A review by jnicholas
Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon

5.0

Absurd monolith of a book. In a lot of ways it's classic Pynchon only a bit more direct, but the sheer scale of it makes it a real brain-eater. 1220 pages of the smallest type you've ever seen in your life. Some of the most beautiful writing I've ever read, along with so many references to other books/places/events/art, it's insanely comprehensive. The bits about Tunguska are actual perfection, and I didn't expect to love learning so much obscure maths and physics. The steady removal of magic and joy as the book goes on nicely echoes the limiting of futures under turn of the 20th-century capitalism and the inevitability of WWI, but this obviously makes it a bit less fun to read. But it turns it around for the very end, and the ways hope re-emerges are lovely. An absolutely glorious mess of a book I'll always treasure reading.