Giovanni

I did have some moments when my resolve faltered, but overall this book met my "made-me-think, would re-read-if-I-had-the-time" criteria for 4⭐️. Chilling descriptions of addiction and depression. Loved the irony/sarcasm, and the prose (albeit often showy). Occasional sexism, racism, ableism etc, not always ascribable to the characters. Erudite, encyclopedic. Learned of many online resources about the book, at least one podcast and an entire community of enthusiasts.

Tough, complex read (and listen). Takes a while to get oriented. Reminded me of a piece of contemporary music, where you are allowed to follow for a while but then plunged back into a confusion of fragments. Some of this confusion is deliberate (for example, the use of the same name for multiple characters, or the name change in another). Will need a second read! Faulkner wants you do so some work too. How nice when a book (or, for that matter, a poem, music, movie, dinner, painting) makes an impression that stays with you for days!

I have occasionally thought, while reading, that my time would have been better spent on another non-fiction book about the middle ages, but eventually liked the way human and ‘small' events came to focus together with ‘big' historical events.

Need to get around some sexism, some platitudes, some classism, and some entitled nonsense, but I liked the ‘taxonomy' of sources of unhappiness. Light on the solutions... but let's be fair, was I really expecting to find a recipe for happiness in this book?

Series of lectures. 2, 4, and 5 were the most interesting to me.