This Thousand-Page Novel Consists of Mostly One Sentence

Ducks, Newburyport requires, shall we say, an extended attention span. This new novel by Lucy Ellmann is, from one point of view, rather short. It's mostly just one sentence. That sentence is a doozy, though. Parul Seghal reviews it for the New York Times:

“Ducks, Newburyport,” the new novel by Lucy Ellmann, recently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, unspools as a 426,100-word sentence that stretches over 1,000 pages — occasionally interrupted by a more traditional story, albeit one from the point of view of a mountain lioness.

I doubt that it was Ellman's goal, but I'd like to see a writing contest aimed at creating the longest possible sentence that is still grammatically and stylistically correct.

-via Dave Barry | Photo: Patricia Wall/New York Times


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I'm absolutely, positively, certainly, doubtlessly, utterly, otter-ly maybe and talking about otters, and badgers, and squirrels, the fact that squirrels are outside my window while I type this comment out about how utterly, there it is otterly again, strange this book is.
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