[lbo-talk] Brit lit goes to hell

[Jim Straub]

wow, all of the inpenetrable -except- GR?  Usually its the other way
around.  Mason & Dixon is the only one I haven't read.  But the crying
of lot 49 is a super duper short read (like, a single sitting
potentially) and in my opinion underrated owing to pynchon's
supposedly being unhappy with it.  V is also good.  Vineland is the
least 'literary' and the most pop-culture influenced, and also pretty
specifically about california history and the legacy of the new left.
I am lovin the new one, against the day, which is sort of a slapstick
encyclopedia of the 1890s, with anarchists bombers, labor strife in
colorado, and a lot of magical realism type fun with the new
technologies of the day.

I have heard that mason & dixon is, well, the least good of his books,
from a couple folks.

Full disclosure as to what a nerd I am: Against the day is the first
time a new tom pynchon book has come out during my time as a fan; he
only puts em out like once a decade or so.  So, I was pretty
breathless about the countdown to the specific day.  I (delusionally)
thought it was gonna be like a new harry potter book, with people
lined up at barnes n noble and bookstores being open at midnite the
day it was to be released so that pyncon fanatics could buy their
copies at the earliest possible minute.

I went to the barnes n noble in las vegas at midntie the day it was to
come out.  Nobody was there.  It then began to dawn on me what a
hopeless nerd I may be.


> >
> Fair enough though so far I have found all his books impenetrable with
> the exception of Gravity's Rainbow.
> What did you think of the Mason/Dixon book?
>

clockers by david price.  Of pelecanos who writes in DC, King
Suckerman is regarded as the fan favorite (Howrard University grad
Puff Daddy supposedly bought the rights to make it into a movie, but
the deal fell apart or something), Hard Revolution is about 68 there
and the riots.  dennis Lehane and Laura Lippman I haven't read yet but
are on my list, I've heard Dennis Lehane is now working on a huge
historical novel set in Boston during the years before and after the
police strike of 1919.  Lastly, its not a novel, but The Corner by
David Simon and Ed Burns is still one of the best books I've ever
read.

Those impatient for dvd release of the wire fourth season can always
download it using the wonders of bit torrent technology...


> >
> Give us some titles. Also, does anyone on this list have any idea about
> how to get the 4th season of the Wire?
>
> Joanna