Title: Important, but also rather hard to really get into
Review: I know that this was considered an important transition between renaissance literature and the beginnings of what we call the novel, but I found this next to impossible to get into. Rabelais might not have invented toilet humor, but he stretches it out about as far as it can possibly go (which ultimately, isn't that far). The constant references to glands and bodily fluids get old real fast. I suppose that in the 16th century, the fact that people poop, pee, spit, vomit, sneeze, fornicate and fart was cause for endless laughter, and those things can still be funny, just not for 700 pages on end. The whole thing is a colorful and inventive mess, but a mess none the less. If you're looking for something to read from this era, try Don Quixote instead, it's got plenty of toilet humor but actually has good characters and a delirious narrative structure which really puts this bloated thing to shame.
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