The Crying of Lot 49 Part 1

I am trying very hard to concentrate and flow with this book. But so far (3.5 chapters in) it's not happening. 

Maybe it's the elements of the story that bother me (cursing, stupid and ridiculous names, affairs--they bother me most). Honestly, there's not a bone in my body that wants to keep reading this story. So that could be a big portion of why I'm not "gellin'" with it. 

Also, the randomness is throwing me a new one. It might be the downloadable version that I have, but it's very hard to understand who is talking and what is being said. There are many fragmented sentences that make it hard for me to follow the characters' thoughts or conversations. I finally broke down and looked up a summary to help me get an understandable idea of what's going on---even though I'm only in the third chapter. 

That summary has helped me slightly. I'm hoping that our class discussion will be more helpful. I'm finding it hard to have an open mind and read so closely that I can pick up on special things. I'm struggling with the act of reading this story so much though that it's making it harder to break down and survey the parts that I've read so far.

I will continue reading and I really hope (and partly expect) to understand more of what's going on the more I read. I hope that train comes soon though.