The Halls

Since I'm not in class anymore, I can read for pleasure. I'm currently reading this book,

I can barely stand this book. I'm reading it because it seems that it's well regarded, but I can't stand the dialoge. It's all insane.
Here's a typical passage:
Dreedle wanted his men to spend as much time out on the skeet shooting range as the facilities and their flight schedule would allow. Shooting skeet eight hours a month was excellent training for them. It trained them to shoot skeet. Dunbar loved shooting skeet because he hated every minute of it and the time passed so slowly. He had figured out that a single hour on the skeet shooting range with people like Havermeyer and Appleby could be worth as much as eleven times seventeen years.
WTF!?!? Who talks or thinks like that? This guy had to be on some serious drugs.