdup is his proofreading. He's anal about it and with proofing the ebooks of his other books and working on the nonfiction book he's been writing for over a decade that he wants to finish before he dies lol proofing W&M is taking a back seat.
>>7314885
His novels through Lookout Cartridge and Night Soul. I think if you're interested in him Night Soul is a great intro. Contains some of his best tendencies and some of his worst. You will likely love some of the stories and hate some.
the safe bomb is one of my favourite passages in all literature
>>7313117
read it
It's shit
This is really long lol I thought it was like 1200 War and Peace pages but when I got it from the library it is huge
![JM1[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hlWFrqm.jpg "JM1[1].jpg")
why this nigga turning into getrude stein
>>7320119
haha
>>7320119
crying
>>7320119
damn
>>7319995
Yeah I shit myself , what's your opinion on it?
>>7312916
Any new memes you can derive from this book to shame plebs like me into reading it and making it required /lit/ core?
>>7320575
>2nd person narrative
>masturbation seminars
> memes about chile
> hermit inventors, Indians , Angels
>people merging on the moon
>javelina
>>7320615
Not memes
>>7320615
prette good t b h
