I finally visited the library in Portland where my book club had that huge fight over 'The Goldfinch' last year.

Seeing the exact study room table where half of us argued it was a masterpiece about grief and the other half called it a bloated mess made me wonder if a book's length should ever count against its artistic value, or if we're just getting impatient.

3 comments

3 Comments

lisa8201mo ago

Can a book be too long and still good?

charles_kim2d ago

that thing about Infinite Jest is funny because my buddy tried to read it on a road trip and ended up using it to level his car's wobbly table at the diner we stopped at. said it was the most useful the book ever was.

riley_king161mo ago

Length can be a real problem though. Some books just drag. Look at "Infinite Jest". Huge parts could be cut and you'd still get the point. A story needs to earn its page count. If it feels like homework, maybe the editor failed. "The Goldfinch" middle section in Vegas lost a lot of people for a reason.