Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by mescalero_at_bat
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
5.0
I just finished this great book, and it's one of the funniest tomes I've ever crashed and dynamited my way through. Most enjoyable!
Pynchon no longer seems like he's trying to prove to the world what a great writer he is - he's too busy having fun creating truly ecstatic prose. The ending was a trascendental experience, it seemed most appropriate to resolve his enormous fugue with the transcendence of time and space via the potential in light. Vectorists indeed...
And in another sense - the book never ends...which is totally appropriate. Things in life never fully "resolve"...and this works for me in ways that the circular (read terminal) form of say, Finnegans Wake wanted to work, but was ultimately an act of self-consciousness.
On a more sober note, I would tell my women friends that this is rather boisterous masculine narrative, and while you might criticize Pynchon for residing too often on the darker side of the sacred/profane construct, it makes the longed-for resolutions all the more satisfying when they come. The assemblage of human conflict in this novel is great, as is the collection of folly. While the gender scale may be tipped in favor of the masculine, there are more than a few dynamic women characters that will take the reader by surprise.
Pynchon is able to explore complex gender themes through the lens of dozens of core characters, all fussing the balancing act of existential ideals and moral conflict while the world collapes into the first world war. The book is an enormous catalogue of landscapes, stunning outfits, overflowing feasts, erotically-charged hats, enviable sex acts (in most cases), scientific theories, mind-altering drugs and libations, natural disasters, military and guerilla attacks, dialects, silly songs, local and regional histories, and a handful of families whose lives intersect in fascinating ways.
The basic story line starts with labor issues in Colorado in the late 1800's. Webb Traverse is an anarchist who uses dynamite to foul the flow of capitalism as it seeks to extend into the west. Turns out folks like Scarsdale Vibe, of the Vibe Corporation (set on dominating the world through globalization) don't like it. They send killers. Bad Things happen. Lives are changed and families are scattered around the globe as revolution breaks out in Mexico, the decaying Hapsburg Dynasty plunges Europe and the Balkans into WW1, and spies and adventurists scan the globe in search of Shambhala, altered states of consciousness, and keys to bending the laws of science. All the while the reader is aware that Pynchon is pushing this often fantastic history lesson to tell us about the world we live in today.
Keep in mind that Against the Day clocks in at over 1,000 pages, and it's well worth the walk if you're up for longer narratives. It's one of those books where you're being introduced to countless people, some who tread water and keep up with the flow of the novel, others who fall behind and disappear without a trace. If you're comfortable not knowing how all the pieces fit for say, at least 600 pages, but see more and more clearly as time goes on, then invest some hours in this one. You'll be glad you did.
Pynchon no longer seems like he's trying to prove to the world what a great writer he is - he's too busy having fun creating truly ecstatic prose. The ending was a trascendental experience, it seemed most appropriate to resolve his enormous fugue with the transcendence of time and space via the potential in light. Vectorists indeed...
And in another sense - the book never ends...which is totally appropriate. Things in life never fully "resolve"...and this works for me in ways that the circular (read terminal) form of say, Finnegans Wake wanted to work, but was ultimately an act of self-consciousness.
On a more sober note, I would tell my women friends that this is rather boisterous masculine narrative, and while you might criticize Pynchon for residing too often on the darker side of the sacred/profane construct, it makes the longed-for resolutions all the more satisfying when they come. The assemblage of human conflict in this novel is great, as is the collection of folly. While the gender scale may be tipped in favor of the masculine, there are more than a few dynamic women characters that will take the reader by surprise.
Pynchon is able to explore complex gender themes through the lens of dozens of core characters, all fussing the balancing act of existential ideals and moral conflict while the world collapes into the first world war. The book is an enormous catalogue of landscapes, stunning outfits, overflowing feasts, erotically-charged hats, enviable sex acts (in most cases), scientific theories, mind-altering drugs and libations, natural disasters, military and guerilla attacks, dialects, silly songs, local and regional histories, and a handful of families whose lives intersect in fascinating ways.
The basic story line starts with labor issues in Colorado in the late 1800's. Webb Traverse is an anarchist who uses dynamite to foul the flow of capitalism as it seeks to extend into the west. Turns out folks like Scarsdale Vibe, of the Vibe Corporation (set on dominating the world through globalization) don't like it. They send killers. Bad Things happen. Lives are changed and families are scattered around the globe as revolution breaks out in Mexico, the decaying Hapsburg Dynasty plunges Europe and the Balkans into WW1, and spies and adventurists scan the globe in search of Shambhala, altered states of consciousness, and keys to bending the laws of science. All the while the reader is aware that Pynchon is pushing this often fantastic history lesson to tell us about the world we live in today.
Keep in mind that Against the Day clocks in at over 1,000 pages, and it's well worth the walk if you're up for longer narratives. It's one of those books where you're being introduced to countless people, some who tread water and keep up with the flow of the novel, others who fall behind and disappear without a trace. If you're comfortable not knowing how all the pieces fit for say, at least 600 pages, but see more and more clearly as time goes on, then invest some hours in this one. You'll be glad you did.