There. I finished it. I almost didn't. Portions of this book are so disjointed and stream-of-drunkenness and opaque that I often thought of putting it down. But I felt like I'd made a commitment to my book club, the same commitment that caused me to start reading this in the first place, so I pushed on through and finished it. If I were to rate this book on overall readability, I would probably only give it 2 of 5 stars.

On the otherhand, those same troublesome passages are part of the art of this book. It is full of the writer's art. From the construction of the plot, such as it is, to the characters, rich and alive, to the settings, true and vibrant, the book engages and challenges the reader at every turn. That is why casual readers may turn away, mystified by the hype. That is why some readers insist it is one of the great works of literature, thereby creating, intentionally or unintentionally, that very same hype. On art alone, I would give this 4 out of 5 stars. I would not give it 5, because it does fail to engage so many readers.

On a personal note, I can't decide if reading this at a more leisurely pace would have made it more or less frustrating. Perhaps the same passages that I rushed through because they made no sense would have been even more incomprehensible with more time analyze.

This is definitely not a fast food book. One might call it literary. That doesn't make it bad or snooty. Just challenging. For now I give it 3 stars (average of 2 and 4). ( )

Well, I think members of my book group all agreed, more or less, on the difficulty of this text. Lowry writes partly from experience about an alcoholic ex-diplomat in 1937 Mexico, his ex-wife and half-brother, among others. The stream of consciousness style, especially in the first few chapters, is made more difficult by being the internal incoherence of a confirmed and despairing alcoholic. Lowry makes frequent references to classical literature, especially Dante, tropes on death, and the convulsive state of the world at the time.

When Bukowski reviewed it, he said it caused him to yawn, and I'm afraid I kept falling asleep and dreaming before the end of Lowry's complex sentences. In spite of its reputation as great mid-century fiction, I'm not sure it's worth the effort. ( )

Cleaning up my last few un-noted Goodreads entries:

Fantastic. The prose is almost otherworldly and the sheer quantity of symbolism is barely perceptible through the beauty of the words. But there is oh so much buried here, only an inch or so down, and I suspect it will be several more rereads before I can even catch all of it, much less interpret. ( )

i’ve just reread this amazing work, as my recollections of novels read a decade or more ago are more feelings than firm recollections. in fact, one of the amazing attributes of our central character is that he can recall with extraordinary detail everything he has read, and brings up life lessons constantly from this resource. do you remember the details of the conversations of soldiers on the train from war and peace? (used by Geoffrey) i don’t- and rereading this amazing piece of writing was the same- a whole new experience. the theme of Geoffrey’s alcoholism (only a small part of the actual story in my opinion) was about all i remembered from my first reading. from my reread i think i’ll remember the writing and the extraordinary pictures Lowry paints with language. it’s almost an old Cormac McCarthy story, but rendered so differently it’s like comparing a watercolor to a sculpture of the same thing. ( )

Just exceptional. Well not just that. ( )