Cryptonomicon

Kieran Healey over at Crooked Timber is finding that reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon is a hard slog. He’s got 100 pages in, and with another 800 pages to go is wondering whether he should bother.

 

He’s not the only one. I managed to reach page 296 before I gave up in sheer boredom tinged with irritation at the smug writing. I notice that most of the people who commented on Kieran’s entry were also of the opinion that it’s just a bad book. Usually they claimed that his other books, e.g. Snow Crash were much better. Well, I did at least finish Snow Crash, but I can’t remember a single thing about it now. I don’t think that’s the mark of a great novel – it’s usually the mark of disposable summer reading.