Oblomov - Ivan Gonchorov I mean, it’s all right. The book reads a lot like other Russian novels I’ve read; it’s a straightforward telling of a person’s life with a hint of pedantism. I mean, if I were Oblomov I would probably do the same thing too. What do I mean, “if”? I mean I do more than Oblomov but the language we use was frighteningly similar. I look at other people who do a lot more than I do, and tell myself wow what a miserable life, to put so much energy into something so superfluous....

I recently finished The Recognitions by William Gaddis. More than it being a book I wanted to read, it was always a book that I felt I just had to read. Every time this book was brought up in any book or video, it was brought up because it was the first of its kind. Which is a pretty ironic thing to consider about a book whose literal theme centers around forgery, imitation....