I couldn't read Mason & Dixon. I'm still reading Against the Day, which is great and wacky so far. It took me years to get through GR, one thing is to get it in a trade-sized edition; it's actually best read aloud if you have someone you can do that with. V. is very readable, a series of brilliant vignettes. Crying of Lot 49 is a fast read, wonderful. The stories in Slow Learner are very good. I liked Vineland too. I'd start with V & Lot 49, try GR, read Vineland, try GR again.
--- Jim Straub <rustbeltjacobin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
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>
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