Reading Dante was one of the most excruciating experiences of my life, almost as bad as studying arabic. It was a horrible discovery for me, as Pound and Eliot are right at the top of my list.
If i had any freaking time, I would read the new Cormac McCarthy book, and also one about a kid inducted into a death squad in either Nigeria or Uganda, wait, Nigerian author... no, it's gone.
Faulkner-fan might check out Cormac - although he's more like a demented, old testament type of super-violence, cross between hemingway and burgess, but ultimately very good:
Border Trilogy (read out of order starting with The Crossing, All the Pretty Horses, and then Cities of the Plain - which features the best knife fight I've ever read)
No Country for Old Men (soon to be a coen bros movie with Javier Bardem as the best bad guy ever)
and if you like it really violent, Blood Meridian, but I would seriously not recommend it to anyone with a weak stomach for violence.
anybody ever read michael moorcock (what a name)?