Grew on me significantly from the last time I read it. The book is pretty good! I used to be against the abrupt shift in tone between the first couple of chapters and the rest of the book, but now I see it actually fits really well with Richard's whole schtick of constantly lying. The story itself is like one of Richard's descriptions of his past- it starts off whimsical, picturesque, beautiful, strange, intriguing, but the more you know, the more the story feels pulled towards the bleakness of everyday life. When writing a decently long book, this is kinda how you wanna go about it. This thing wouldn't be the same if it was only 300 pages, all ~550 are very very necessary especially in terms of setting the mood. Definitely not one of the most difficult reads I've had on this list (although maybe tying with The Fountainhead for most time consuming thus far, lol), but it is certainly one of the bleakest. Definitely has been one of the most claustrophobic and distressing reads on this list so far, but trust me, it is so worth reading. Although it may inherently seem like something that'd be shocking and transgressive for the sake of being shocking and transgressive (the Bret Easton Ellis shoutout in the book's foreword certainly does not help), believe me, it's so much more than that
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