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174 reviews for:
Thomas pynchon's Against the day: A Deleuzian reading of pynchon's language.
Thomas Pynchon
4.19 AVERAGE
174 reviews for:
Thomas pynchon's Against the day: A Deleuzian reading of pynchon's language.
Thomas Pynchon
4.19 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
informative
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
what
Just way too long. Many sections of this were incredible but on the whole it was a massive slog
This book is enormous. It's completely mental. And it's kind of compelling but ermm...still too long. It's a crazy trip through the Age of Discovery, the changes it brought to where people went and how they worked, the effects of the paranoia technology created on the politics and the events at the turn of the 19th Century. It begins in Chicago where it introduces the characters of the Chums of Chance, who man an air ship increasing in size across the decades. Their explorations through places real and surreal (Pynchon give Jules Verne a run for his money a few times in this one) lead you to redneck dynamiters with revenge fantasies, academics battling the Riemann hypothesis in Gottingen, the Tunguska event in Siberia (this was my absolute favourite part of the journey) and high society in Venice. When I was in the mood this was rip roaringly wonderful. But it's difficult to be in the right mood every time you pick up this behemoth for 40 odd days in a row.
But my god, it was infinitely better than Mason & Dixon. I actually feel I could face another Pynchon now at some point in my life. But not for a while. When a French sous chef appeared I was a little worried he was going all in love with a mechanical duck on our asses again, but luckily that one cleared up quickly. This was great, but would have been amazing at half the length.
But my god, it was infinitely better than Mason & Dixon. I actually feel I could face another Pynchon now at some point in my life. But not for a while. When a French sous chef appeared I was a little worried he was going all in love with a mechanical duck on our asses again, but luckily that one cleared up quickly. This was great, but would have been amazing at half the length.
The book leaves you with some fun ideas and memorable images, but the main characters just weren't quite compelling enough. From reviews, I'd gathered that the author went off on long lists and tangents. But there were entire plot twists that seemed to be just random strange events that seemed to wander on for no reason.
Disappointing to get through a thousand plus pages and to feel completely underwhelmed. I honestly wouldn't even say I liked it, but it managed an extra star just because of its breadth and writing. But ultimately it was much too cumbersome, much too long, and much too convoluted. I read this book nearly everyday for a little over a month but still lost the storyline numerous times. It'd be impossible to sum this behemoth up in a review, but I think the scope of the book was insanely massive, and this led to the book being much too expansive and confusing which ultimately made it none too entertaining. I've found Pynchon's shorter works (i.e. Bleeding Edge) to be much better than some of his longer stuff (i.e. Mason & Dixon). I'd never recommend spending the time to get through this tome. Can absolutely be skipped.
Here's what this book did to me:
What I liked:
- The scope
- The extreme character-driven approach
- All the characters
- The elegant and effortless prose
- The genre-bending aspect
- The intertwining of destinies
- The Lovecraftian factor
- The awestriking esoteric themes
- The exceptional science fiction concepts
- The mixing of the real and the fictional
- The Twin Peaks-esque notion of duality
- The re-readability
- The hopefulness of it all.
What I did not like:
10 stars out of 5.
What I liked:
- The scope
- The extreme character-driven approach
- All the characters
- The elegant and effortless prose
- The genre-bending aspect
- The intertwining of destinies
- The Lovecraftian factor
- The awestriking esoteric themes
- The exceptional science fiction concepts
- The mixing of the real and the fictional
- The Twin Peaks-esque notion of duality
- The re-readability
- The hopefulness of it all.
What I did not like:
10 stars out of 5.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No