The arc of my overall opinion of this book went from “enjoyable” to “ugh” to “enjoyable” again. So the good definitely outweighs the bad!

The narrative structure of this work is presented as a series of vintages and remembrances of our narrator, George Ticknor, who at the start is off to visit his friend William H. Prescott at his home for a dinner party. A given chapter however will jump scenes and decades multiple times over, so what follows is not a linear sequence of events, and much of it is highly emotionally charged by Ticknor, who is full of self-loathing. Additionally, no obvious sense of the timing of these scenes is presented – several times, events that I had personally placed in the “past” of the running timeline I was creating inside my head I would only later, through additional context clues, learn were actually in the future, and vice versa.

A perfect view of the overall timeline is not essential to enjoyment of the story though – if the excerpts were all taken as short stories and prose pieces of varying length with the same characters, the reader would likely enjoy the book just as well!

The “ugh” from my initial description comes mainly from the writing style used by Heti – she does a wonderful job mimicking the style of mid 18th century literature. As a result, everything sounds quite Dickens-like. While it’s all good writing, it can be very cumbersome with the shotgun narrative structure here, and resulted in a lot of places where I was tripped up and faceplanted by the story. But it was never enough to keep me from dusting myself off and going back in! ( )

at least it was short. very difficult read. ( )

....I can't remember the last time it took me 4 days to read a 118 page book! And that should not recommend it. Heti's book is a tough trudge up a steep hill in inclement weather. I kept encouraging myself: "It's only 118 pages -- you can do this". But, 3 of the last 4 nights I either fell asleep or found myself wondering what I had just read on the previous few pages that I had to re-read before continuing. So, imagine my surprise when I turned the last page and thought: "Well, that wasn't so bad; I liked it a bit."

Heti's work is imaginative and bears little resemblance to the historical persons portrayed. Ticknor is a stream-of-consciousness tale about biographer George Ticknor and his friend historian William H. Prescott. But, it isn't historical fiction. Rather, it is a character study of Ticknor, a socially awkward, obsessive, flawed man consumed with jealousy over his friend's publishing successes, wealth and social standing.....You don't end up feeling much of anything but pity for poor George Ticknor, but only in a voyeuristic, 'won't someone help him so he won't be my problem?' sort of way. And this is why Heti's book works: it isn't about Ticknor's friendship with Prescott; it isn't success and failure or wealth and poverty; it is about inadequacies within Ticknor, his introspection and inaccurate observations that drive his actions and keeps him from interacting with others. And it is about the similar inadequacies within those who avoid him. Even the reader. The human condition: Ah Bartleby! Ah Humanity!

Read my full review at:
http://camreading.blogspot.com/2006/05/ticknor-novel.html ( )