Rating: 
Summary: This book is really good man.
Review: Gravity's Rainbow is funny and thought provoking. The care with which Pynchon crafts each scene is astonishing, tailoring the style to the context, somewhat like Joyce but less crazy. I'm especially happy about the intelligent interweaving of mathematics into the manuscript, as opposed to say Henry Miller's technique of throwing math terms in but without understanding.
Rating: 
Summary: Better dead than read
Review: I have read Pynchon's stuff at least partly out of loyalty to a fellow Cornellian, but this was very heavy lifting, indeed. I only finished it beacuse I was on jury duty. Slogging through (is this the derivations of Slothrup?) this book reminded me of reading "An American Tragedy" in high school: I kept wondering why anyone thought this was a great work. For a MUCH more enjoyable, clever and funny book with real characters that covers very similar territory (and has more up-to-date references) try Neal Stephenson's Cryptomicon.
Rating:
Summary: Since when does not liking a book you like equal idiocy?
Review: I DID read all of this novel and I DID understand it and it was a shameful, sad spectacle. The characters (and, hey, a novel is supposed to have them) were more wooden than mannequins. The story, when finally discovered, sounds like a bad LSD flashback and a very silly one to boot. No one denies Pynchon's intelligence. I do not deny the intelligence of the unabomber either. I just think what he wrote was tripe (Like what Pynchon writes). I thought this novel was a complete waste of my time and it amazes me to hear so many praise what I think was paranoid and resembles silly cult literature. My father had a book back in the fifties sponsored by an extreme right wing group that was equally paranoid and absurd. The whole tone of that bizarre publication resembles the tone of Gravity's Rainbow. But at least the fifties book had some unintentional humor in it. Pynchon couldn't write anything funny if his life depended upon it.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant!! It must be read!! (Are you up to the challenge?)
Review: What must be said: THIS IS A JAWDROPPING COMIC MASTERPIECE! THERE IS NOTHING ELSE LIKE IT. BUT YOU MUST LET IT SET ITS OWN RULES!!!!!!! (If you don't, then the joke's on you) Now look down at all those terribly stupid one-star reviews: who mentions the humor? who mentions that this is satire? tsk tsk tsk... Man!! When a reader knocks heads with a novel, and the novel is found wanting, why is it always the author's fault? If you didn't "get it," ha! it got you.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy handed tripe that academics love
Review: Here we go again, another book that only a tenured professor can love. There isn't a single fully developed non-wooden character here. The humor is so heavy handed that the jokes all fall like a ton of bricks. The plot reads like paranoia so severe that cultists would be embarassed by it. I found it unreadable and heartless. I take great comfort in believing that this will not survive with time but will be forgotten.
Rating:
Summary: Great book for the information processor.
Review: This book is one of those that, either you hate it or you like it. The clue to this books lies on how acostumed you are to handle huge amounts of information. Sure, not everyone is able to do so, it isn't a natural ability either. The way to aquire it is just by reading and I mean reading alot. For example, right now I'm reading Hawkin's Black Holes and Baby Universes, Sagan's Broca's Brain and Commet and Asimov's Guide to the Bible Old and New Testament, A choice of catastrophes, the land of Canaan and New guied to Science. This far, I retain all I read. You get what I mean? the fact that you didn't handle the first hundred or so pages, doesn't mean the book is bad. Now, for the ones complaining this book is impossible to read because of it's plot, well I can tell ou something, every book, doesn't matter how bad it is, teachs you something. Also,Weisenburger's companion isn't necessary at all. But buy it if you need it. Enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: I guess I'm paranoid too!
Review: This book has defeated me three times now, but I still feel like I *have* to read it. Remember that old joke that ends with the punchline "...no soap radio!", and didn't make any sense? I think this book was written with that joke in mind. And all of the 5 star ratings are the people that laughed at the joke... ...or maybe I really am stupid...
Rating:
Summary: Paranoid Tripe
Review: Truly a mis-understood book, so much so that when published it was mistaken for a literary work and presented with the National Book Award. In the case of this book appearances turn out to be all there is. What appears to be aimless ranting - is, in fact, aimless ranting. Paranoid diatribes are, in fact, nothing more than paranoid diatribes (with a decidedly liberal slant - Earth to 60's liberals: an industrial/financial conglomerate did not precipitate World War II for the purposes of arms sales and the U.S. government is not bent on mind control). James Joyce was a geniune literary talent - he was allowed to be pretentious and he could get away with intentional obscurity. Pynchon is not a talent, and he is nothing if not pretentious (without merit) and intentionally obscure (better to hide his lack of talent). Comparisons to Joyce are insulting and absurd. Bottom line: A complete waste of time.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: I love the extreme reviews this book provokes. Some people seem to get it, some just don't. It is wild and disjointed. People (hundreds, literally) come and go. Sometimes hard to figure out, but definitely logical. Sort of like real life. The definitive take on the Cold War Era. It is the Dr. Strangelove of books.
Rating:
Summary: A novel on the grandest scale
Review: I don't think a novel can be written that will surpass what Gravity's Rainbow achieved. I'v ejust finished reading it for the first time and already am thinking about a second one. An absurdist and drug induced Pirgrim's Progress that is both the funniest and most bizarre/disturbing book I've ever read. A must for anyone who is looking for life and something vital in the too often passionless literature of the last thirty odd years
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