The Sot-Weed Factor
by John Barth · first published 1960
5mentions
4recommended by
5HN commenters
2017–2024first – last mentioned
80% recommend20% neutral
Considered by critics to be Barth's most distinguished masterpiece, The Sot-Weed Factor has acquired the status of a modern classic. Set in the late 1600s, it recounts the wildly chaotic odyssey of hapless, ungainly Ebenezer Cooke, sent to the New World to look after his father's tobacco business and to record the struggles of the Maryland colony in an epic poem
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Liking Infinite Jest suggests an interest in American literary maximalism and / or comic novels. Suggestions: The Sot-Weed Factor, Gravity’s Rainbow, Mason & Dixon, Underworld, and if you’re feeling particularly masochistic The Tunnel
on “I Want to Fix Goodreads” ↗I'm saddened to see that Barth has passed, but I'm happy to see his work get some appreciation here. Coincidentally, I am currently reading a copy of "The Sot-Weed Factor" I picked up from a used and rare book store[0] located about 15 miles from his hometown of Cambridge, MD. It is as insightful as it is hilarious. I can't recommend it and "Giles Goat-Boy" enough. [0]…
on “John Barth has died” ↗Only read the Floating Opera (brilliant) and The Sot-Weed Factor. I remember at that time not believing that such a book could be written by a single person. Such an impressive piece of literature.
on “John Barth has died” ↗I read The Sot-Weed Factor earlier this year. It's a fascinating book, very funny and playful and connected to Maryland history. But none of the postmodern experimentalism of Giles Goat-Boy.
on “John Barth has died” ↗…Schlesinger, Jr., The Politics of Upheaval: The Age of Roosevelt Dr. Seuss, Green Eggs and Ham and One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish Scott O’Dell, Island of the Blue Dolphins John Barth, The Sot-Weed Factor Jean-Paul Sartre, Critique de la raison dialectique "Consider the films and television shows from 1960 that would have become available this year." The Time Machine Psycho Spartacus Exodus…
on “What Could Have Entered the Public Domain on January 1, 2017” ↗