Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Thomas Pynchon ISBN: 0-14-018859-2 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: June, 1995 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.12 (209 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: To The Counterforce!
Comment: The book is a challenge, but enjoyable if you follow it on its own terms. My advice: start on page 1, and keep reading until the end, NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS! You are not an idiot if some of the episodes make no sense. Some of the stranger paths of Pynchon's thought probably require a few readings to sort out anyway (and undoubtedly, some paths that strike home to one reader will not for another). Don't let it bother you, however. The book is actually very soundly constructed, and a careful first reading will reveal a wonderfully unique take on the second half of the twentieth century. Though the novel is set mainly during WWII, "Gravity's Rainbow" is really about the "Age of Anxiety" brought on by the Cold War.
The Rocket is as big a symbol in this book as the whale is in Moby Dick, but it also serves as an anchor to the novel's myriad themes. Anyone growing up during the Cold War knows the dread, paranoia, and sometimes salvific humour the spector of remote-control nuclear weaponry conveyed, and will recognize the opening "screaming across the sky" of the V-2's as a precursor to such nasty peacemakers (the parallel, or equivalency, depending on your read, is made explicit in the final pages of the book). Keep this in mind, especially during the parts (and they will come) where you are wondering what the hell the book is up to. Ultimately, this is a book about paranoia in an insane world, and whether or not you agree with Pynchon's somewhat juvenile politics, he captures the feel of modern madness perfectly. This is a an epic liebestod of the nuclear age (which is still our age, though we'd rather not admit it), a kind of literary, speaking-in-tongues version of "Dr. Strangelove." If you have the stomach for it, you will probably love it.
Rating: 1
Summary: Offensive Trash
Comment: An entire novel centered on the unrealistic, flimsy idea that a man getting erections will attract missiles? Some missiles may be heat seaking but the temperature of blood found in the groin during erections is no longer near the degree it takes to attract heat seaking weaponry. Get your facts right, Pynchon. A scientist you ain't. As for the books social commentary on a whole, I can say this: I have not read the book, but I watched the film, and to be blunt, I've seen better film on teeth. Pick up a classic Steven King novel like IT instead of this pretentious crud.
Rating: 5
Summary: Mr. Sir Real
Comment: Gravity's Rainbow (1973) was published during the vietnam and Nixon era, a time when many americans began feeling suspicious about their government. And while GR is a historical fictional novel about Pynchon's imaginary years after WWII, the ominous tone, which permeates the entire book, is rather timely and fitting.
GR is broken down into 'episodes' that shy away from being 'chapters' because of the hyper-fragmented narration. Although entirely in 3rd person, the same 'objective' incidents are told through different subjective angles, at througout various parts of the book. While this device has been used by Faulkner and Gaddis, Pynchon manages to do it so differently, so drastically, that the sheer style resonates deeply for readers.
Like most literary masterpieces, the book isn't really about anything except abstract ideas: Association Psychology, Relative Time and Space, Parallel Dimensions, Nuclear Physics, Colonization, War, Government Conspiracies, etc. Here, Pynchon flexes his intellectual, academic, and historical muscles (an attribute which is usually very annoying, but not in this case). Pynchon admitted to using the dictionary/thesauras for esoteric words in writing GR, in the introduction of "Slow Learner", a compilation of earlier short stories. This may seem inauthentic, but such arbitraryness is fitting, as Pynchon's novels serve to implicate the Post-modern condition- semantic relativity and over saturation of semiotic input. The novel flashes around like a commercial, blinging lights and strange noises- cutting off abrupty to something entirely unrelated. There are plots, characters, dialog, etc.- but the novel moves through like a dream- where characters and certain experiences become so fragmented that the objective 'reality' of the novel ceases, and the world of Pynchon begins.
One note of advice, have a pad and pencil ready, before you even open the book. There are as many characters as there are scenes, sometimes a dozen on a single page, each one so vivid, and so unreal.
 |
Title: A "Gravity's Rainbow" Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel by Steven C. Weisenburger ISBN: 0820310263 Publisher: University of Georgia Press Pub. Date: August, 1988 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
 |
Title: The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon ISBN: 0060931671 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
 |
Title: V. by Thomas Pynchon ISBN: 0060930217 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 01 April, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
 |
Title: Infinite Jest: A Novel by David Foster Wallace ISBN: 0316921173 Publisher: Back Bay Books Pub. Date: 01 February, 1997 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
 |
Title: White Noise by Don DeLillo ISBN: 0140077022 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
