GR is supposedly more complicated than the rest of his stuff,īut don't take that to mean 'read V. The two pieces of advice I hear all the time, are read them in chronological order, and / or read something else before gravity's rainbow, and it's my first attempt at any Pynchon book, but that said, I'm half way through and have thoroughly enjoyed it so far, I mean seriously enjoyed, more than anything I can remember reading. I can't say anything about that, I just started reading V. MD being my favorite by far, and probably my favorite novel I’ve ever read.Īnyway, it’d be nice to hear from different perspectives on the first novel. I do not even feel very compelled to go back to many sections or quotes, where I nearly read the other books over again the moment I finished them. I’ve read GR, MD, and CoL49, and I’d say V., while glad I’ve got it under my belt, was my least favorite.

The narrative felt the most vague to me of the books I’ve read so far. Benny does emerge as a rather sympathetic character, but I wish he had more to do throughout the novel - yes, even though his lack of doing is sort of the point. I did enjoy parts of it, but the sections with the Whole Sick Crew are numbingly redundant, not terribly funny or profound. On the whole, its themes feel somewhat simplistic, or, perhaps they are portrayed more directly? Waiting for Godot, which feels thematically and structurally like a key influence, seems to accomplish as much if not more in about 60 pages. I just finished it and would love to see what others felt about this one and its place in his work. As far as I can tell, this is maybe the least discussed/mentioned of the novels on this sub.

Pynchon thomas v