I don't have much of substance to add as I haven't read Gravity's Rainbow yet. Except perhaps that Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino already held the same spot

I don't have much of substance to add as I haven't read Gravity's Rainbow yet. Except perhaps that Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino already held the same spot in my mind's eye as the last sentence of your comment. Not difficult like the other two, but seemingly similarly composed and having a similar mark left upon me.