I never thought I'd find an essay collection this fascinating. Franzen bares it all, and personally what I liked best was the "Emperor has no clothes" dissection of Gaddis's books. Worrying though is that if Gaddis's books are so unreadable, yet still won awards and got good reviews etc, how will I myself distinguish similar cases in the future? It would be easy if I was in the habit of not finishing all books I start, but as I'm not, the selection process must be near perfect to avoid massive unfinished tomes cluttering up your nightstand. Which reminds me, I really should finish Gravity's Rainbow one of these years...