The problem with any big book is that, at the end, the author has you over a barrel: either you loved it and the author is a genius, or you hated it and you are a sucker. Lots of people claim to love long, ponderous books just to avoid being the sucker or for fear of appearing unsophisticated.

I prefer great authors who were serialized, e.g. dostoevsky. The works are brilliant, but the individual chapters read well, so you rarely feel like you have to just slog through the damned thing.