The Floating Opera

by John Barth

Has anyone else read this ?

I picked it up in a used-bookshop, because the author was listed in a chronicle of the American novel my husband has. It is also in the 1,001 books you must read before you die ... which might be appropriate as it is about the day the narrator decides Not to commit suicide...

I wasn't too fond of it but that's just my taste. After you read it, take a look at Nabokov, say Pale Fire, and see what you think of the comparison.

well, it's no Pale Fire, but i thought The Floating Opera was still a really great book...

Loved The Floating Opera -- so much so, I moved straight into The End of the Road -- which I didn't care for at all. In fact, I disliked The End of the Road so much, it was another ten years before I read Barth again, finally turning to The Sot-Weed Factor. To this day, I can't believe I let The End of the Road put that kind of damper on my taste for John Barth!