An American Tragedy - Theodore Dreiser

Long. Reeeaaallly long. Reeeaaallly loooonnng.

The story is fine, the prose is on the verbose side but OK, so how the hell did this comparatively simple plot bloat out to such enormous length? I think it’s mainly repetition. So determined is Dreiser to outline the shortcomings of the American systems of class, religion, politics, the media and justice that every detail is pored over from a multitude of angles until the only sane response is sheer exhaustion.