/lit/ - Literature

>>15175469
Don Quixote

>>15175469
Dude, that book was boring as shit.

I was really disappointed, because I had heard great things about it, and the first 10-20 pages are strong, but then it gets dreadfully boring. The main character had great promise but was not well developed at all.

>>15175504
It's a wonderful book, beautifully written. The prose is vivid and finely chiseled, without a single superfluous word. The imagery is unique and majestic, of a biblical flavor. The author shows off his wide lexicon and always uses precise terms instead of vague, generic ones. Sometimes he even invents his own. The vegetation is described with the precision of a botanist, and the desert and the mountains with that of a geologist. The descriptions of the landscape are evocative and suggestive without ever being purple. Sometimes they get very close to being poetry. The battles are told in a very crude, matter-of-fact way that fits very well with the atmosphere.

Now, this isn't an easy book to read. It doesn't have that je ne sais quoi that makes you forget you're reading a story. It doesn't flow effortlessly. In fact, in some passages you feel like you're mudding through a swamp. Crucial details are thrown into long sentences devoid of punctuation and full of metaphors and complex analogies. It takes legit effort to picture in your mind what the hell is going on, but it's effort that always pays.

The author also refuses to use internal dialogues and even dialogue tags. He purposefully restricts his own writing arsenal in order to hone to perfection the few tools he does choose to use. He only shows us his characters through their actions and bare words, without any sort of commentary. There's no filter, as if we're witnessing what happens through a camera instead of through a person. The result is a style occasionally difficult to absorb, but certainly a perfect fit for the story he was telling.

Finally, Judge Holden is one of the best characters I've ever come across. But did he really have to rape the Kid in that latrine? That felt so gratuitous.

>>15175504
Well, I believe the opposite actually. Reading the first pages, I was being sceptical, like "Where is this going to ?". But the more you learn about the main character, the more it hets hilarious.

Some chapters, like the ones with the policeman were a bit boring, but most of the novel is great I think. I

>>15175498
Thanks for recommending this, that's a classic one I should definitely check out.

>>15175537
Unfortunately I disagree. I had to force myself to push through. If it wasn't for the book's fame, I'd have discarded it 1/4 of the way through.

Notes from Underground

>>15175524
You unfunny motherfuckers run jokes into the dirt

>>15175650
Funny you recommend this, I actually read this one just after Conderacy of Dunces !

Auto-da-fe but the translation was kinda dry if it was supposed to be funny.

Imperium by Christian Kracht is one I think a lot of people don't know about.

>>15175650
Not similar have you read either?
>>15175469
Best bet is going to be The Sot-Weed Factor by John Barth. The Enderby novels by Anthony Burgess come close as well. Another good one is Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis.

I find a certain similarity between this and wilt series by tom sharpe.
Main character is not that much of a degenerate but they both struggle with society

>>15175469
Apathy and Other Small Victories