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A review by cnyreader
Gargantua and Pantagruel by François Rabelais
3.0
There's a lot about this book that's giant. The amount of pages, the two main characters, the amount that almost everyone in the book eats and drinks, and the volume of ink spent on bodily functions- all giant. Gargantua is Pantagruel's father and most of the book is about Pantagruel's life, though we do get to know Gargantua a bit at first. A good portion, through the end, is spent on Pantagruel and his friends going in search of an answer to the question of whether his friend, Panurge, should get married. It becomes a quest, ending abruptly in a cave after getting to the Oracle of the Bottle.
At first, this was kind of fun. It's satire and very witty. But Rabelais is all over the map, no subject left unexplored, and it got a little tiresome. Perhaps this wasn't meant to be read at one go- it was published over a number of years. But now I know exactly what's being described when someone uses the adjective "Rabelaisian".
Food: a giant tub of over-buttered popcorn. At first, it's warm and yummy and you can eat it at a good clip, but soon you run into dry spots or oversaturated spots and your mouth just gets tired of chewing and it's too salty and wow, it seems like you haven't even made a DENT in it yet, but you bought it so you gotta keep going...
At first, this was kind of fun. It's satire and very witty. But Rabelais is all over the map, no subject left unexplored, and it got a little tiresome. Perhaps this wasn't meant to be read at one go- it was published over a number of years. But now I know exactly what's being described when someone uses the adjective "Rabelaisian".
Food: a giant tub of over-buttered popcorn. At first, it's warm and yummy and you can eat it at a good clip, but soon you run into dry spots or oversaturated spots and your mouth just gets tired of chewing and it's too salty and wow, it seems like you haven't even made a DENT in it yet, but you bought it so you gotta keep going...