Falling Dog

Donald Barthelme is without a doubt the strangest author I have ever encountered. His writing is very sporadic and weird. The story is about a dog who jumps out of a window and lands on a man. The man, who is never given a name, then tries to return the dog to its owner. While the story seems normal, it is written in a James Joyce stream-of-conscience style. He is constantly asking himself what the dog is thinking or how does a dog pass judgement on people. The characters are also weird because they are so many, and they are only in the story for brief periods. They're relevance is almost meaningless, and he incorporates strange rants, probably derived from the authors own issues. Little meaningless poems litter his writing, and drive the reader away from the story. It was difficult to read, and made me want to put the book down. I really didn't like the story, and after finishing it, I tried to read another one of his short stories. I was met again with unorganized writing that may or may not explain Barthelme's personal life.
Barthelme also uses homophobic language by referring to people things as "gay" or "flaming." I found this to not only be offending, but entirely unnecessary. While these words are still thrown around in film, literature, and common life, the use of them was blatantly intentional and insulting. While he may have a cult following, I am definitely not interested in reading anymore of his material.