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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
This is my favorite book. Much of the text reads like lavish standalone prose poetry. That coupled with over-the-top ukulele songs, naughty scenes, and a thousand uses for bananas, and you've got a most remarkable book.
90% - this mf gets it...like fully gets it - petro-chemical- military- industrial - pharmecutical complex and it completely rotting humanity, represented in brilliant and incredibly inventive style and structure that's incomprehensible as to how someone even wrote this. also often v moving and deeply human. US as the great satan
5% - cmon did u really need to put that in moments
5% - he probably actually was a bit too high and it maybeee doesnt actually make complete sense/mean anything of the profundity of the rest (90% hit rate is still pretty good for a book like this though!)
so funny that i first read this when i was 18 lol. even funnier that my snobby english teacher didnt now who thomas pynchon was
5% - cmon did u really need to put that in moments
5% - he probably actually was a bit too high and it maybeee doesnt actually make complete sense/mean anything of the profundity of the rest (90% hit rate is still pretty good for a book like this though!)
so funny that i first read this when i was 18 lol. even funnier that my snobby english teacher didnt now who thomas pynchon was
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I am not smart enough to fully understand Gravity's Rainbow, but I am just about smart enough to comprehend the basic trajectory of the book. It's the development of the V-2 rocket as the birth of the late 20th century: capitalist cartels, space travel, nuclear weapons, the pervading and ubiquitous sense of paranoia we all feel everyday living in this world, and a whole bunch of other stuff all come, literally or symbolically, from the rocket.
Pynchon's writing caroms wildly between characters, locations, subjects, and styles, and I found it exceedingly difficult to keep track of what was going on. But occasionally the shape of the book would coalesce and I would get a sense of how important a piece of literature it really is.
Pynchon's writing caroms wildly between characters, locations, subjects, and styles, and I found it exceedingly difficult to keep track of what was going on. But occasionally the shape of the book would coalesce and I would get a sense of how important a piece of literature it really is.
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
First reread in twenty year. Maybe I’ll read it again in another twenty?
firstoffIdon'tknowhowtoratethisworkbutit'slikenootherworkIwilleverreadthatbeingsaidthisbookwaswrittenbyeitherageniusorsomeonehighondrugsobscenedisgustingattimesloadedwithsexualinuendopedaphiladepressingthoughtfulfunnyespeciallywiththenonstoplimerickstheauthorsknowledgeofpsycologychemistrymathematicshistoryreligionmusicliteraturefilmsandhumansexualityoverwhelmedmenottomentionpreteritionparanoiaracismcolonialismconspiarcysynchronicityentropyiwillendbysayingthatidon'teverwanttorevisitthisworkbutsuggesttoothersthatwanttotryitonlisteningtotheaudibleversionwhilereadingthewordsonakindleworkedformetakecareandpayattentiontothetriggerwarnings
oof
Before I read this book, I saw this article about "How to read a Thomas Pynchon Novel" It included tips like, finding a quiet comfortable reading space, it included pictures ... I thought it was hilarious.
And then I started reading Gravity's rainbow... I read the first 100 pages, and then went back and read it again, because clearly I missed something.
After reading the first 100 pages again, I realized I was still lost.
This wasone of the most challenging books I have read.
And after all that, I didn't even enjoy it.
Before I read this book, I saw this article about "How to read a Thomas Pynchon Novel" It included tips like, finding a quiet comfortable reading space, it included pictures ... I thought it was hilarious.
And then I started reading Gravity's rainbow... I read the first 100 pages, and then went back and read it again, because clearly I missed something.
After reading the first 100 pages again, I realized I was still lost.
This was
And after all that, I didn't even enjoy it.
A remarkable book which challenges and rewards. Pynchon has enweaved ideas, theories and thoughts mostly from the Western world into this novel. Expect references to modernism, post-moderism, post-colonialism, gender next to news articles and great writing as a whole.
We all have a few books in our to-read list that gets perennially postponed by their sheer size. I had more than a few, and I kept delaying them till I reached an age where it got difficult to convince myself that I’ll pick them up later. During the last few years I have been pushing myself to add two or three of these books in my yearly reading list. So far they never disappointed me, and after finishing them I realized that the effort of going through a thousand plus pages is small compared to the joy of reading them. One such book was Gravity’s Rainbow.
When I finally decided to read it, I searched Amazon for the book title and was surprised to see that for this one novel, there are dozens of companion books. Some are Interpretations, some are analysis of the text, and at least half a dozen are reading companion and helpers. This gave me a slight pause, whether it is wise to read a novel that needs volumes of explanations. After finishing the book, I was glad that I read it at this point in my life. I am older now, and had the chance to read about many things from science to philosophy, and from history to anthropology. In spite of all that, I could probably pick up on only 60% of the references. Without my training in science and mathematics, I would have missed most of it, and that explains the need for all these explanatory companion books.
That was a lengthy preamble. How do it say something about this lengthy book in a few words. The book felt like an enormous painting, painted on a canvas as big as the sky. I could only see through the buildings, lamp posts, and trees, and could only get a glimpse of small isolated portions. Each portion was detailed and exquisite, but I am not sure of the whole painting. These little pieces are fascinating in their details, expressiveness, creativity, and unexpectedness. All the thousands of references scattered throughout the book are inventive, but how much of that was necessary and how much was a showcase of the authors diverse knowledge? Was he showing off? Were all the digressions really necessary? What if it was a much shorter book?
I will certainly remember the book for its uniqueness and the brutal portrayal of the time during World War II. I will also remember it for all the amazing analogies. But I can’t say that it changed me fundamentally, which to me is the signature of a great book.
When I finally decided to read it, I searched Amazon for the book title and was surprised to see that for this one novel, there are dozens of companion books. Some are Interpretations, some are analysis of the text, and at least half a dozen are reading companion and helpers. This gave me a slight pause, whether it is wise to read a novel that needs volumes of explanations. After finishing the book, I was glad that I read it at this point in my life. I am older now, and had the chance to read about many things from science to philosophy, and from history to anthropology. In spite of all that, I could probably pick up on only 60% of the references. Without my training in science and mathematics, I would have missed most of it, and that explains the need for all these explanatory companion books.
That was a lengthy preamble. How do it say something about this lengthy book in a few words. The book felt like an enormous painting, painted on a canvas as big as the sky. I could only see through the buildings, lamp posts, and trees, and could only get a glimpse of small isolated portions. Each portion was detailed and exquisite, but I am not sure of the whole painting. These little pieces are fascinating in their details, expressiveness, creativity, and unexpectedness. All the thousands of references scattered throughout the book are inventive, but how much of that was necessary and how much was a showcase of the authors diverse knowledge? Was he showing off? Were all the digressions really necessary? What if it was a much shorter book?
I will certainly remember the book for its uniqueness and the brutal portrayal of the time during World War II. I will also remember it for all the amazing analogies. But I can’t say that it changed me fundamentally, which to me is the signature of a great book.