The book is a circle so it doesn't really have a proper beginning, and the way the narratives are intermeshed to the point that they are incomprehensible means that the narrative is secondary, so concepts such as beginning and middle don't really matter anyway.
It is the language and wordplay of the book that is the enjoyable part. If you sit there by yourself and read it silently, it's mostly a boring academic exercise. When you read it out loud the playfulness and humor of the book comes through. There is one part that is written such that if you read it aloud you sound like a drunken irishman, and one part which is simultaneously a description of a pantry (or perhaps a grocery) and an erotic scene. The main thing I think people miss about the book is how funny it is!
Arguably the most challenging element for readers is not Joyce’s heavy erudition in drawing on the classical canon. Rather, it is some of the Irish politics in the early 20th century that will baffle most readers outside Ireland (and probably most readers inside Ireland, the colonial era being so far away now).
Gravity’s Rainbow in particular is confusing for a long while but when it begins to come together it’s rewarding.
Agreed - Finnegan's Wake is impossible. Try the audio version and it’s somehow even more difficult. I was tempted to eat a bag of mushrooms and listen to it but alas, perhaps one day far in the future.
1. The reader can't figure out what the hell is going on anymore or who anybody is. They give up and stop reading.
2. The reader can't figure out what the hell is going on anymore or who anybody is. They stop trying to make sense of the book and just read the words.
"Sure this guy has a toilet stuck to his foot now, and can prevent bombs from landing on him by magic or something. That's great, oh I think somewhere in that sentence it became 20 years earlier in a different part of town and there are two entirely different characters I don't know talking about something else. That's neat."
https://americanaejournal.hu/vol6no2/lacey
Reading a synopsis of the story sort of misses the point of the book. The plot is pretty limited.
<edit> misread your comment.
I think it’s because yes it’s long but it uses a complex narrative structure and has a lot of uncommon words. The annotations add a bit to it.
I agree it’s very enjoyable literature.
Gravity’s Rainbow had easier text to read but I’d agree the narrative is probably more difficult to follow. I also think Gravity’s Rainbow is the better book in many ways especially as it rebates to “them” co-opting everything useful.
The chapter detailing Pokler’s history is probably the finest literature I’ve read.
Gravity Rainbow has Pynchon's inimitable prose, constant segue between language register and mingling between the trivial and the profound. Infinite Jest is rambling and convoluted but it is extremely funny from the get go. Both can be a joy to read even if you don't finish them.
Ulysses on the other hand asks more from its readers. You can pretty much ignore the references in Gravity's Rainbow and still get (or not get) the point. Meanwhile, Ulysses is full of oblique metaphors and layered references which make it impossible to understand without knowledge of the referenced material.
Example https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/u/ulysses/summary-and...