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The Crying of Lot 49

(Picador Books)

By Thomas Pynchon

(102)

| Paperback | 9780330258708

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11 Reviews

9 people find this helpful

I think this novel deserves a serious reassesment on aNobii.
It is a masterwork without doubt, and a cornerstone.
"Too bloody sixties", say some. Do they also criticise 18th-century novels for being about horse carriages and evening balls?
"Too bloody convoluted", say others. Maybe it's just me ... (continue)

I think this novel deserves a serious reassesment on aNobii.
It is a masterwork without doubt, and a cornerstone.
"Too bloody sixties", say some. Do they also criticise 18th-century novels for being about horse carriages and evening balls?
"Too bloody convoluted", say others. Maybe it's just me having (had to) read Henry James over breakfast at 26, but Pynchon, especially this one, doesn't seem complicated to me at all.
Ok, maybe a little bit.
But then there's an entire wiki on this novel, with all the references you may need and quite a few you won't. There:
http://bit.ly/akQPVN
And in the unlikely case you happen to be a literary critic nut like Yours Truly, you may want to w.a.s.t.e. your time on something of this kind: http://bit.ly/dAWQhI
True, there are many references to the culture of the decade, often brilliantly done. And my guess is he didn't get this topical on any other novel.* Take The Scope: a bar with an "electronic music only" policy. In 1964?! I mean this is even before Kraftwerk. And did you know that this here is the first use ever of the term "shrink" in a work of fiction? And the list goes on and on.
Besides, I think that filtering all this through Oedipa, the Young Republican who lives in southern California, is a great stroke, especially given Pynchon's own political penchant.
True, the novel is very complex, and more often than not you'll find it biting its own tail. It was done on purpose. It can be argued that we don't need violent fiction in a time of violence and we don't necessarily need complicated fiction in a complicated era, but I think that we do need melting clocks and burning giraffes, we do need new cultural references that will allow us to think critically about our own time.
Besides, the narrative goes through various moods. Chapter 2 is really one of the funniest things I've read in awhile, while the second half of the novel (meaning ch. 5 & 6, as the chapters get longer increasingly) becomes dark, unsettling, scary. Just as The Courier's Play, the play-within-the-play, does toward its end: in both cases the mood changes because of the Trystero's ominous presence/absence.
* In retrospect, he did. [27 june 2011]

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míol mór said on May 17, 2010 | 5 feedbacks

3 people find this helpful

Reading this book is like dropping acid on a roller coaster. Not that I've ever tried that, but I assume the experience will be somehow similar to being dragged along on this wild ride of paranoia, philosophy and giggly absurdity.
Book jacket: "Oedipa Maas discovers she has been made executri ... (continue)

Reading this book is like dropping acid on a roller coaster. Not that I've ever tried that, but I assume the experience will be somehow similar to being dragged along on this wild ride of paranoia, philosophy and giggly absurdity.
Book jacket: "Oedipa Maas discovers she has been made executrix of a former lover's estate. The performance of her duties sets her on a strange trail of detection, in which bizarre characters crowd in to help or confuse her."
Denouement: "Those, now that she was looking at them, she saw to be the alternatives. [Alternative explanations for all the craziness-AM] She didn't like any of them, but hoped she was mentally ill; that that's all it was. That night she sat for hours, too numb to even drink, teaching herself to breathe in a vacuum. For this, oh God, was the void. There was nobody who could help her. Nobody in the world. They were all on something, mad, possible enemies, dead."

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annemarie said on Feb 10, 2009 | 2 feedbacks

3 people find this helpful

Mysterious and demanding

I have to say I am puzzled, and probably missing lots of the deeper postmodern criticisms that are constructed around the book.
I found myself variously frustrated, because the clause heavy sentence style is pretty demanding to follow, and delighted when I had managed to follow and enjoy the i ... (continue)

I have to say I am puzzled, and probably missing lots of the deeper postmodern criticisms that are constructed around the book.
I found myself variously frustrated, because the clause heavy sentence style is pretty demanding to follow, and delighted when I had managed to follow and enjoy the intricacies.
I found myself reading it aloud to see if I could make more sense and revel in the language, and think that seemed to work.

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Mearso said on Jan 19, 2009 | 1 feedback

Shall I project a world?

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fukkhead said on Dec 22, 2011 | Add your feedback

Boring

Check out what I wrote in my blog:
http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2011/10/crying-of-l…
10-17-2011: This is the story of a woman that suddenly discovers that she is the executor of a large fortune. She travels to another city to find out why she has been handed thi ... (continue)

Check out what I wrote in my blog:
http://lunairereadings.blogspot.com/2011/10/crying-of-l…
10-17-2011: This is the story of a woman that suddenly discovers that she is the executor of a large fortune. She travels to another city to find out why she has been handed this deed; and finally she auctions all the stuff, and there is a lot (yes, you guessed it, the 49th lot) which is really special (we don't know why) and then there is a bidder who is really important and she doesn't know who he is, and she waits all the novel to find out who he is, and when this bidder is about to reveal his or her identity, the novel suddenly ends.
I knew since I first started this book that I wasn't going to like it a lot. Not because it is not a good book (it is) but because I don't like this kind of "meta-literature" that is constantly trying to show the world to the reader using all sort of symbols and metaphors and figures of speech, that finally you get lost in the form and forget about the core of the story. I don't like to be distracted like a dog with a tennis ball. I want to be told a nice story that I can understand clearly and then draw my own conclusions. Not all that mumbling and babbling about the meaning of life, the meaning of truth and so on. Just drives me crazy.
10-13-2011: I am scared because the back cover compares this little book with Joyce's Ulyses and for me that is no good :-(

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ariadna73 said on Oct 13, 2011 | 1 feedback

Having read Gravity’s Rainbow, V. and Vineland I must say TCL49 is the most accessible of Pynchon novels so far. The number of characters is reduced to little more than a dozen and everything does seems in order throughout the entire novel, doesn’t it ?! Well, it’s just an impression. For a mere 2 ... (continue)

Having read Gravity’s Rainbow, V. and Vineland I must say TCL49 is the most accessible of Pynchon novels so far. The number of characters is reduced to little more than a dozen and everything does seems in order throughout the entire novel, doesn’t it ?! Well, it’s just an impression. For a mere 200 pages novel, it’s suffused with so many references one really needs the companion to fully grasp it. The novel crosses multiple layers – historical, philosophical, dramaturgical - and still manages to remain curdled around his main character, unlike his other works. All in all a good start to Pynchon’s world and style.

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Claudiu F said on Sep 28, 2010 | Add your feedback