So far, I’m enjoying it. I‘m about a third of the way through and it reads more like a play than a novel, as I understand most if not all of his novels do—90% dialogue, plus there is a separate play and a deposition transcript within the novel. It satirizes litigation and I chose to read it because of my background as a litigator. It’s my first venture into Gaddis. I will be happy to follow up with you once I finish within the next few days.
I finished A Frolic of His Own today. Without giving away the plot and sub-plots--like a Kafka novel--the opening sentence pretty much sums up the principal theme of the book: "Justice? -- You get justice in the next world, in this world you have the law," While it’s largely a critique of the legal profession and the legal system and to some extent, American culture in general, the novel is blended with a great deal of humor and irony which I found quite entertaining. I should mention, however, that Gaddis’ style of writing continuous dialogue without attribution takes some getting used to, and that parts of the book might seem excessive, such as including several acts of a play written by the protagonist, a lengthy deposition transcript, jury instructions and several lengthy court opinions replete with case citations (all of which could have easily been summarized rather than set forth verbatim), it’s nevertheless, well worth the read in my opinion.
Gaddis was no doubt meticulous and although not trained in the law, he clearly did his homework on the subject before embarking on this novel, notwithstanding some minor legal inaccuracies and a few obvious ethical faux pas' committed by the law firm and attorney representing the adversaries in the protagonist, Oscar's, lawsuit, which I chalked up to poetic license. Additionally, despite the absence of significant narrative, Gaddis did an excellent job of developing the characters through dialogue alone, much like a playwright would do.
I neglected to mention the obvious, improbable ethical violations of Oscar's own attorney and his father, but chalked those up to poetic license as well.
