The recognitions

The chapters with wyatts family could have been a stand alone book. They were great. Some of the most bizarre stuff I've ever read. When wyatt came home was the most perfect section of the book. Also how did he make esme so loveable even though she's completely fucked. the ending with Stanley lmao holy shit. this book was something else. what were your favorite parts and characters?

>that part when wyatt asks "am i the one for whom christ died"

;_;7

what page is that on?

wyatt coming home was a climax the likes of which i have never seen in a novel. a thunderbolt literally and figuratively. My favorite part of the book is the build up to that moment, and how Aunt May's reaction to his artwork and religious zealotry really defined him psychologically and philosophically throughout the rest of the book. It's not often that those interactions built up in what seemed to be subtleties into a giant flood of emotion and passion and, well. Really was a damn fine novel. I look forward to reading it again. I admit that the second half was muddled for me, mostly because of my numbness after the climax, and exhaustion from the act of reading the book itself.

yeah, that's the climax i meant, incredible shit.

yeah I felt the same way around the end. it lost a bit of steam. wyatt going bonkers always seemed like a drag to read.. but then it gave some amazing moments like eating the bread around the end. that was fucking hilarious. the bread. I will never forget the bread.

440 in the dalkey. Book 2, chapter 3

>But Gwyon had hardly got the words out of his mouth before his upraised arm was grasped in the dark so heavily that it almost pulled him over; and the lightning followed so fast on the words that followed, that both were gone, and the transformation was complete, when Gwyon heard
>-Father... AM I THE MAN FOR WHOM CHRIST DIED?
>Louder than laughter, the crash raised and sundered them in a blinding agony of light in which nothing existed until it was done, and the tablet of darkness betrayed the vivid, motionless, extinct and enduring image of the bull in his stall and Janet bent open beneath him.

lmao oh fuck I forgot what janet was doing during that part haha. I like when she's cooking the potato.

(it's italics not caps in the actual book, which is of course more elegant, but >doing italics on Veeky Forums)

ye lel

oh god, the bread.

i'm here to cast a ward spell that will protect the sacred discussion being held by these noble scholars

My gf is giving me the book for Xmas

actually i take that back. the cheapest available is 29 dollars from abebooks. does anyone know a cheaper option

find a used one at a store? just download it.

unless you live near a local bookstore that might carry it/a used copy, you're out of luck. the dalkey printing recently became unavailable for some reason, hopefully temporarily.

Is this book good? Is JR good?

yes. both of them are. Gaddis is considered by many to be the best 20th century author

yeah J R is amazing. really funny. so many memes in that dumpster apartment.

they're both masterpieces

Almost done this book now. There's a lot of subtleties that I would of missed without the gaddis website annotations and summaries. Even still I was caught off guard by just how readable this is, engaging plot right off the bat and some of the most beautiful prose I've ever read without obfuscating the whole thing through symbolism and vagueness. It's seriously amazing to me how Gaddis can be so dramatic in his prose about the simplest thing and have it not be purple.

Got JR coming in the mail and I'm so psyched considering a lot of people consider it to be the better work.

If anyone is putting this book off because they're intimidated by the length (as I was) just start it now, it's so great.

I dunno if it's my favourite part, but I'll forever have the image stuck in my head of Anselm speed-crawling down the (subway?) steps on all fours.
Like, holy (h-holy...) this book is just pure goofy genius fun all the way through, but that bit put tears in my eyes.

it's not fucking pynchon.

>Smuggling the grave-robbed corpse on a train to counterfeit a mummy (mommy?)
>Rev sacrificing the pet monkey
>Recktall Brown and the suit of armour

bump for gaddis posting

>And you? what happens to you? he went on hurriedly.—I suppose you...well, let's say you eat your father, canonize your mother, and...what happens to people in novels?

I cant find a store to purchase this in Australia

Trusty bookdepository doesnt even have it atm

Any ausbros can help me out?

Where should one start with William Gaddis?
Thanks in advance lads

>Smuggling the grave-robbed corpse on a train to counterfeit a mummy (mommy?)
I like how Wyatt's journey through Spain is a mirror/distortion of Gwyonn's own, spiritually and quite literally
>also, "tainted meat"

I get the feeling there's a deeper connection with Heracles and the sleigh bells

Say what you will about Brown and Basil's almost beckettian repartee, Valentine's line about Brown's other self breaking his neck one day is truly chilling.

Just finished it. Holy smokes. That ending with Stanley...