Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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16 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thomas Pynchon can write, 21 Oct 2003
You want great writing? Pynchon can write. Sometimes jaw-dropping images and ideas stop you in your tracks, and make you put the book down for a bit just to take it in.
At other times, the writing is deceptively simple. Just read the first line of this book. "Snow-Balls have flown their Arcs, starr'd the Sides of Outbuildings, as of Cousins..." With a few simple words we can hear the thump of snowballs on wood, we know that we are talking about a large family ("Cousins", not "Children"), the tense tells us we are probably at the darkening end of a winter day, and in describing buildings and kids as equal targets, we have a gentle wit.
So far, so what, maybe? Well, call me a ponce but in the reference to arcs, we have a reference back to Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon's massive, crazy WWII novel loosely themed around the deadly parabola of the V2 rocket. In the reference to stars, we have a pointer in the direction of the theme to come in Mason & Dixon - astronomy and the cosmos, at the time of a shift in society's relationship to it. Mason and Dixon are brought together to carry out astronomical observations, and Mason uses the stars to navigate his line across America.
There you go, a couple of hundred words about the first line. You're in for a rich, astonishing read - just take your time.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lost or Found, 21 Oct 2003
This book will reward you enormously if you stick with it. It is a book for anyone who has ever lost anything or found something. It assumes a vast framework of reference, often very humourously, without intimidating the reader for the shallow grasp they might have on it, and it will leave you feeling more human than when you started it.
Before that it may confound and frustrate you, but it will reward you more than you might think possible.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A surprisingly accurate piece of "fiction", 20 Dec 1999
By A Customer
I must confess my bias towards this book before I start. My name is Richard Dixon-Teasdale, my Grandmother was MH Dixon of Cockfield, County Durham. Yes you guessed it I am a relative of Jeremiah Dixon, he was my great, great, great grandfathers (I still get this wrong how many greats there are)brother. My interest in this book originated from my childhood after hearing all the family stories of the Dixon clan from my Grandmother and following her death in 1984 inheriting some family heirlooms relating to the Dixons, i.e. we have the original compass that was used to draw the line between north and south America. We even had the stained glass window presented to Jeremiah from Captain Cook on his return to the North East of England after completing the line. Jeremiah Dixon was not the only famous Dixon however and many of his successors have a prestigious heritage, for example Cleopatras Needle which now stands on the banks of the Thames in London, England was transported by boat in a watertight capsule by a Dixon, which was quite a feat in those days. Other achievements included the invention of gas lighting in a house, even though this particular Dixon never officially became recognised as the inventor as the history books credit someone else many years later. This invention is imprinted in the history books of Cockfield as the experiments were considered too dangerous as this particular Dixon ended up blowing up his house!! The first inland railway line was modeled on the original plans by another Dixon who wanted to build a canal. The list is endless and I digress. Anyway my Great Grandfather started to write a book on the history of the Dixon family but died before he could finish it. I have decided to finish the book that he started, this has involved me trawling through many graveyards looking for family members and trawling through many public libraries. So if any publishers read this I am open to offers. Anyway back to the review I found the book to be incredibly well researched and provided you have some patience as I did find it pretty heavy going at the start you will be rewarded with a modern masterpiece. I found it fascinating and has been an invaluable source for my own book. Read it you wont regret it!
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