Gravity's Rainbow

Took me 6 months to finish this.

I thought a lot about Katje, Roger, Jessica. The episode with Tyrone wearing the pig costume for the feast day was interesting. I liked their vignettes. I don't really care for/get postmodern writing, so as the book had less and less narrative structure I enjoyed it less and less. I can only take so many interludes where Thomas Pynchon compares absolutely everything to an erection.


At the end of the day, I don't really owe anything to a book. So I debated putting this down but I knew I would absolutely never revisit it if I did so I just powered through.

i think the crux of this (and maybe pynchon's work in general) is the dichotomy between chaos and control in the order of the world, and i think that's especially fitting considering the novel's famously regarded style. pynchon's prose is some of the best i've read, rendering many scenes baffling or vulgar yet imbuing others with a sense of oddly ethereal beauty.

perhaps a more critical look at the novel is futile considering how much of the plot i was unable to grasp, but nonetheless, i don't think this is perfect. imo pynchon abuses racial slurs a bit gratuitously despite the anti-racist sentiment, and i just find some digressions to just be unnecessary in the wider scope of things. though the wide base of knowledge, the countless facts and intellectual digressions weaved through the story matter is undoubtedly part of the appeal. the amalgam of ideas here is intriguing, and the wider story of a world torn by war is endlessly fascinating. pynchon encompasses so many topics into ~700 pages and still makes the transitions between them feel generally intuitive and natural. absolute madlad.

can't really explain it, but this is one of the best things i've read. solid five stars.

YAY! I'M FINISHED!!!

I hate this book. At least the first 2/3. The last third was better.

I have tried to watch the “best movies” list, and 90% of the movies are... man movies. Now we have the same f-ing problem here. I'm reading this book because it's on some lists I want to read. It's a “man” book. This book doesn't have a universal message. It isn't meant for women, and probably not for people of color either. Traitors, murderers, perverts, sure, but white male such.
Francis Ford Coppola is heavily overrated. Stanley Kubrick was overrated. And Thomas Pynchon is overrated. Sorry, all the fans, but it's some sort of “The Emperor's New Clothes” garystu stuff going on here. These things work - on men - because they make you feel the way you want to feel. They make you feel smart. Deep. Cool. Stoic and resilient. That you are not alone in the chaos and confusion that is the world.
It's like the most popular chic lit. That's... well... it's not “The Emperor's New Clothes”, because womenfolks are supposed to be stupid, and being clever, more intelligent and astute than others, is not something desirable in women. You can't get women through telling them there's something only the smartest can see and get. Women... I have been talking about that in other places, and it has nothing to do with this, because Gravity's Rainbow is not written for women.

I think this book is voted to be one of the most difficult books to read, and they are right. Not because it would be difficult to understand it, but because it's so f-ing boring. Tedious, pretentious, pointless. People say it's so good, funny, post-modern masterpiece... Yeah, sure. We definitely don't share the sense of humor. Its like watching a Stanley Kubrick movie. I'd rather watch paint drying. That at least leads somewhere.
Also, the little stories this book consists of are pretty disgusting.
Some people say it HAS to be read several times... I can't imagine anyone willingly plow through this crap more than once, so to me that's kind of people desperately trying to find something about this to make it worth it, desperately trying to justify reading this book, rereading it to force it to make some sense - to me, it's obvious “Emperor's New Clothes” syndrome - people are saying it's great because it is not, but if more people agree on its greatness, the more special and amazing oneself is, for “understanding the greatness” so many eluded.
But, I have read this, and I don't need to do it again. I am not going to read anything else by this guy, he goes straight to my “people who make me roll my eyes just by existing” list.

Obviously this long, complicated book is immensely worthy, for the way it pushed the boundaries of post-modern writing. It used all the taboo breaking energy of the seventies to include as many fetishes and sexual inclinations as it could, and it is also occasionally brilliantly poetic and heart-breakingly beautiful...BUT...
the way it felt for me was mostly a slog, through a turgid marsh, where I was frequently lost. There's too many characters in too many plot-lines that jump about seemingly at random, leaving me not really caring. I made the mistake of continuing beyond the point where I could easily give up.

After 4 longest months of my life, I finally finished GR. I named this summer "The Summer of Pynchon".

Pynchon is clearly a good writer, there are pieces of his writing that are probably some of the best I've read, if not the best. The Poekler chapter is one of the most poignant things I've read. Buttt, and this is a huge but, theres so much nonsense writing to get through to get there. The pay off is just not worth it. I feel like atleast 30% of the book should have been edited out. This was clearly written at a time when everybody was doing coke - the writer, the editor, the publisher and it shows.

Ill probably try reading Pychon, maybe his newer stuff but I need atleast 3 years to cleanse my pallett.

As I said before there are books and there are Books. This is a Book.

This is nothing that can read through with only half your brain active. This needs your full concentration. A complex multi level story with an english level some other authors should really take a note from. A wonderful read, but a really hard read. There are parts where I really had to re-read some pages because I just got completely lost somewhere in sub metaphors and other side tracked part.

But when I was in the zone, the pages just ran by. It was wonderful. I fully enjoyed, especially as it did not suffer from the often problematic Book ending that often has either no end or some really shitty end. This End was great.

Would I recommend this. Well, are you willing to work when reading? Like be really concentrated. Are you willing to not 100% understand what actually is going on and are you willing to accept that you probably will never be able to decipher all the meanings in there. Well, if yes, then go for it.

If not, I think skipping this is better than forcing yourself through this book.

I truly enjoyed and I will read further novels from this author. Wonderful.