This book was extremely hard to jump into. The sentences are convoluted with all sorts of subordinate clauses and whackiness. For instance:

"Over and above the various prejudices I acknowledge, the affinities I feel, the attractions I succumb to, the events which occur to me and to me alone--over and above a sum of movements I am conscious of making, of emotions I alone experience--I strive, in relation to other men, to discover the nature, if not the necessity, of my difference from them." (12-13)

I felt like I was hacking through the lines with a machete, to no avail. Or like I was being given a grammar puzzle to diagram.

Luckily, around page 60, when Nadja is actually introduced as a character, the form became more straight-forwardly narrative and, thus, more enjoyable to my taxed mind. The descriptions of Nadja's mental deterioration were wonderful and creepy. Plus points for the word "chimera". And the weird little photo/visual artifacts are little inspirations all by themselves.