The Claw of the Conciliator (The Book of the New Sun #2), by Gene Wolfe

  I was saying in the review of the first book that the writing was amazing, but completely opaque to me. I didn't understand the purpose of the book and I didn't empathize with any of the characters in it. I was hoping the The Claw of the Conciliator would shed some light on the matter.

  After reading it, I am just as - if not more so - confused as after reading The Shadow of the Torturer. I am calling it quits. I can't continue to read something that brings me no pleasure, learning or understanding. And yet the writing is, without a doubt, brilliant. It leaves me with the feeling that if I only understood the genius of Gene Wolfe's meaning I would be elevated as a reader and as a human being, but as such I remain just an idiot.