Arturo Bandini
from Denver, CO is reading Beautiful RuinsMarch 28, 2012 - 9:53am
I would say Finnegan's Wake but I've never even bothered to make a serious attempt at it. It just doesn't seem worth the time or effort the thing would require. Ulysess was enough of a struggle to get through but had (just) enough in it to make it worth the trouble.
Others:
Gravity's Rainbow
Mason & Dixon (Really, Mr. Pynchon? Only because of his name was this thing even published.)
I wish Pynchon was more readable, because the more accessible books ( The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice)of his are brilliant (to lesser extent Vineland).
Matt Attack
from Richmond, Va. is reading As I Lay Dying, William FaulknerMarch 28, 2012 - 9:36am
Cold Mountain. Great concept....the Odyssey retold during the Civil War, but it drags on into eternity with the most all encompassing descriptions I have ever read.
Fylh
from from from is reading is from is reading is reading is reading reading is readingMarch 28, 2012 - 9:46am
Gravity's Rainbow is a masterpiece in just about every way — a difficult masterpiece — but it pales in comparison to The Recognitions by William Gaddis. That is tough.
Bill Tucker
from Austin, Texas is reading Grimm's Fairy Tales (1st Edition)March 28, 2012 - 9:50am
I have to go with Atlas Shrugged. The prose is a pretty amazing, but Rand describes everything seven times, each time just as lovely as the first. That, and her characters have aboslutely no soul as they are only there to support her philosophical theories. Just a beast of a book.
justin
from Magratheia is reading lots of Christopher Moore, John Irving, Tom Robbins and Neil GaimenJuly 26, 2012 - 9:53pm
Deadman in Deptford by Anthony Burgess... I consider myself a fairly intelligent person but this one was almost too difficult too finish..
Sancho LeStache
from El Paso is reading HungerNovember 19, 2012 - 11:31pm
Damn, the complete Franz Kafka short stories. There's just so many of them in there, and not all of them are good. When they are good, they're amazing, so that kept me going, but it was definitely difficult to finish. I've been working on The Satanic Verses and Kathy Acker's Don Quixote for a reeeeally long time, so it might end up being one of those in the long run.
Ripley
from Fort Scott, Kansas is reading Infinite Jest by David Foster WallaceNovember 20, 2012 - 12:57am
Boredom is a bigger stumbling block than difficulty of prose. If I enjoy the novel I can put out the extra effort. If I find literary night quil I tune out.
MisterPasscod3
December 8, 2012 - 11:31pm
I don't know if it was the "most" difficult, but Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh was difficult for me because of the formatting structure and the strong dialect.
Andrez Bergen
from Melbourne, Australia + Tokyo, Japan is reading 'The Spirit' by Will EisnerDecember 14, 2012 - 1:10pm
Some great reads mentioned here that can be a struggle (but worth the pain!): The Naked Lunch, Heart of Darkness, The Idiot, Shakespeare, The Divine Comedy, Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange...
I also got myself into fisticuffs with Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and Kobo Abe's The Box Man.
But I agree with JordanJGriffin - my epic struggle has been with Moby-Dick. Never finished. Did dig John Huston's 1956 celluloid production, however.
The Bible? Meh.
And the one I wished I'd never read at all? The Da Vinci Code.
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Naked LunchDecember 14, 2012 - 1:59pm
I read Moby Dick because it was for a class and I usually was very ambitous to keep up with readings. But I liked it in fact (not much the technical chapters).
I have yet to read Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses.
My favorite difficult writers are Derrida and Lacan (though they weren't fiction writers).
Mess_Jess
from Sydney, Australia, living in Toronto, Canada is reading Perfect by Rachael JoyceDecember 14, 2012 - 3:24pm
Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia was fairly hard going.
Thomas Hardy's novels are difficult, but I really liked Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure and Far From the Madding Crowd.
I tried the Bible once, when I was about 10. Never again.
Renfield
from Hell is reading 20th Century GhostsDecember 14, 2012 - 4:10pm
I love reading the Bible. It's how I know what all those Southern Gothic writers are talking about and referencing. Beautiful language and beautiful storytelling. I've only read the Tanakh and KJV Old Testament though, never stuck with it to the Jesus bits. I did have a harder time though reading Canteburry Tales, if that's somehow relatable.
Mess_Jess
from Sydney, Australia, living in Toronto, Canada is reading Perfect by Rachael JoyceDecember 14, 2012 - 4:20pm
I did 13 years of Catholic schooling and the New Testament is incredibly boring.
jyh
from VA is reading whatever he feels likeDecember 14, 2012 - 11:53pm
It's not the most difficult to read;
but it's difficult to make myself to read ten times as much as I already have read.
I have tons more books. Why read five books worth of one book?
It took 18 years to write; so did five books. How many manhours?
rmatthewsimmons
from Salt Lake City, UT is reading I just put down 'A Game of Thrones' after 6 chapters....Couldn't do it.December 15, 2012 - 7:38pm
I pretended to 'get' Naked Lunch, but I was young and going through a phase.
However, I would have to say The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky through me for a loop. It's been years, but I vaguely remember a new character being introduced on each page over the 600 or so pages of the book.
Dorian Grey
from Transexual, Transylvania is reading "East of Eden" by John SteinbeckDecember 15, 2012 - 8:37pm
I just finished reading The Sound and the Fury for school . Yes, the first two chapters -- Benjy and Quentin's -- were very difficult. Nevertheless, I actually love it. I think it's genius.
Cormac McCarthy, while great, takes dedication. His stuff can sometimes be hard.
Liana
from Romania and Texas is reading Naked LunchDecember 17, 2012 - 2:55pm
When I was little, I couldn't finish Don Quixote. And now that I think about it, I haven't finished it in my adulthood either. Time to pick it up again.
I would say Finnegan's Wake but I've never even bothered to make a serious attempt at it. It just doesn't seem worth the time or effort the thing would require. Ulysess was enough of a struggle to get through but had (just) enough in it to make it worth the trouble.
Others:
Gravity's Rainbow
Mason & Dixon (Really, Mr. Pynchon? Only because of his name was this thing even published.)
I wish Pynchon was more readable, because the more accessible books ( The Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice)of his are brilliant (to lesser extent Vineland).
Cold Mountain. Great concept....the Odyssey retold during the Civil War, but it drags on into eternity with the most all encompassing descriptions I have ever read.
Gravity's Rainbow is a masterpiece in just about every way — a difficult masterpiece — but it pales in comparison to The Recognitions by William Gaddis. That is tough.
I have to go with Atlas Shrugged. The prose is a pretty amazing, but Rand describes everything seven times, each time just as lovely as the first. That, and her characters have aboslutely no soul as they are only there to support her philosophical theories. Just a beast of a book.
Deadman in Deptford by Anthony Burgess... I consider myself a fairly intelligent person but this one was almost too difficult too finish..
Damn, the complete Franz Kafka short stories. There's just so many of them in there, and not all of them are good. When they are good, they're amazing, so that kept me going, but it was definitely difficult to finish. I've been working on The Satanic Verses and Kathy Acker's Don Quixote for a reeeeally long time, so it might end up being one of those in the long run.
Boredom is a bigger stumbling block than difficulty of prose. If I enjoy the novel I can put out the extra effort. If I find literary night quil I tune out.
I don't know if it was the "most" difficult, but Marabou Stork Nightmares by Irvine Welsh was difficult for me because of the formatting structure and the strong dialect.
Some great reads mentioned here that can be a struggle (but worth the pain!): The Naked Lunch, Heart of Darkness, The Idiot, Shakespeare, The Divine Comedy, Trainspotting, A Clockwork Orange...
I also got myself into fisticuffs with Umberto Eco's Foucault's Pendulum and Kobo Abe's The Box Man.
But I agree with JordanJGriffin - my epic struggle has been with Moby-Dick. Never finished. Did dig John Huston's 1956 celluloid production, however.
The Bible? Meh.
And the one I wished I'd never read at all? The Da Vinci Code.
I read Moby Dick because it was for a class and I usually was very ambitous to keep up with readings. But I liked it in fact (not much the technical chapters).
I have yet to read Gravity's Rainbow and Ulysses.
My favorite difficult writers are Derrida and Lacan (though they weren't fiction writers).
Sir Thomas Moore's Utopia was fairly hard going.
Thomas Hardy's novels are difficult, but I really liked Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jude the Obscure and Far From the Madding Crowd.
I tried the Bible once, when I was about 10. Never again.
I love reading the Bible. It's how I know what all those Southern Gothic writers are talking about and referencing. Beautiful language and beautiful storytelling. I've only read the Tanakh and KJV Old Testament though, never stuck with it to the Jesus bits. I did have a harder time though reading Canteburry Tales, if that's somehow relatable.
I did 13 years of Catholic schooling and the New Testament is incredibly boring.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_Stories
It's not the most difficult to read;
but it's difficult to make myself to read ten times as much as I already have read.
I have tons more books. Why read five books worth of one book?
It took 18 years to write; so did five books. How many manhours?
I pretended to 'get' Naked Lunch, but I was young and going through a phase.
However, I would have to say The Brothers Karamazov by Dostoyevsky through me for a loop. It's been years, but I vaguely remember a new character being introduced on each page over the 600 or so pages of the book.
Gretel (The Children Of The Sun) Book One
I just finished reading The Sound and the Fury for school . Yes, the first two chapters -- Benjy and Quentin's -- were very difficult. Nevertheless, I actually love it. I think it's genius.
Cormac McCarthy, while great, takes dedication. His stuff can sometimes be hard.
When I was little, I couldn't finish Don Quixote. And now that I think about it, I haven't finished it in my adulthood either. Time to pick it up again.