Wrestling with Henry James

Since I am using the Modern Library Top 100 English-Language Novels of the Twentieth Century as one of my book-recommenders, I picked up The Golden Bowl by Henry James (#32 on the list) the other day. I had previously read two or three of his other novels, and found them to be relatively enjoyable, particularly The Wings of the Dove. This book, however, may "eat my lunch," as they say. I have read to page 133 of 568 pages, and I frankly don't know if I can finish it.

I keep hoping that I will find the rhythm of the language and sentence construction--this happened to me with Faulkner, who seemed difficult to understand at first, until I entered his flow. The problem, for me, with The Golden Bowl is the sentence construction and punctuation, with makes the sentences jerk along. A sample sentence I just read has ten comma's, a semi-colon, and a dash. And the language is difficult, with unfamiliar words and words used in unfamiliar ways. Since I usually feel compelled to consult a dictionary when I encounter a word I don't know, I was spending an inordinate amount of time looking up words, until I just gave it up and tried to just get the sense of the words through context.

I have read a great many books if my lifetime, and I have never actually put one down because I found it too hard to read. I even slogged my way through Ulysses by James Joyce one summer and eventually even liked it. But this one may have "pinned me to the mat." I'm going to try to give it 100 more pages first. Wish me luck.