Re-ordered this in Paperback but had the feeling I’d read it already. Indeed in 2002. And even more recently Fire In The Hole (this January) the short story that starts the series Justified. Interestingly I’m working on an old novel from 2002 where I wrote this: You know the feeling? You’re half way through an Elmore Leonard and you think wait, I know exactly what’s going to happen now, I must have read this already. No disrespect to Elmore, whom I adore, but sometimes publishers change the titles: The Big Heist previously published as Detroit Snatch. It can be very confusing.

I loved this exquisite novel with it’s complicated way of telling a story, skipping from one character to another so we finally piece together what is happening from several different viewpoints. First the pregnant Lena, then Byron Brown, and then the early days of Joe then Burden for a while until he murders his landlady lover and is hunted down. The crazy old Grandfather and his wife determined to thwart him. All in the most beautiful prose. A beautiful Modern Library Edition from 1952. I think this is one of the most impressive books I have ever read.

Still pursuing this. I decided I only really like the Anna scenes, and find that the Levin scenes are a bit of a waste of time….

Darker than some of his books. The crime when finally revealed is nauseating, but this tale somehow failed to connect for me. He tends to build up situation and narrative through various protagonists, almost always cops, but here I kept forgetting what was going on. His lack of skill or my lack of concentration. Still many memorable things. The incomparably sad life of the policeman. I like his books though and will continue exploring him.

Improbably, utterly and against all expectation I totally loved this book. At first sight I disliked it, discarded it but constantly came back to it until I could not put it down. It is a book like no other. No character, no plot, no description. It is more like a commonplace book. It consists of hundreds of quotations, and references and facts about writers, painters and artists. It is hypnotic like poetry, and fascinating like philosophy. As he himself describes it: – Nonlinear. Discontinuous. Collage-like. An assemblage. David Markson, Postmodern Experimental Novelist. Is Dead at 82 June 7, 2010 – Mr. Markson's wry, elliptical novels were almost always surprisingly engaging and underappreciated.