Life doesn't have it, neither should novels. He did not engage in neat experiments with plot, structure, form. He offers no foothold for those who live for such things. And those of course comprise many of the curriculum choosers, cannon shapers. Wolfe simply wrote long prose poems of the experience of being alive.
Poetry is the toughest of mediums for most folks to swallow.
These issues of form were exacerbated by his content, his purpose and his conclusion. Wolfe's extraordinary poetry insists that we can and we must. He is merciless to the mealy-mouthed. I will go everwhere, I will see everything, and I will write, write, write, until I have written it all. Here is a man who literally strove to see and to understand everything.