The Book of Daniel, by EL Doctorow

I ended up enjoying it very much in a way I didn't think I would. Because I wouldn't call it a masterpiece as some have apparently called it - with it's occasionally clunky language unsure if it belongs to the old writing's rococo style or the direction writing was moving more and more towards at the time (1970s USA; admittedly, Doctorow was educated in the past style but was trying to do the new, and a lot of people end up being sometimes awkwardly caught between the two, even today - DFW's answer to this is to embrace both as well as the awkwardness that comes with it, although if he gets it right could be debatable; plus, on the other hand, it tends to make for maybe even more annoying writing if you try to make everything to submit to one or the other as though they are completely distinct, like I was taught often in my writing course) and its maybe quite pedestrian ideas about the complex social and political issues it dealt with (the modern world, twentieth century USA, McCarthyism - although I suppose this is forgivable because he's a fiction writer, a casual observer, not an expert, and it's not like he didn't make an effort, or differed too much from some experts, plus I'm not sure to what extent this justifies anything [probably only to the extent that they make an effort that's not a complete fail]. In spite of everything, however, I decided from the beginning to take it for what it was and make what I could from it because I don't want to be a total hater - and this ended up being really rewarding, as it always tends to. It helped in my quest to bring myself in to the world and feel more at home in it - stories, knowledge, history seem to be always invaluable in this. It taught me more about enjoying writing that may not be my ideal style and how if you let yourself really feel the writing, really internalise what it's trying to get at, it ends up being surprisingly adequate to experience. I even let myself be taken in by its musings on the things of the modern world, such as the sort of weird culture that's embodied in Disneyland - the sort of things I've read about many times and decided to get over - and really think about it and get something from it.

So the conclusion is that lots of things are pretty awesome if you let them be, and thinking and learning is fun.