zhuyiyun

Let me be succinct (a quality which totally escapes Adam Levin): this is not a great book. Those reviewers who are writing "I'm 2 chapters in and it's amazing!" should heed warning - it dazzles in the beginning and fades out like a muffled fart. I damn my own literary hubris for blindly believing that The Instructions would ultimately reveal itself as the messiah of contemporary fiction. Instead, I am embarrassed to admit that I have spent nearly two months pushing through this constipated, babbling ramble, always hoping that I was just on the edge of 'getting it'. There are mere moments of humor and wit that shine through like sullied gems, only to have a 1,000 pages of plotless turd heaped on top. The characters are only half-realized caricatures - all dialogue and no action. This is especially disappointing when it comes to Gurion, the main character, narrator and 'author' of The Instructions - so much of Gurion's inner dialogue devolves into nonsensical doublespeak and semantic debates, which ultimately makes him wholly unlikeable as a protagonist. I found the footnotes (one of my favorite things about DFW's Infinite Jest) to be a stylistic filler, much like the arbitrary maps and diagrams that peppered the pages. I hated that I found myself skimming over portions of the text, but the alternative - reading every floundering sentence on the page - was unbearable. Not enough can be said for the simple gravity of well-placed prose, but in The Instructions it is totally lacking. I can't recommend this self-important treatise to anyone but my most masochistic enemies.

2022-10-29 03:12