Took me nearly a month to finish this tripe.

While Lawrence does have a few interesting things to say, much of this book is itinerant rambling. He tries to establish the thread of a theme throughout American literature that "knowing" a thing is equivalent to killing it, but after the first few chapters, he seems to frequently forget his Grand Unifying Theme only to bring it up sporadically thereafter.

I understand there is a critical edition that includes various drafts of the writings – I can't in good conscience call these "essays" – in this book, including four versions of the Whitman piece (the finished version and three drafts). God save anyone who is forced to read that edition.