A Canticle for Leibowitz

Walter M. Miller was science fiction writer. The genre remains the last frontier of hacks, frauds and innovators and Miller was one of the finest. Before A Canticle for Leibowitz, he had published only short stories, and it was the only novel he published in his own lifetime. So you can see that style built into the often dense language burning up all that momentum with the feeling it will be spent in 10 or 15 pages.

"They made a garden of pleasure, and became progressively more miserable with it as it grew in richness and power and beauty; for then, perhaps, if was easier for them to see that something was missing in the garden, some tree or shrub that would not grow. When the world was in darkness and wretchedness it could believe in perfection, and yearn for it."

He originally wrote it as three novelettes, and then seeing the theme, re-wrote and combined them into one book with three sections. The book is loaded with religious metaphors and Latinate phrases which add gravitas to certain sections, but also dignify some of the unavoidable gothic overtones that come with post-apocalyptic literature.

There are reams of analysis you can read on the text if you wish to pursue it, or just read it.  Either way I see no need to delve into that redundantly here.