and IMO you don't have to keep everyone in place. Indeed, the 'prevalent people' are what's most important. It's such a 'big' book in so many ways but it comes into focus. Have fun!

I drew family trees, made a ton of notes and used page flags all over. I think the first time, I may have used the Cliffnotes, too. (First read was for a literature class in college.) It's worth every moment invested, but it's a different narrative style. With practice, it gets easier.

I know it helped me to have some Isabelle Allende and Laura Esquivel under my belt before tackling the master.

Which makes the oddity of it's structure less alien.

I don't like taking notes or marking pages unless I'm writing a paper. The only books I've ever used companions readers for were by Thomas Pynchon. Maybe when I reread it in the future I'll do it more carefully. At the pace I'm currently reading, I'll be finished with it before Sunday.

started out as writing a paper on it as a favor for a waitress I was hot for, but as I got into it I realized I was way over my head in a new world.

Now, I can't remember much about the book itself, or the paper I wrote (or even much about the waitress) but I do remember that the book was open to possibly an infinite number of readings. The at first ridiculous names and family members weren't simply memory exercises like in Russian novels, but points of consciousness that sent you into explorations.

Don't read it as a narrative, but as a mystery and let your imagination roam. Try to experience the whole.

Even since I've posted this OP I've read about 70 or 80 pages. Despite the immensity and fractured nature of the narrative, it flows very well and I find it hard to put down.

It's really quite a disturbing book filled with an undeniable melancholy.