From: henry999@eircom.net   
      
    wrote:   
      
   > You might   
   > like this: "Here I have a confession to make. In the 15 years or so I   
   > have spent reviewing books, I have often been asked whether I always   
   > read the whole book I am writing about. The answer is *yes; always;   
   > every word*. But with 'Against the Day' I cried uncle, finally   
   > defeated by Pynchon's relentless assault..."   
      
   LOL   
      
   Reminds me of my days as an undergrad Lit major, when I had a wonderful   
   course devoted entirely to Joyce. Much of the semester, naturally, was   
   spent on _Ulysses_. One day I overheard a couple of the grad students   
   talking, laughing about how they skipped over vast sections. I was   
   shocked, shocked! I mean, there I was, valiantly facing up to every line   
   (and, of course, in the end I was glad that I did).   
      
   Another semester, in the 18th C. course, we read _Clarissa_ (but "only"   
   the 800-page abridged version, not the 2500-page original). Again I   
   responsibly worked through the whole thing, but by the end it was   
   impossible to tell whether it was responsibility that drove me to   
   complete the task, or masochism.   
      
   While Pynchon may think that he's the modern Joyce, I have to say that I   
   feel this reviewer's pain.   
      
   cheers,   
      
   Henry   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)