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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great introduction to Thomas Pynchon, 18 Oct 2007
Some people will find Thomas Pynchons's style almost inpenetrable(it's been described by critics as turgid and overwritten before) - so rather than getting stuck straight into V or Gravity's Rainbow (500 pages +) those who wish to read Thomas Pynchon may like to try this first at a little over 100 pages.
Although there are many comic scenes in the book the overall effect is starkly melancholy, as the main character, Oedipa Maas, prompted by the contents of an ex-lover's estate of which she is unexpectedly made executrix, obsessively pursues a secret postal service with medieval roots in Europe, which appears to exert a malign yet unclear effect on society...or does it? The book never answers this, as it ends just as Oedipa may be about to find an answer.
Instead the reader is left with a bleak sense of Oedipa's growing paranoia, neurosis and unhealthy fixation with the apparent secret society, in a likely metaphor for conspiracy theorists and cults everywhere. It's a funny book, but the madness of obsession and paranoia are well conveyed in the subtext of the plot, and might leave you feeling creeped.......
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11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's practically perfect!, 8 July 2003
By A Customer
I haven't attempted Gravity's Rainbow yet but after reading The Crying of Lot 49 know that I will - it's on my bookshelf for the moment I finish DeLillo's Underworld which is an epic journey in itself. If you haven't read any Pynchon, don't even try it without making yourself very comfortable with a notebook, a biro and a perplexed look. Combining a vast complexity of narrative themes and strands, this novel (and it is tremendously novel) also makes startling use of different types of media including film and drama ensuring that the reader is never allowed to relax and miss the point. The reader is torn between voyeurism and genuine fear as Oedipa appears knowing but unwitting and definitely not in control. She's a great creation through which to explore the notions of modern femininity, marriage, religion, our attitudes to death, to drama, to mass media and our insatiable consumption of it, and so many other things that this book explores. Read it at your peril, ignore it at your peril - it's one of those books you didn't know you couldn't live without until you'd finished reading it.
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15 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
hhmm..., 5 Sep 2003
This is one of the strangest yet most haunting novels I’ve ever read. It seems to stand apart from many other novels just by its seemingly obscure subject matter and the way in which it draws you into it. The novel is written in quite free flowing, dense text. This, whilst not making it indecipherable can be quite a challenge at times. It is by this method Pynchon draws the reader themselves into the story. The fact that Pynchon can create so much atmosphere in such a short novel is a testament to his craftsmanship.
The Novel (for me) was mainly about the notion of possibility. Nothing much is resolved in the story but so much is suggested. Is WASTE just an isolated cult in that part of California or is there a sector in every town in America? Oedipa goes through the novel with all these possibilities running through her mind. The more she finds out the more possibilities appear to her. It’s like staring at a dark wall and then suddenly realizing is crawling with ants. Her discoveries could change everything, even the ground beneath her feet or it could just be a joke set up by a dead guy with a sense of humour.
The crux of the novel is quite a frightening prospect. If such a massive network, like this can exist beneath Oedipa’s nose and she has never even considered the existence of it, what else could be there that Oedipa and all of us are not aware of?
Pychon draws the reader into this world which resembles an old fashioned X-Files tale. The detail of the historical information in the novel even makes the reader question whether WASTE exists in the real world. Thus putting us on a par with Oedipa and making the experience of the novel all the more vivid. WASTE could just be a small benign thing that is kept running by a few devoted anti-establishment types or maybe, just maybe...This novel will certainly stay with me for a long time to come.
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