The Bookian » Thomas Pynchon

Against the Day

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:34:17 +0000

Thomas Pynchon: Ultimate Space Junky. Back before we had the neutrino ultra-engine drive, we had dirigibles and zeppelins and rattlesnakes in the desert which no one visited except old prospecting mountain men. And then, we had Pynchon. Against the Day is like steampunked cyberpunk with old pieces of wood and dried twigs for broadband. Thats steam-Punkt cyberpunk. Another Bookian reviewer, un-named, has stated the book is “too long, too flowery, to arcane, and too long.”, but obviously is a Neanderthal living in a modern time-warp. This is one of the best Pynchons Ive read in a long time. I really enjoyed vineland, because of clear connection to the time and place… Pynchon has well proven that he is a master of the real. So when he writes something as intricate, surfacey, flat, and ultra-modern as Against The Day, even though its set back awhile, Its clear to me how cartoony our modern reality really is. hey! Its realism! If I want fiction Ill go watch the news. Yeah, thanks. – reviewed by mr. anarchy

V.

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:29:17 +0000

No, not V for Vendetta, as most readers, or readers of palmpilot blackberry ebooks, under the age of 30 might identify it as. V as in Thomas Pynchon. This V is a mysterious entity, the target of a search by Pynchonesque characters. After a recent re-reading of V, I was awed at the artifice of Pynchons mastery. This was one of his earliest books, and the language and complexity is utterly twisted up. The Whole Sick Crew of contemporary readers must devolve to the earlier age of the 1960s to see through the onslaught of hyper-marketing bohemian language and baroque plottings. Aside from Vineland and the Crying of Lot 49, all of pynchons other novels have remained true to density, a density which seems so much less dense because of being trapped in it. Gotta go, blackberry is ringing. – reviewed by Be Profane

Mason & Dixon

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:24:17 +0000

Mechanical ducks. Kool Keith sez: Mechanical Legs, Mechanical legs, and apparently, it was true of the early American Pioneers. I would describe this book using the word Western, but Id be taken to task, so I wont. Its just another awesome Pynchon. Much denser and intimate in terms of characterization, and a touch steampunk, but mostly just plain. old. bitchin. Pynchon. – reviewed by mechoduck

Vineland

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:19:17 +0000

This is an excellent book by Pynchon, in the true Steinbeck vein. Nobody has been able to put on paper a truer manifestation of life in California from the 60s to the 80s. Its the best of fictional politics insofar as politics are a fiction designed by people pretending to be non fiction. The writing is the most normal ive read of Pynchon, which is normally a drawback, but in this case the reversal makes it seem so much more true. The characters and the military industrial politico complex is described truthfully and factually. You may notice the preponderance of the word Truth here, and unlike Truthiness, it is used truely. True dat. Excellent. – reviewed by nsa cia fbi

The Crying of Lot 49

Bookian — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:15:17 +0000

Muted horn. stamps. on. Post office. conspiracy. High School exampleism of an era. Written on bed sheets in musty hotels. Something is happening and it goes back in time like image references in jasper johns paintings. in the Great Tradition. Harold Bloom has conniptions. Unreadable. Just Livable. – reviewed by skipper