I'm not an english native speaker, and 40s war zone literature is not as smooth as one can imagine.

His writing is pretty dense, so even native English speakers have to take it slow in order not to miss something.

Yes, he is one of those authors. Every block of every thread ends with a cliff-hanger, and you need to read two more blocks before you get resolution. But then, you've encountered three more cliff-hangers ;) So after the first read, I bookmark heavily, and read each thread independently. And sometimes I just reread my favorite threads. Such as Bobby's thread in this book. Also his ancestor in Baroque Cycle, "King of the Vagabonds".