jessica12 shared a tip "I am completely confounded as to why people love this book. It's one of the hardest reads I've ever struggled through. It's overwritten and the storytelling is erratic and tangential. It felt like Styron wasn't sure what story he was actually trying to tell. I wouldn't have minded the slog so much if there was at least one character worth rooting for, but they're unlikeable across the board and after 600 pages I still wasn't invested in what happened to them."