Mr. Difficult

"Mr. Difficult", subtitled "William Gaddis and the problem of hard-to-read books", is a 2002 essay by Jonathan Franzen that appeared in the 9/30/2002 issue of The New Yorker. It was reprinted in the paperback edition of How to Be Alone without the subtitle.

The essay describes the experience of being thought of as difficult by his readers and his own experience at reading difficult books. Franzen then provides an extended commentary on most of Gaddis's novels.

The essay has attracted strong reactions. Novelist Ben Marcus was hostile. Novelist Cynthia Ozick mentioned the Franzen/Marcus disagreement as part of a larger picture on the nature of reviewing. Author and publisher Phil Jourdan was hostile. A 2013 review of Gaddis's letters described the literary significance of Gaddis by summarizing Franzen's essay.

The essay begins by describing some of the hostile reaction his third novel, The Corrections, received. One letter writer, identified as "Mrs. M— from Maryland", had a list of 30 vocabulary words (like "diurnality" and "antipodes") and some flowery phrases (like "electro-pointillist Santa Claus faces") from the novel that she did not approve of. She asked who Franzen was writing for, since it was certainly not the "average person who just enjoys a good read." She answered her question with what Franzen calls a caricature of him and his presumed readership.

Franzen finds himself ambivalent about his reaction to Mrs. M—. He credits this ambivalence to his parents. His father was an admirer of scholars, while his mother was anti-élitist.

Franzen proceeds to summarize his ambivalence in terms of two models.

Franzen allows that it is quite possible for a novel to fulfill both models. He mentions Pride and Prejudice and The House of Mirth. But he says that the models diverge when the novel is difficult.

In short, difficulty is a sign of success under the Status model, and a sign of failure under the Contract model.

Franzen then proceeds to list nine books that he has never been able to complete, including Moby-Dick, Don Quixote, and Mason & Dixon. (He will add to this list of unfinished books later in the essay.) He then mentions the most difficult book that he has completed is The Recognitions.

...
Wikipedia