The short story and the sitcom episode are my preferred artistic mediums, so I generally stay away from long books. Between crowded casts of characters I can't be bothered to remember how to tell apart and serialised cliffhangers bringing timely random jeopardy out of nowhere every few chapters, I'd rather they use that paper brick to tell 100 different stories instead.
But there are exceptional exceptions, and if one of my favourite writers decides his next story needs to be the size of an old-school telephone directory to do it justice, it's got to be worth my time. This four-dimensional Leviathan's been looming intimidatingly overhead for a while, but If I'm not ready now, a few more decades of dawdling isn't going to make me any better prepared.
Alan Moore, Jerusalem
2016 / Audiobook / 1,266 pages / UK
*****
Goes on a bit.
