The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon

[admnaismith]

Aaaaaannd....now I know where Inverarity's livejournal username and picture come from. I guess you're a real Pynchon fan, eh Inverarity?

Comments

[inverarity]

Indeed!

[admnaismith]

How did I ever guess?

Do you think I got the book right, from my take on it? From your review, I pretty much think we be of one blood, ye and I. Except that my particular serendipity in being assigned it this year is that I'm immersed in the 17th century and read a bunch of revenge tragedies similar in ton to "The Courier's Tragedy", and was laughing out loud at the similarities to Webster and Kyd.

[inverarity]

Yes, I think Pynchon stuffs his books full of more in-jokes and obscure literary references than I'll ever get, but the "moral" such as it is is basically that life is strange and no one can be sure that they really know what's going on.

As much as I love The Crying of Lot 49, I haven't enjoyed the other Pynchon novels I've read quite as much, and I have yet to tackle one of his doorstoppers like Gravity's Rainbow or V.