Rating: 
Summary: A vast entertainment
Review: As a book about American soldiers in WWII London this is really good. In fact the first 100 pages of this are great, especially the Pirate character who seems to thrive amid the chaos and refuse of the repeatedly bombed building he lives in. But unfortunately the book is not really about WWII London but about the demise of all cultural forms(yawn). At least that is my take on this book which I eventually found harder and harder to care about. Pynchon is a black comic who outdoes Heller and Vonnegut and all those sixties hipsters in his prolonged analysis of CULTURE in the hyper self-conscious post-modern epoch we live in. He is one of those authors who is really more interesting to read about than to read. His ideas are interesting. For instance his fascination with the various kinds of systems that we all live in is a genuine attempt to make sense. Much of this book though doesn't seem to want to make sense but just to have fun with nonsense which is fine if that is the kind of entertainment you seek. Not my bag really. Don't get me wrong, I like laughing, Dr. Strangelove is funny but it doesn't go on this long. To me it is a shame that a novelist with this much talent seems to waste it on jokes. Maybe that is his comment on our very unserious culture. The book does have many themes, even some mystical overtones but after so many vaudevillian antics its hard to sort it out and even to know just how serious to take it. A vast entertainment, that is all.
Rating: 
Summary: Well I put it aside just fine.
Review: Im just a normal average 140 IQer. Please don't get me wrong. I don't judge books by their cover. I did read this book but I think maybe people should just buy the Crimp Notes or the Companion Guide instead. Mostly the thing is like...unreadable. I dont have a Thomas Pyncheon secret decoder ring. I don't listen to Lotion that much either. Dogs? Do they dogs control where the bomb goes? Is this guy working for the government? What's the orange thing these soldiers are being decomposed in albeit pleasurably? Is it an alien? Is this guy an alien? Can I get British women to have sex with me if I talk about fireflies? Somebody please write and explain to me just what this book is supposed to be. I'll change my rating willingly: But first I want to give some casual readers the same advice MY english prof gave me a long time ago, that being:
There are too many good books out there to waste time reading a book that you're not really into.
Rating: 
Summary: Sooner or later I will finish it.
Review: I recommend this book to anyone. It's an extreme challenge - see for yourself. If you dare to rollerblade in traffic while solving calculus problems, you may be the type of a person who can finish this book. I'm 1/4th way through just about now and it's definitely earned entertainment, but so far so good. Better review to come shortly (this is just a place holder reminding me and motivating me to finish this dizzying novel).
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I have read this book five or six times since I was a junior in high school and continue to be amazed at its depth. I was prompted to write a review after reading some of the other reviews posted. Those of you who complain of its less than open style just don't get it. This book certainly makes you work for whatever you get from it but I, for one, do not find that a problem. Let me just say that I think this book is worth it. I realize some will not feel that the rewards of this book are worth that much effort. What a pity! Those who can will find a bit of everything in this book. It begs to be read several times. After about 100 pages, I laid it down for three months before finishing it the first time, but am very glad I finished it. If you find it a bit rich for your tastes, I suggest that you try Pynchon's earlier novel "V". It is much more accessible.
Rating:
Summary: "THE Great American Novel"
Review: This is it. Make no mistake about it. Page after head shaking page of sustained brilliance. It changed my life. Good luck. Not for the stodgy.
Rating:
Summary: Should Come With a Warning Label
Review: The only word I can think of to describe "Gravity's Rainbow" is indescribable. Infamous for its level of difficulty, one thing this book is not, is unreadable. This book can be read, and understood, so long as the reader suspend any belief that every word, page, chapter, or episode can be completely understood. Some episodes make almost no sense at all, and the book does not follow anything resembling a straightforward plot, but in the book's sprawling eccentricity, the luminosity of genius is everpresent. It seems almost pointless to try to draw any comparisons or analogies to any other work of art of any genre, because "Gravity's Rainbow" is one of a kind. The book is not for everyone and I would recommend that someone interested in Pynchon's works read "V." or "The Crying of Lot 49" before tackling "Gravity's Rainbow." Thomas Pynchon is unlike almost any other author and certainly unlike the authors who comprise Best Seller Lists, however if one approaches his works with an open mind, there is much enjoyment to be gotten out of them. Why criticise something for being exceptional?
Rating: 
Summary: A masterful but failed experiment
Review: So close, yet so far. This book is so wonderful in its imagery and symbolism: beautiful, vivid, profound references. Incredible precision and description. The effect is a wonderful gestalt, full of images and impressions of mortality, life, and afterlife, the arc of our lives. The problem is, imagery has to be carried by some narrative, and the narrative in this book is insubstantial. The story simply cannot sustain a work of GR's length. An epic work deserves an epic tale, and the tale in GR is trivial. It is congruent with the comic absurdity of the rest of the book, but makes for a poor read. Thus, while the gestalt, the overall impression of the book is amazing, you are left not caring what happens at any particular moment. You would get as much from the text if you read random selections as you would reading it cover to cover. There are, for example, numerous occasions where characters wrestle with their own fragility and impermanence in the midst of war. These passages are amazing, and the descriptions capture surprisingly well thoughts and experiences we all have. However, Pynchon provides no reason for us to care, absolutely no reason to want to know what happens to any particular character from one moment to the next. The themes are developed fairly early, and drag in pointless overkill. Overall, an interesting, well-executed, but failed experiment.
Rating:
Summary: ...
Review: Like driving when you're .... You don't know where you're going or remember why you're going there. Don't even try to understand what's happening. Turn analytical off. Open your mind and let the sentences flow in. If you manage to make it to the end, you will find yourself somewhere near the beginning, eerily relieved to be there. Returning from the multiplex cinema unsure if you've wandered into "Being John Malkevich" or "Battlefield Earth." The first few hundred pages, I thought, weren't so good, but you gotta read 'em anyway.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: It took me about 14 days, stretched out over 2 months, to finish this deliberately stylized assault on the perception, but it was worth it. A maddening, often hysterical odyssey thru one warped writer's overknowledgable head, stuffed to the breaking point by things you won't one one whit about. Try not to let the mammath attack to the senses slow you down any, even when you feel like putting the book under the bed and swearing you'll never touch it again; force yourself anyways to reach the vivid, truly haunting last scene. The main characters are wickedly drawn, even lost as they are beneath Pynchon's amazingly labryinthine narration. I have no idea what this story was about, and I doubt too many people will, but that should never stop a reader from enjoying a good literary ride. Or in this case, a wild car chase in the dark... Whoo
Rating:
Summary: Catch 23
Review: A great deal of fun to read, this book, nonetheless, is mostly a late 60's re-writing of "Catch 22" (with a lot of borrowing from the then very influential conceits of Borges).
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