Nietzsche compared him to a squirrel jumping from branch to branch. C. S. Lewis compared him to a man chasing his hat on a windy day: every time he bends down to pick it up, the wind blows it further away. I have finally completed The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and the author Lawrence Sterne led me on a chase both merry and long.
A weird book on any count. A strange book for a clergyman to write, in particular. But while the plot is wind-driven and subject to gusts in all directions, indeed no book has a plot like this, and the humor sometimes a tad obscene, the characters strike one as real, pre-Dickensian Dickens personalities, and "my Uncle Toby" maybe even carries a touch of holiness, for all his obsession with siege warfare.
Maybe I'll share some outtakes eventually. I find one list places it 30th among the greatest novels of all time. If you are looking chiefly for novelty in novels, perhaps. Or you belong to what Sterne called "the laughing portion of humanity."
It's a work of sheer genius, and I have to give Sterne considerable credit for his broad humanity. Uncle Toby is one of the most finely conceived and executed characters in all of literature. And Mr. Shandy isn't far behind.