The Crying of Lot 49 (Perennial Fiction Library) (original 1966; edition 2006)

Un romanzo strano, in cui tutto può essere vero come non esserlo - e al lettore non verrà data la soddisfazione di distinguere le due cose.
Questa duplicità (vero-non vero) può dipendere forse dalla comunicazione, elemento centrale del romanzo, e di come indizi spuntino fuori per confermare una tesi complottistica o per smentirla essendo solo frutto di casualità.
La comunicazione è sicuramente un elemento importante: abbiamo attori, musicisti, film, recite a teatro e il servizio postale; tutti quanti che non forniscono alcuna certezza.

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A weird novel, where everything can be true as well as it can’t' be - and the reader will not have the satisfaction to tell the two things apart.
The duplicity (true-not true) may depend on the communication, central element in the novel, and on hints that appear to confirm a conspiracy or to deny it being only random events.
Communication is an important element: there are actors, musicians, movies, play at the theatre and the postal service; every each of them not providing any certainty at all. ( )

I liked parts of this book, but to be honest I'm not really sure what the hell happened.

On the plus side, at least it was short.

I'd meant this as an introduction to Pynchon, being that it's short compared to everything else he's written. It wasn't bad really, and it had plenty of elements that I like in my fictional reading (almost like a precursor to Ellis and Palahniuk), but it just didn't really click as a coherent story.

I read that Pynchon himself didn't really care for this one, so I don't expect that it reflects on his other (much longer) novels. ( )

Just can't get on with Pynchon - gave up after 30 or so pages. ( )

dense; full of (now-dated) cultural references; symbolic, paranoiac; either brilliant or a mere literary puzzle

Had to read this for school, and it's the last week of classes so my attention span is very, very limited. Perhaps if I had cared more, read more slowly, or bothered to retain any information while I was reading I may have enjoyed it better. But as it was it seemed like just a bunch of words thrown together at many points. There were definitely some humorous moments, but they just couldn't outdo how pointless the whole thing seemed. ( )