I recently read a funny forum post about large book stockholm syndrome. That is, when reading a large book, you love that book because it is large and that you stuck through and finished the book. You are more likely to rate the book higher because of your sense of accomplishment and not on the merits of the book itself. So take what I say with a grain of salt I guess.
The Recognitions was first published in 1955 and comes in just under 1000 pages. It was also Gaddis’ first novel which is a gutsy move for a first time novelist. Although maybe it wasn’t as gutsy in 55 as it would be today. I first encountered Gaddis with one of his later books, “A Frolic of His Own”. He has definitely created his own style. He doesn’t tell you who’s speaking most of the time and you have to figure it out for yourself by the order of the conversation or the style of the speaker. Frolic is near 100 percent dialog so I was pleased to see some great descriptive paragraphs.
Half way through reading this I found out about www.williamgaddis.org which made reading the book much easier. The Recognitions is encyclopedic in nature with many different characters. With these types of novels you aren’t expected to get everything the first time, unless you’re sharp as a tack. Just read and enjoy and maybe come back to it in a decade if you feel like reading it again.
Would I recommend this novel to others? Yes, but I’d hesitate to make the recommendation as most people I know are my age and busy, and recommending a 1K pager might be take the wrong way. No everyone loves large book stockholm syndome.
I like big books and I cannot lie,
You other brothers can’t deny …