Well, to start off this book did not impress me. The language was very dense and the plot line seemingly sporadic and random. It was difficult to get into at first. After the first few pages I wanted to cry thinking about trying to get to page 86 without having anyone to talk to about it yet. I NEED class discussion today! After about the first 25 or 30 pages I got more used to the language and the tone and started to make some connections between characters and it got more managable. However, I can’t help but feel like I missed a lot. I didn’t feel like sitting there with a dictionary to look up all the words I didn’t know in every other sentence–so I probably didn’t maximize my experience here. By the time I got to the end of the first section I literally flipped back and forth between the few pages that seperated sections looking to see if pages were ripped out or if I missed something. It stopped mid-sentence!!! It jumped from page 39 to page 43! What?! Then I took a deep breath and kept going, knowing that for Kim, this novel is most definitely some major evidence in our investigation of form, and there will no doubt be a reason for this sudden switch between time and narrators etc.
The second section, as Karen mentions in her blog, has a much easier narrative style and a much more interesting pretense. I mean, there’s nothing like a little hitch hiking and some adultery to spice up a story line right? Also, in contrast with the beginning of the first section that intimidated me and almost turned me off from the book, the beginning of the second section immediately drew me in. The language was so much different, and so poetic in its references to music. I don’t know the first thing about music, but the metaphors that the author/narrator drew upon created some beautiful imagery. The characters in this section are also much better developed than the first. I feel like I get a much better sense of Robert’s character as opposed to Adam, and we are also introduced to Arys, Mrs. C, and Eva, as well as Hendrick, and the numerous guests of Zedelghem. And that’s another thing. The first section used the ampersand to indicate “and” as an abbreviation, and alot of use of italics to deliniate emphasis and foreign words. In the second section, the narrator/author uses v. for very, and first letters of names to abbreviate different characters names in the letters he’s writing and so forth.
From diary to letter writing. Hmmm.. And in a small connection between the two sections, Robert discovers Adam’s unfinished journal in Arys’ library and wonders (like I do) why the last passage stopped mid-sentence. I’m guessing we may find out in subsequent sections, and those section will make connections to each other somehow as well. To what end…I don’t yet have any speculation.
I unfortunately, felt the same frustrations that you did. When i first started reading, and working my way through it , i thought i was never going to make it. Like you, i feel class discussions with this novel are essential. After reading all of those pages, i felt i should know more than i came away with. I understand that we are reading this novel because it is essential in understand the actual theory of the novel, i just hope it gets easier. I did read ahead a little bit (as much as my brain would allow), and the third reading is much easier!! i just do not see the connection between the other two, hopefully it will come sometime.
The language is frustrating, but I think it is essential to the novel as it throws you into different time periods, and it tries to immerse you in them, including the language used. I’ve read A Clockwork Orange and I think it helped me pick up on meanings of words quickly.
I am glad that i am not the only one who really did not find this book interesting at all in the begining! I felt the same way you did about the first section. I could not bring myself to look up everything I didn’t understand, therefore it probably makes sense why I had a hard time understanding this first chapter.