Reading this was an ordeal, in both good and bad ways, and it took me a long time to get through. The long drunken night (in the book!) persists in my brain as a nightmare that went on and on and I felt the horror and madness in the reading - horrible people, almost all of them, doing horrible things. But outside of that, the writing is delicate and beautiful (a little girl with "legs like flower stems"), the structure is masterful, and despite the despicability of the characters, including Cass who is to some degree Styron himself, and my wish to be done with them all, it had me literally, really, gasping for air by the end. Just have to get through that long night... and it feels like you're coming down the road from Sambuca towards the shining sea at last.

I see a lot of people here like this book, but I don't get why. The first half is unpleasant though absorbing. Styron seems to think it is interesting for characters to rant eccentrically about whatever is on their mind, but I would disagree, and I soon started skipping all rants. The story is intriguing, and for a while the book was kind of interesting, as we see the naive narrator come to see the truth of his pretentious friend. Half way through, the book becomes fairly unreadable as it changes focus to a different character. This begins with an entire chapter of the sort of rant that I found so unpleasant, and then proceeds through a tedious accounting of an unpleasant and dull tortured artist type. I tried reading this for a while but it was so annoying that I just skimmed the second half to see how everything was tied up, which it was in a perfunctory fashion.

I suppose this is good for Styron fans. I've never read any of his books before and certainly never will again.

Always a fan of Styron’s work, I love how identity is central to all his work, even if it’s an exploration of something else, and how nuanced the feelings and decisions his characters make are.
This novel was very reminiscent of Crime & Punishment in its exploration of evil and guilt. The testing and examination of both is very well done, and never seems out of place during the story.

Life is too short to read about stuffy old dudes behaving badly. Dnf.

terrible

Part 1 is a compelling whodunit; Part 2 drags as we follow a character into the hellish depths of alcoholic depravity. I've read that the book is a study of evil, but to me it reads like a study of alcoholism's broad and deep reach - scarring the drinker and all around them - including the child of the alcoholic who learned to cruelly manipulate boozers to his advantage and amusement.
The book could be a lot shorter and still make as much impact. Perhaps more.

What can I say - I read this a while ago. William Styron is the bee's knees. He makes me feel drunk.

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