'War Stories'
There's more to life than watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer! No. Really, there is! Honestly! Here's a place for Buffistas to come and discuss what it is they're reading, their favorite authors and poets. "Geez. Crack a book sometime."
Oy, in the book I just finished, I had to slog through, no lie, a 103 word sentence/paragraph.
One of my favorite passages in Absalom, Absalom! includes a sentences that goes on for, like, at least half a page.
I was just about to ask Barb, "Faulkner?" Other contenders include Henry James and James Joyce. But mostly Faulkner.
Absalom, Absalom! has a 1,287-word sentence.
Oh, Faulkner. You wacky wordsmith.
The thing is, Faulkner has 1,000-word sentences that are worth reading, whereas many books have 10-word sentences that aren't worth the trouble.
Lucius Beebe (who wrote a column for Gourmet) once produced a column that was a single sentence. When his editor (this was back in the days when editors would actually edit) complained, Beebe told him to break it up himself. The editor couldn't find anyplace TO break it.
I remember reading someone describe Beebe's writings as "so rococco you could carve grottos out of it."
I wasn't quite able to get into it, but Garcia Marquez's The Autumn of the Patriarch also has sentences that go for pages and pages and are occasionally entire chapters (LONG chapters).
I believe there's like a 17-page sentence in Swann's Way. Or at least it felt like it was 17 pages long.
Proust in his first book wrote about...wrote about
I've giving Dune another listen because, well because it was in my glove box when my other recording ran out.
I enjoying it quite a bit, but it's one of those books that oddly doesn't make me want to read more in the series. It feels like a complete experience and I don't want to dilute it with more.
The audiobook is great, full cast and very well produced.
Speaking of which, I added a page on my blog devoted to book recommendations of mine. I intend to add more detail as in the future, but FWIW. A lot of these are staples at the moment, but I've been listening to staples lately, it's what my library has for downloadable audiobooks.