Why You Should Read "A Dance to the Music of Time"

Posted on The Millions blog, Seven Reasons to Read A Dance to the Music of Time, by Marjorie Hakala.  Thanks to the AP List.

Late in life, I've discovered an appetite for monumental works of fiction.  I recently finishedWar and Peace, at 1200+ pages.  But my longest non-series read has to be Anthony Powell's Dance, at twelve volumes.  As I approach 60, I have begun to appreciate how choices and consequences play out over decades, all the time receding into the past, while a new cohort mounts the stage and we look on, older and wiser. 

These works take some patience to get into. Dance, War and Peace, or Trollope's Barsetshire Chronicles, to which I am returning now, need a book or three just to set the characters in motion.  But after that, A Dance to the Music of Time is nectar.