My second DNF in as many books, for some of the same reasons. I managed 110 out of 340 pages before I got too wound up with the overcomplicated writing style that had started intriguing, but became more and more wearing as the pages wore on.
It was a better writing style than Pynchon, but not much. The plot was just a very basic pair of love triangles with two sisters, one at the apex of each of the triangles. The level of extra detail was ridiculous. One character was introduced and we were presented with 10 pages detailing his father's war record in WWI, despite that having nothing to do with the story in hand.
Tedious, uninspiring characters and a dull and opaque writing style combined to make this a truly putdownable book for me. One of those books that when you put it down, you don't want to pick it up again.
Your mileage may vary, I'm sure some people out there love it. The strange person who wrote the introduction apparently reads it at least once a year and this copy is in the Virago Classics range. It's not one for me though.
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