Cryptonomicon finished

rafael on 2003-05-21T09:50:49

In spite of my ever-growing day-job work-load, I've finished to read the Cryptonomicon. There are plenty of reviews of this book available on the wnebt, so I won't bother you with mine. Shortly : I liked the book, (and the plot holes it contains, that will lead me into buying the upcoming Baroque Cycle). There is, however, a flaw, in my humble opinion : for an unknown reason, Stephenson doesn't appear to like one of his main characters, Randall L. Waterhouse (the Unix guru). Consequently, reading the lengthy chapters about him, his life and his thoughts, is mostly boring or uncomfortable. Randy is shallow. I got the impression that Stephenson was trying to tell something interesting about a hero he didn't found interesting himself.

I'm now reading Senilitá, a proustian novel written by Italo Svevo at the very end of the XIXth century.


In Svevo's Garden

jmcnamara on 2003-05-21T13:25:50

I'm now reading Senilitá, a proustian novel written by Italo Svevo at the very end of the XIXth century.

Svevo was a contemporary and friend of Joyce during his time in Trieste. I read a short book about their relationship called "Joyce in Svevo's Garden".

John.
--

Re:In Svevo's Garden

rafael on 2003-05-21T14:15:45

In fact, I'm reading this book because I've read somewhere that Joyce did love Svevo's novels, and I trust Joyce about literature. (...remembering that scene in Ulysses where Bloom wipes his ass out with some mediocre short story published in a newpaper.)