Finally!!! Not his best, but I've waited soooooooo long for a new Pynchon. And let's be honest, "not his best" from Pynchon outdoes most writers' "top-notch." ( )

i've only read the first hundred pages or so -- which, considering the edition i was reading was 1200 pages, is barely a scratch -- but i'm sold. as soon as i come across another copy. ( )

d it, have to read it again, right now i am just confused

A Pynchon novel is not a "quick read." It took me ten years to finally work my way through "Mason & Dixon," having several false starts. It took me a couple of months to work my way through "Against the Day," even though it was not nearly as difficult. Pynchon's word-play, dense structure, his allusive prose-style, and sudden shifts in perspective and narrative focus mean a casual read is out of the question. Yet, despite the difficulty, I still enjoy Pynchon's novels. They are full of wit, some wisdom, and a lot of scope, always looming out there the Big Questions - like, where are we going, what are we doing here, and just what, after all is this book about?

In fact, I loved "Mason & Dixon," which added a layer of humanity on the work of an author whose writing sometimes seems as cold and inhuman as anything he must have written while he worked for Boeing. In "Against the Day" he returns more or less to his emotionally austere form, however, with a sprawling novel that moves from Colorado mining towns to Mexican revolutions to London, Vienna and Venice, to pre- and post-war Europe, and, as Pynchon says, "one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all." One does not read Pynchon for deep character development (although "Mason & Dixon" broke new ground with its titular astronomer and surveyor), but it is expected that there will gobs of people with strange names, and Pynchon does not disappoint.

Indeed, this book as a whole does not disappoint. While not as good as "Mason & Dixon," "V." or "Gravity's Rainbow," it features the breadth of Pynchon's talent and is a worthy addition to his oeuvre. ( )

I simly could not get through this book. I gave it a valiant effort - I didn't give up until about page 650. At that point, I reassessed, and realized that I had no idea what was going on in several of the story's plotlines. Some of the plot threads were very interesting - but others made no sense and seemed as if Pynchon was just writing stream of consciousness. At some point I will try another Pynchon book (since this was my first), but I cannot recommend this to anyone. I feel like if it had been written by any other author, it would never have been published. ( )