The Crying of Lot 49

The Crying of Lot 49
Author: Thomas Pynchon 1965 152 pp
My rating: 2.5*
Started September 19 2008, Finished September 22 2008.

Whoosh. That’s the sound of this book going over my head. This is supposed to be an archetypical (and relatively accessible, hmmm) example of post modern fiction; if so, I’ll stick to modern and earlier. Basically, the only thing I liked about the book were the few satirical elements which I actually understood: a defense company called Yoyodyne, a not that funny parody of British invasion era rock group and a send up golden era Hollywood movies in which a dog stands watch on a submarine, looking through a periscope and barking whenever it sees anything. What I didn’t like was the hard to follow, red herring plot involving Oedipa Maas’ attempt to unravel a possible conspiracy as part of her duties as executor of an ex-lover’s estate, the over the top names assigned to every character (Pierce Inverarity, Stanley Koteks, Mike Fallopian etc.) and the lack of recognizable human action, interaction or emotion.

I suspect that to really understand, appreciate and enjoy this book, one would have to put a lot more effort into it than I did, reading (and rereading) slowly and carefully and perhaps consulting a reader’s guide as one read along.

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ACDC stands for Alameda County Death Cult. (99)