Reading challenge

My mind is always challenged with a lengthy, almost incomprehensible, sentence that goes like this:

The juxtaposition of the solitary figure working to produce such a modest and harmless-looking object as a book and the explosion this caused in the minds of men and women then and since led me to look for others whose intense preoccupation posted in placid pages had seized the story of our species. - Melvyn Bragg

The challenge of each reading task really lies in having a grasp of what the writer is saying, and to do that, we literally need to determine its S-P-O structure. Which words do you think are the subject? The predicate? And the object?

The root of our hampered communication process be it writing or talking, as a matter of fact, boils down to a failure or reluctance in identification of this structure. A basic building block that we learnt as a young student in school, perhaps many years or decades (?) ago. Which probably explains why we have unwittingly forgotten it. Please let me hear your thoughts. (EJ)