http://therumpus.net/2009/10/michael-mclaughlin-the-last-book-i-loved-carpenters-gothic/ Books, Music, Movies, Art, Politics, Sex, Other Sun, 27 May 2012 13:48:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://therumpus.net/2009/10/michael-mclaughlin-the-last-book-i-loved-carpenters-gothic/comment-page-1/#comment-10035 Daryl Sat, 03 Oct 2009 10:57:05 +0000 http://therumpus.net/?p=34742#comment-10035 Gaddis's JR has that same style, but it's so much more sustained and includes a larger cast of characters, so it's maddening but utterly amazing. It's one of the hardest books I've ever read, but in ways also one of the funniest and most rewarding. The Recognitions is good, too, though I think I recall that its style is a little less manic, and I've always favored JR over it. Carpenter's Gothic is actually my least favorite of Gaddis's. Frolic is perhaps a good stepping stone from Gothic into JR because it gives you a bigger taste of some of the dialogue and absurdity without quite so much of the brain strain of learning to read JR. Gaddis’s JR has that same style, but it’s so much more sustained and includes a larger cast of characters, so it’s maddening but utterly amazing. It’s one of the hardest books I’ve ever read, but in ways also one of the funniest and most rewarding. The Recognitions is good, too, though I think I recall that its style is a little less manic, and I’ve always favored JR over it. Carpenter’s Gothic is actually my least favorite of Gaddis’s. Frolic is perhaps a good stepping stone from Gothic into JR because it gives you a bigger taste of some of the dialogue and absurdity without quite so much of the brain strain of learning to read JR.

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