I rarely read novels now. Up until about 1980, I read everything that came out by Updike, Bellow, and Roth, among other things. Latin American Boom writers in Spanish. Sorrentino and Suckenick. Henry Green, Flann O'Brien. I do read contemporary Spanish fiction, just to keep up, but most of it doesn't hold my attention. Last summer I read a lot of Elmore Leonard, my favorite American novelist! And of course I continue to read Beckett.

The last novel I have read is Suckenick's "Long Talking Bad Connection Blues," which I picked up for 3 bucks at a used book store. I read the novel by first reading all the pages ending in "1," 11, 21, 31, 41 etc... then 2, 12, 22. Why this resistance to reading something straight through? I didn't miss much, since there is not much of a plot or character development. It was like hazy world gradually coming into focus.

Usually my response to narrative fiction is, why do they need all those words? And for so little effect. Condensare!