EDIT: I give up again. 'V' is a travesty of juvenile puns, unconvincing dialogue, and (my own pet peeve) characters with impossibly trite names. Seriously, what gives? EDIT: I decided to try reading it again.have you ever had the feeling that an author is simply trying to bludgeon you over the head with abstruseness? have you ever read one of those books that all of the "serious readers" swear is an infallible masterpiece, despite its meat-fisted appropriation of the stylistic innovations of Eliot, Pound, Joyce, Woolf, et al.? If you haven't, then read 'V'. (seriously, though, 'V' is a great book. i just read it too soon after my Ezra Pound phase, and it sort of rang hollow and derivative. i'm sure i'll love it when i read it again in a few years.) ( )

It's a fun and interesting book BUT DON'T READ IT, read Gravity's Rainbow which has a similar structures, themes, and characters but is much more developed and hilarious. Only people obsessed with Pynchon should read this. ( )

Can I give this book seven or eight stars? An incredible book by itself, this work is remarkable when one remembers it is Pynchon's first novel.

Funny, disturbing, dense, absurd, horrific, casual. There are some sentences and paragraphs that only a dozen writers in the world are capable of matching.

Throughout reading I found myself drawing connections to Bolano's 'The Savage Detectives': The Whole Sick Crew vs. The Visceral Realists, V. vs. Cesárea Tinajero, and so on. I wonder if Bolano read Pynchon? ( )

I've the deep convinction that this book is completely nonsense.
Still, it's beautiful to read... ( )

V was, in all honesty a wonderful book. My joy in postmodern fiction is extremely limited. While I did not absolutely enjoy it, I do recognize that it was well written.

Unfortunately much of the book involved me declaring something along the lines of: "Wow, I have no idea what is happening!" My struggling mind was relieved to see the conclusion of the book and the conclusion of the twisting tale. As I have come to understand, all of Pynchon's novels take the same overwhelming approach... I look forward to another book of his is the future. ( )

At the time a new experiment in fiction writing. The storyline is not linear - more like following a web of tenuous connections between characters, places, and events. A challenging read. ( )

Reading a Thomas Pynchon novel is always somewhat daunting at the outset. Somewhat like entering a large maze without any string to lead you back out again. Still, it's an adventure, and one always worth undertaking. My first such experience was with The Crying of Lot 41 a veritable short story compared with a tome such as V.

V. is complicated and full of myriad characters and symbols that few readers will find accessible, but it is rich and poignant by turns. While you could hardly hope to have it all figured out by the time the tales intersect and wind down to their ending, you will have experienced something quite singular. Really, you can't ask for much more from a novel than that. So, that said, I rate it 4 out 5. 1 star knocked off for a certain amount of perhaps unnecessary pedantry, but 4 stars for being a powerful portrayal of the essential idea of recurrence and the cyclical nature of history. Or, at least, I think that's what was going on.

http://cabal.knickmeyer.net/ ( )

"Events seem to be ordered into an ominous logic."

In many ways this, Pynchon's first novel, is the most conventional of his novels. A double plot, one set in the present (1956) one in the past (1890-1940) laid out over alternating chapters. The one set in the present details the life and adventures of Benny Profane and his pal Pig Bodine and their friends in the Whole Sick Crew during one hot summer in New York. The one set in the past deals with the story of Stencil and his attempts to uncover or track down the mysterious V all over the antebellum world. Who or what is V? A place? A woman? The spirit of the age? History itself?
"Perhaps history this century is rippled with gathers in its fabric such that if we are situated at the bottom of the fold, it’s impossible to determine warp, woof pattern or anything else. By virtue , however, of existing in one gather it is assumed that there are others, compartmented off into sinuous cycles each of which come to assume greater importance than the weave itself and destroy any continuity. " History as a wave of repeating Vs.
At various times and places V appears as an automaton, a spy, a mysterious femme fatale. Gradually, as in the most conventional 19th century novel, the two plots come together, although nothing is ever clarified or made plain...

Read the full review on The Lectern:

http://thelectern.blogspot.com/2007/0... ( )

Between the extended novella The Crying of Lot 49 and the sprawling behemoth Gravity's Rainbow lies V, a book that's neither long nor particularly dense but still finds space for Pynchon's trademark historical digressions and lyrical flights of fancy. Pynchon's first novel is a thrilling mish-mash of Baedeker-Guide colonial intrigue, 1950s bohemia, and a hilarious set piece about alligators in the sewers of New York, all held together by an enigmatic meta-textual thread that is one of the more artful examples of what people mean when they talk about postmodern literature, assuming they mean anything at all. This is the Pynchon novel you should read first. ( )

Thomas Pynchon is a vexing author. Many people report throwing his books in frustration, and one look at the Amazon reviews of this very book will tell you that there are both devotees and detractors. What seems to be Pynchon's attraction is his depth, and that is also his weakness. V is essentially a tale of the cyclical nature of history, from two different perspectives. The schlemihl Benny Profane, ex-sailor, ex-lover, alligator hunter, and most of all wanderer; his drift through history, is a direct counter point to the privileged son of a spy, Stencil. Stencil is intellectual, talks in the third person, and most likely in need of more than a few years of therapy. Stencil is on a quest to find a mysterious woman from his father's journals, V. This quest is how he ends up with the Whole Sick Crew, a scathing parody of the bohemian art scene. Much of the post-war era was defined by a new opulence and freedom, and Pynchon wasn't a fan. While I could fill up three or four pages with different commentaries and interpretations, it is this tendency that intimidates most new Pynchon readers. Keep your computer booted with Wikipedia, and Webster's handy, but ignore the near terminal tendency to foot note the bejesus out of the novel, and make it three to four times more complicated than it needs to be. Yes there are sly references, and there are more characters than you can shake a stick at, but the whole point is to just read the book. A second reading will maybe merit some investigation, but the footnotes are best reviewed after you've finished. Most of the interpretations are bullocks, too many overzealous English majors looking to fill every space in the prose with a symbol until the narrative is drowning. That isn't to say that Pynchon doesn't use very vivid symbols, but he pulls it together on his own, so be patient. Well if you choose to take the plunge, good luck! This took me about three weeks, but I read casually after the first half. The second half meanders around, and slowly brings the two narratives together unto a quiet demise. V's narrative is cyclical like history, the only person who learns a lesson is the observer.
http://pissandvinegar.vox.com/library... ( )

When, as a bright young thing inclined to poety, I finished reading Joyce's Ulysses I figured I had read it all... What could possible come after that? Little did I know what Pynchon was about to unleash... ( )

This is one of the best books I've ever read. It's not easy, but it's amazingly rich, beautiful and strangely funny. It's about the relationships between people and objects in this crazy modern world of ours (well, circa 1960). The man is a genius. ( )

An excellent read for aspiring adventuresses ( )

So vast, so rich, so very strange, that's it's nearly impossible to summarize or even review, 'V.' is a literary experience that must be lived over and over and over again. This is hands down my favorite Pynchon novel and among my top ten "desert island" reads. Be sure to read it at least once in your lifetime. ( )