J R

J R is one of those books that you hear a lot about how daunting of a task it is to read. I’ve read numerous reviews for it, many comparing it’s difficulty to that of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow all the way to Joyce’s Finnegans Wake (for some reason)i’m here to tell you: that’s not the case at all. This book is nowhere near that difficult to read or understand. To be honest, I gave up on both of the aforementioned difficult novels. As many of you know J R is written almost entirely in unattributed dialogue with the only context who’s talking being either the short bits of prose scattered about, or conversational context.However, once you get into the rhythmic groove of this thing it’s honestly not that difficult. The amazing thing is, even though Gaddis rarely tells you directly who’s talking, eventually you’ll know who’s talking based on character’s speech patterns and vocal tics. It’s honestly amazing how quickly you can pick up on it if you pay attention to it and read it at a speaking pace.After you get yourself over that relatively small hurdle, you’ll be treating yourself to what I now believe is one of the most brilliant, important and supremely entertaining American novels ever written.

Took me over a year and a half to read; go into it eyes wide open about the stylistic and formal constraints of the work. Brilliantly funny, challenging, sarcastic and forward looking. The ultimate look into corporate capitalism. Truly visionary.

Granted this book is not for everyone. It does take patience, a patience that is amply rewarded. Mr. Gaddis must have had the best ear of anyone who ever took pen to paper - he unerringly gets the rhythm, pace, voice, etc, right to the point that one can identify this or that character through their speech patterns. No mean feat on the author's part. One can never accuse Gaddis of underestimating the intelligence of his readers, nor of their sense of humor. The man is a master humorist/satirist. And while the novel is mostly satiric in nature, there are some characters one truly feels for (Edward Bast, Amy Joubert, Jack Gibbs, and poor beset upon Dan DiCephalis). I read his "The Recognitions" four years ago and fell in love with it. Why? It wasn't the plot nor any individual character, but rather the masterful way he uses (or as Whiteback would say "utilizes") the language. There is nothing he cannot do with it, no emotion he cannot express. When in graduate school I took a class in which Steven Moore was a fellow student. I remember him telling Professor Charney that he'd written a book on Gaddis and that he felt the latter to be the best writer alive. Having by now read all of Gaddis's work, I agree that he must be included in the ranks of great writers. Each book encompasses a world, a world that is a delight to be a part of.

This book takes about 50 pages to really get into. However, once you understand the way the novel flows it is a surprisingly easy read. I would also mention that if someone is looking for a good source for human dialogue in literature then J R is arguably the pinnacle in that category.

-Money.-That's part of it, yes.-And power, and lack of it, and control, and lack of it, and will, and lack of it....-And sound, and too much of it.-And life in these United States.Difficult? Maybe. But it's WORTH IT! It is THE great American novel. You don't need the notes on line, you need to read it carefully and think about it while you read. It's funny in the darkest way, and cutting and touching and right to the heart of much of what's wrong, and yet could be right, with our greedy, noisy, Corporate country. Difficult (if it is) doesn't mean bad, it means it's a challenge. Step up to it and enjoy every word of it. Everyone should read it.

Okay, that headline is a quote from Whiteback, one of the novel's characters, the same guy who insists on replacing "use" with "utilize." (We all know that person, don't we?) Whiteback is on the school board, and he makes it clear that he would rather spend the school's budget on "teaching equipment" that goes unused and on repaving the school parking lot than on books. He distrusts books; as he says, "Books, you don't know what you're getting." (Our city librarian used to put scull & crossbones poison stickers on books of which she disapproved.) I admit that I liked "JR" much more than "The Recognitions." It takes some initial effort but it grows on you and repays repeated reading.Just a work on the various paperback editions. My favorite is the Penguin edition with the stock certificate on the cover. The Dalkey Archive edition is my least favorite; the print quality is not so good. The new NYRB edition is good, but my favorite is still the Penguin. I wish I could afford the original hardcover edition.

Very challenging. Hard to follow dialogue. Reading this was not enjoyable. I thought I would enjoy it because the premise was so enticing. I should have read the critical reviews.

Brilliant. Intense, yes, and disorienting but that's Gaddis's immersion technique--which savagely captures the overwhelming din of Americna life. So ahead of its time in indicting capitalism as well as the "business"-modeling of education. See williamgaddis.org for a lifesaving map of characters, page/scene outlines, and a good overview preface. Whereas a book like Ulysses aims for disorientation just (to me at least) to impress and befuddle for their own sakes, JR's "white noise" approach has a point.

Je pense que tout candidat à une carrière dans le commerce ou dans les finances, devrait lire ce livre, par exemple pendant les vacances, pour bien évaluer sa décision. Ce livre raconte les aventures de JR, qui réussit à monter une pseudo affaire à partir de quelques dollars. Ce ne sont que des dialogues ou des coups de téléphone avec des interjections pleines de sous entendus. Le livre n'est pas découpé en chapitres et est long, mais si vous voulez tout savoir de l'Infernal Revenue Service, et de l'erotic management et bien d'autres choses encore, je vous encourage à le lire. Il y a une version française mais je ne sais pas si c'est bien traduit, en anglais le livre est parfait en tous cas.

Primeiramente, no momento está aí que o autor é Robert Coover, mas na verdade é o William Gaddis.Gaddis é pra mim o escritor de língua inglesa definitivo do séc XX.E JR é pra mim seu melhor romance.Caso você pesquise na internet sobre o livro, verá muitos falando de como Gaddis é difícil e JR ilegível.É tudo mentira.A maior parte de JR é feita de diálogos, o que é diferente de dizer que o livro é feito somente de diálogos, como você provavelmente lerá por aí. A gesticulação, os movimentos dos personagens e o ruído dos cenários são todos descritos fora de diálogos, assim como as transições de uma cena pra outra; alguns desses momentos são exemplos do melhor da prosa de Gaddis em JR e não podem passar batido nessa de dizer que o livro é só diálogo.Gaddis não vai te dizer quem está falando o quê, porque não será necessário: Gaddis tinha digamos uma excelente orelha, a fala dos seus personagens vem em fragmentos e cheia de hesitações e desvios, e esse nível de habilidade permite ao leitor ter uma boa visão de como pensa cada personagem -- e, finalmente, é através dessa proeza que o leitor de Gaddis, com o tempo, reconhece direitinho quem está falando o quê em JR.Este é provavelmente o meu romance preferido, eu poderia falar dele por horas com todo o prazer, mas vou terminar fazendo um apelo: seria de extrema importância uma tentativa de trazer Gaddis para o leitor brasileiro, seja através da tradução de JR ou de The Recognitions.

Gaddis is not an easy read. JR takes some "getting into", but it's interesting. I got it to read after his "Recognitions", which is a bit more engrossing.