Sorry for those reading this, I will probably Won't make any friends with this.You know this book has an amazing author in some ways and probably one of the worst ones and others. The writing style is difficult to describe but you probably hear us discuss this deeply in the audio review. I'm going to do my best to finish this book out probably as fast as I can so I can get to some books that I really want to read, but honestly I haven't been doing too well keeping to my word and I figured this would be something I would stick with. As you will find out lots of people really are not enjoying this book and I hate to say that I think Ulysses had the same effect on me. I just couldn't get through that book and it wasn't because the author was bad or the story wasn't compelling because others found it very stimulating. In all honesty I felt like Ulysses was just over the top of my head and I haven't been able to finish it either time I tried to listen to it. With that said this book really made me feel like I was underwater both in intellectual quality and almost an emotional level. There are times in this book interest me and the characters probably feel like actual people in a nonfiction book but we know they are not.
I feel this book is truly out to mess with our heads, and I almost feel as if I should be on some kind of high-grade narcotics to truly understand what the author was trying to present. Either that or I should've gone and got a doctorate in English lit. Let's face it I'm not going to be the best review on any book topic that doesn't relate to science straightforward information.
It's so frustrating to actually enjoy portions of this book finally feel left hanging and mostly incomplete when it comes to any character development beyond describing them very realistically. Yes you get the feeling of the character and some of the emotional deep diving descriptions that bring these characters to life. On the other hand it seems like you get just enough information to make you feel that the characters real but you don't completely understand why characters do what they do or even perceive the world the way they do you just know that's the case.
This is probably jumping the gun but at the end of the whole apocalyptic nuclear warfare game when the one kid slammed the ball in the back of the head of the other you could understand why it happened. You could also understand the devolving of the game from a highbrow intellectual challenge between players and something kids would actually do, but I don't feel like you get the spark of why that character decided to go down this direction other than frustration. These characters don't seem to be people who would randomly snap like that and Wallace definitely portrays these students as hard-working focused individuals. I know many people say will their kids and you expect that but Wallace never really made you feel like it was just around the bend or these kids had anything but adult lives up until this point. Hell maybe that's the reason why he did that is to interject something beyond what I'd almost expect a whole bunch of 19-year-old deployed guys to talk about.
I know I'm just rambling now some going to shut my mouth and reread this. If any of you are sticking with the book and I haven't been on the conference call please try to interject yourself because most everyone else is not enjoying this book. With that said I feel like I probably have one of the easier chances to finishing this book. Maybe some of you can point out why this book is actually good for you and stimulating you towards reading more of it.