Customer Reviews

Sabbatical

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This is an example of Barth in his "too smart for us readers" mode. Instead of telling a poignant and interesting and perhaps moving story about a complicated family wrapped up in cold-war intrigue and general late-twentieth century angst and insanity, this is a book about books, and about writing. If you go in for that sort of thing you will love it. Far from being straightforward, the plotting is circuitous and completely unsatisfying; the shifting point of view is so consciously experimental that it is almost a joke on the reader. There is no doubt that John Barth is a lot smarter than most of us, and is a really brilliant writer and thinker. But his brilliance keeps this from being a fun or entertaining novel. If you like your reading experimental and self-conscious, by all means, pick it up!