I mean, Ducks is actually very straightforward (imo that’s it’s problem) and readable if you meet it on its own terms on the structure. It’s sort of stream of consciousness in the sense that:

1. Our thoughts are cyclical. We build connections between ideas or memories by repeatedly revisiting those ideas or memories with context from new ideas, memories or experiences. So the book flows in a big circle of retreading old ground with new context.
2. The dominating feeling of contemporary America is anxiety. The news and the internet and the economy and the culture make us anxious. And our big anxieties (ie gun culture) interface with our small anxieties (ie how many pies can I sell today). The book is trying to assign form to that feeling.

You gotta commit to understanding how the prose supports these central ideas to get the benefit of the effect Ellmann is creating. Ultimately I think it’s a little too long but it’s very easy to read if you get that rhythm.