Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany
Dhalgren Cover

Dhalgren

imnotsusan
7/3/2022
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I'm a big Sameul Delany fan, and I have a reasonable tolernace for experimetnal fiction. This book is clearly ambitious and there are parts that are brilliant and some unforgettable scenes. Also, I found the frank conversations characters have about race, sexual orientation, and sexual assault interesting (and very much of their time - I doubt thsi book would have been published today.) But That being said - while I thought there were parts of this boko that were really fantastic, the last 1/3 was definitely diminishing returns for me. I don't consider myself a prude, but i really started hating the level of detail provided for the sex scenes (and there were increasingly a lot of sex scenes.) Not becuase they were too graphic (and they reallly were incredibly graphic) but because there's a point where they were just so boring and repetitive. I was listening to this book on Audible, and there was one sex scene that I think lasted for almost an hour. It was a total slog. I think this book is worth reading through Part IV and then read the rest at your own risk.