William Gaddis’ Recognitions: My thoughts

I found The Recognitions interesting at first, especially in the way it jumps between characters and scenes. There is some sharp dialogue and a few moments that really stand out, and I liked how much academic and historical material gets woven in. That part felt ambitious and kind of exciting. But after about a hundred pages, the structure started to wear me down. It felt too chaotic for me to follow any clear storyline, and I never got a strong sense of where it was headed. I was not bored so much as tired of the effort it took to keep track of everything. Eventually it felt like I was just moving through a series of loosely connected scenes rather than a developing narrative, and I could not quite stick with it.