Do I really want to read this?

[Nathan "N.R."]

That is a very good question. While in regard to Women & Men the question was "Trying to find a copy?" ;; here the question is, Do I really want to invest my time and mental energy into this novel? And a very fair question.

Discuss.

[Nathan "N.R."]

I continue to receive reports about this book. Most of them ho-hum. Anyone have any irresistible HYPE for it? According to reports, there is an irrationally high requirement for endurance required here, according to what I've heard.

Anyone got a word or two available by which you'd characterize what we might expect? I should swallow a chapter or two so that I myself know what's coming up before it becomes altogether too late.

[Richard]

Nathan "N.R." wrote: "I continue to receive reports about this book. Most of them ho-hum. Anyone have any irresistible HYPE for it? According to reports, there is an irrationally high requirement for endurance requir..."

I've read the first volume twice and the imagery and atmospherics are among the best I've ever read in fiction. It's one of my favorite books and one that I will often come back to. The downside is there are long stretches (30-50 pages) filled with long sentences and sparse paragraph breaks in which nothing happens. It's all just description. It's hard to read but so worth it.

[Nathan "N.R."]

Richard wrote: "long stretches (30-50 pages) filled with long sentences and sparse paragraph breaks in which nothing happens."

Thanks, Richard. Are you planning to rere-read the first half, or move along into the second?

At any rate, it seems like folks who dig the book and folks who don't, do seem to agree on how it works. When Young was teaching writing, one of the exercises she assigned was the writing of a sentence at least three pages long... I expect to encounter lots of those.

I'm only getting more eager to get started so that I'll have even more time in which to take my time reading Miss MacIntosh. I've read her Harp Song, which I hope will have tuned me into the novel a little bit.

[Jim]

The hype that I found most intriguing is this quote from the MMMD wikipedia page:


Novelist Anne Tyler cured her spells of writer's block when she was writing The Accidental Tourist by reading random pages from Miss MacIntosh, My Darling. "Whatever page I turned to, it seemed, a glorious wealth of words swooped out at me."

There is a wealth of words, indeed, in this novel and though at times its density threatens to melt the reader's neurons, it's worth dipping into for the experience. I wonder if I'll ever finish* all 1200 pages, but then, what if I don't? I still was exposed to Young's obsessions, and so, that's enough for me.



(*much like I wonder if I'll ever finish In Search of Lost Time)