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New Pynchon Book Tomorrow

post #1 of 22
8/3/09 at 8:16pm
Thread Starter 
I had no idea it was even in the works, just found out over the weekend. The book is called Inherent Vice and is apparently a noir-style detective story about a dope-smoking PI in 1970ish California. Word is it's pretty accessable and straight-forward.

I'm definitely picking it up. Any Pynchon fans want to weigh in?
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post #2 of 22
8/3/09 at 9:54pm
Hopefully it's better than Against the Day, which I found tiresome and exhausting.
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post #3 of 22
8/3/09 at 9:56pm
I've only read Gravity's Rainbow (really love it), and I just now finished my current book (Trainspotting, for the 2nd time), so it's the perfect time for me.
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post #4 of 22
8/3/09 at 10:04pm
My expectations aren't that high. I doubt I'll pick it up, but we'll see how it reviews.
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post #5 of 22
8/4/09 at 12:05am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by montecristo#4 View Post
Hopefully it's better than Against the Day, which I found tiresome and exhausting.

I'm thinking it will be more like v. meets Big Lebowski.
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post #6 of 22
8/4/09 at 1:09am
I made the mistake of jumping into Pynchon with Gravity's Rainbow. I made it about 200 pages in and realized I would have to stop and start it again down the road when I had more time to approach it. Had the same issue with Ulysses--a book that needed more time than I had to commit.

There were some passages in GR that literally made my jaw drop, though. The man is a probably one of the few polymaths left--brutally genius, even if his novels might not be. I got the impression that he is a much better writer than he is an author, if that makes any sense.
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post #7 of 22
8/4/09 at 8:25am
It doesn't make any sense, care to explain more? This will be my first Pynchon and it sounds like fun and easy book to start with.
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post #8 of 22
8/4/09 at 11:03am
I will definitely be picking this up. In college I wrote my senior thesis on "Vineland" and another (non-Pynchon) book.
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post #9 of 22
8/4/09 at 11:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Shiva's MD View Post
It doesn't make any sense, care to explain more?

This will be my first Pynchon and it sounds like fun and easy book to start with.

This also might be my first Pynchon, although I wanted to read Gravity's Rainbow. Should I start with something else?
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post #10 of 22
8/4/09 at 12:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntiHero84 View Post
This also might be my first Pynchon, although I wanted to read Gravity's Rainbow. Should I start with something else?

Yes, GRAVITY'S RAINBOW (or maybe V). Some people say read LOT 49 but it's a little bit of a cop-out.

FWIW, I've been hearing that most reviews are pretty bad. I just read this yesterday:

http://nymag.com/arts/books/reviews/58182/
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post #11 of 22
8/4/09 at 12:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by chorse123 View Post
Some people say read LOT 49 but it's a little bit of a cop-out.


That's what I started with. If nothing else, at least it's short and thus a pretty quick read as a Pynchon test-drive.
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post #12 of 22
8/4/09 at 12:14pm
Thanks for the tips. I'll check out Lot 49 after my current book.
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post #13 of 22
8/4/09 at 12:45pm
V is generally more well recieved than The Crying Lot of 49. Either should be used as primer for Gravity's Rainbow, but V is more likely to make you want to read Gravity's Rainbow, even if it is longer than Lot 49.
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post #14 of 22
8/4/09 at 1:29pm
I loved Gravity's Rainbow as well as both Lot 49 and V. I will definately be reading this. The reviews seem fairly devisive, so I don't really think they're areason not to read it if you've read Pynchon before...
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post #15 of 22
8/4/09 at 2:44pm
This is news to me too. I'm (like most people) stalled on Gravity's rainbow at the moment, so won't be seeking it out any time soon. I breezed through the crying of lot 49, took about a month on V, but haven't built up the momentum with Gravity's rainbow yet. I've enjoyed it so far, but its so dense... I think the trick is to read 20 pages or so at a time, and not leave more than a day or two between sessions.
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