Hi gang. Wondering, now that I’m finally ready to dive in the unforgiving world of difficult literature, what would be the best order to read these three puppies.
I want to read Ulysses because James Joyce is iconic. The chapters having different styles is interesting and it’s simply a classic. Loved Dubliners and Portrait to but that isn’t going to factor into my order.
GR and IJ are both modern classics that look really Kool. Long and difficult, yes, but both seem very rewarding. I skimmed a few pages of all three books and hey are all very intriguing. Thanks gang, for the help. You’re my pack.
Wanna read them all, but what’s the best order? Help me decide, gang. Thanks! Rock on. 😎
by dave_pizza
5 Comments
Infinite Jest is so good. I never read the other two tho lol
You don’t have to read any of them before any others.
I liked IJ the most, but all three of them are oppressively inaccessible, so I wouldn’t recommend trying to read them in a row.
Read *Infinite Jest* first, because it’s the best. Then come to the realization that life’s too short for Pynchon, and that the Joyce cult is built on sand, and happily avoid the other two.
In terms of easiest to hardest difficulty (just in terms of how attention-grabbing the prose is), I’d say the order is IJ -> Ulysses -> GR. In terms of what you should read first, though, depends on what you’re into! Jest is very funny and grounded in the dystopia of the Long 90s that we’re living in now (it got a lot kind of frighteningly correct about our current political moment), Gravity’s Rainbow is a psychedelic story about the absurdity of war, Ulysses is a beautiful booming poetic classic with a lot of deep roots in Irish history. You can’t go wrong!
I’d also add Middlemarch and Ducks, Newburyport to your list, two other Very Large books that really play around with language
Infinite Jest is the most readable (it’s long, and has footnotes, but also an approximation of a linear plot – it’s just a big, dense novel). Ulysses is the least readable, an enjoyable soup of beautiful, evocative phrases but mostly the experience for me was WTF is going on? Who knows, it’s pretty. Gravity’s Rainbow I’ve only listened to and it’s a good midpoint