Mic Breaks Only discussion
Posts Gone By
>
Great read, but I rarely recommend it.
date
newest »


Books mentioned in this topic
A Song of Ice and Fire (other topics)The End of Mr. Y (other topics)
The Gone-Away World (other topics)
Infinite Jest (other topics)
Authors mentioned in this topic
George R.R. Martin (other topics)Nick Harkaway (other topics)
David Foster Wallace (other topics)
I've been thinking about this since I finished The Gone-Away World. I loved this book. It was thought provoking, exciting, and had just the right amount of absurdity.
But.
Author Nick Harkaway has a superb vocabulary and he wielded it like a weapon throughout this book. I don't mind a verbal pummeling, and using an e-reader alleviates the problem of dictionary diving, but Harkaway was on a rampage. Multiple times in the book he used byzantine language, clearly intentionally because he then followed up with the needed definition immediately afterwards.
I contrast Gone Away World with Infinite Jest where David Foster Wallace used a similar vocabulary, but wielded it like a paintbrush and not a steak knife.