I recently went on a walk from the George Washington Bridge near 175th St in Manhattan down the path all the way to 96th. The path doesn’t follow the Hudson the entire way, but overall it’s a lovely walk. It’s quiet, especially in January. And there’s a surprising amount of nature for being Manhattan.
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.
Jack Maguire 