Mumbo Jumbo Jumbo Mumbo

I don't even know where to begin on this novel. I've had such a hard time trying to blog about it because I just can not seem to follow/grasp/understand this novel. I read it, yes, often multiple times, but every time I pull away from the book, it's like everything I just read disappears. In the moment, I know what's happening, or at least I have a better sense of what's going on. (Even sometimes when I'm reading I just read words and sentences but don't grasp the entire meaning.) However, once I set the book down, even it's just for a millisecond, I completely lose track of where I was and what I was reading.

I feel like my problem is with Reed's style. Whenever we go over what exactly is going on in the novel in class, I understand it. I get it. I see that there is a story here, a plot, something is actually happening. When I'm reading, I don't get the same impression and I often mess things up. 

For example, I thought Hinckle Von Vampton was a good guy at first. I thought he was trying to get information out to the general public through his newspaper, but his bosses and the people who controlled him had the newspaper purposefully censored and fired Hinckle Von Vampton. I thought he was a victim of the Wallflower Order. That just shows how messed up my reading was.

I just get lost in the flow of the novel. It wraps around my head and seeps into my mind, covering all observant thoughts. I feel like I'm missing important things in the novel simply because I can't understand what Reed is saying! These sentences may sound beautiful or read beautifully, but I really have to think about them, analyze them, to truly understand what's going on.

It's like poetry. Don't get me wrong, I love poetry, but I get so caught up in the beauty of it when I'm reading it that I don't always understand what the poem is really about. The lines and stanzas may flow beautifully and have such music in their meter, but when I look at the individual words and sentences and how they all come together, I'm left with a big fat "Wha?" It's just too much for me. The style covers up the substance. 

With this one trouble of simply trying to understand what's happening in the novel and actually remembering what I just read, I can't tell if I'm enjoying "Mumbo Jumbo" or not. I honestly don't know. I feel like I'm just reading it, and I know I could get more into it. I get into it in class, with what I can follow. In class, once we get rid of the style and uncover the substance beneath it, I am intrigued and interested. I just wish that feeling, that knowledge and understanding, that interest and such would transfer over to when I'm just reading the novel myself. 

Though many in my class prefer "Mumbo Jumbo" to "Ragtime" I have to say that I'd pick "Ragtime" over "Mumbo Jumbo" any day. I never really got people's problems with "Ragtime." I dunno. Maybe I'm biased. But I prefer reading something I can follow, understand, and enjoy, instead of feeling like I'm in a daze or have an amnesia when I try to read.