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Loading... The Crying of Lot 49 (1966)by Thomas Pynchon
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This was a re-read for me; this book is consistently amazing. This time around I noticed a greater melancholy in the story, as though the conspiracy inside was both something desired (to make the world make sense) and something feared (because of a loss of control). ( ) Pop goes the weasel! Pynchon's 1960s California-paranoia story of odd names, fractured plot and multiple conspiracy theories is soaked in clever allusion and hieroglyphic metaphor, but never really leads to anything. Indeed, frustration is obviously the point, as this clown-car drama full of interconnected but ultimately unresolved inquiries never arrives at a meaningful pattern but simply cuts to black. Pynchon artfully distances us from character, plot and emotion - one assumes as an act of dislocating our own deluded efforts to make sense of this complex and chaotic world, and allowing us to feel instead the disorientation and anxiety inherent in a 'post-modern' society, where communication of all kinds is unreliable, uncertain or unfinished despite our efforts to systematise it. Pynchon packs a lot of sophisticated and tantalising signposting into a short novella, and you can see why armies of smart fans enjoy parsing the under-determined semiotics of Pynchon. But in the end, all the highways in his Golden State lead to the same unrequited longing for answers. Belongs to Publisher SeriesAldina (6) Harper Perennial Olive Editions (2009 Olive) Perennial Library (PL1307) Rowohlt Jahrhundert (84) — 3 more Is contained inContainsHas as a reference guide/companionHas as a student's study guide
When Oedipa Maas is named as the executor of her late lover's will, she discovers that his estate is mysteriously connected with an underground organization. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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