Rating: 
Summary: A worthwhile read.
Review: There are so many reviews for this book already, but I thought that I would add my two cents, because I disagreed with so many of the negative reviews I saw. I read the book (Yes; 'cover to cover,' all you one star skeptics). I am not an English major. I did not read it with a dissertation or any sort of annotations. I admit I took some notes on things that happened, because it is such a long read. However, I must say that it is well written and that I enjoyed it. I found the dense style entertaining; Pynchon spins yarns that sound like paranoid graduate school theses. He begins to make it so convincing that for a few moments he has you believing in some paranoid/abnormal conception of history, and at that moment he winds up and says something completely ridiculous , which shatters the whole idea that he had been selling. The novel frequently had me in stitches, and though the jokes took a little bit more thought than the average novel, they were 'worth the work' to understand (that much more amusing). The book was something of a cosmic farce, but also made some very worthwhile commentary on the nature of life (or more precisely, the nature of history). As far as the style goes, this book is for people who hate the exposition and denouement (resolution) sections of a novel. It is layer upon layer of development with barely any (or no exposition and denouement). We learn about characters only as they apply to the issues at hand; the characters are subsidiary to the larger themes of the work. I don't understand why people denounce this novel because the style is difficult, or say that Pynchon is a bad writer because he makes the reader work so hard. That is precisely what makes him a good writer; he has the scruples to make the reader work. If the reader doesn't work there is no art in the novel, only entertainment. It is only by inspiring us to learn and rethink that art has meaning; if you sigh contentedly in your easy chair after finishing a book, that simply isn't happening. Poor writers work so that the audience doesn't have to; they are not artists, they are worse than the people, to which they are pandering. When the childish masses scream for candy canes instead of broccoli, a poor writer will give it to them. People who give up on this work and works like it, exclaiming that 'the emperor has no clothes' are simply children who can't seem to make it through the main course to get to dessert.
Rating:
Summary: Do ya Know what I'm saying?
Review: About this book.There is a whole lot of Fighting going on here in the Zone. Too many French soldiers fighting and writing... Nobody Smokes in Germany... but then again, how can Englsh folk Smoke when Their mouth is filled with Cream Pies? So I wouldn't listen to any of Them. Does anyone out there have a Light? Someone give me the directions. Of course, You Understand, now the Darkness demands a little Plot and Clark Gable and movement into the SouthWest... Gravity's Rainbow is definately weird. I tried to mimic Pynchon's writing style so you will get a feel (ja, ja). But at times it's rather confusing. I don't think there is any kind of unity to it, other than the chaos and horrors of World War Two, which is what the book is about. But if you like to learn, then this book is definately for you. No other book will teach you more about Newton and that kind of scientific thinking. There. So read the book.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book because it is written with words!
Review: Initially, I wanted to read this book so that I could have something to talk about at lame college parties, but then I read it and fell in love with the prose, and narrative attitude that Pynchon employs. My first mistake though was reading it for historical accuracy and knowledge. The book is indeed a genuine, satirical, and poignant commentary on the Second World War, albeit to read it as such is absurd--you'll gain nothing but a headache. I would read a page for almost an hour, thinking the current topic of the sexual prowess of so and so would be revealed to be an intricate part to some rocket sequence, and then find out Pynchon had been talking about wallpaper. The book is merely, in (of course) my opinion, lyrical genius. I stopped reading it when I realized I was trying to contextualize everything in some time and place I heard about through a history text--as if fiction only gets good when it seems real ; upon my second try I attempted to read it as a poem. I read it all the way through like this. Without any meaning, significance, or thought of satirical connotation, the book becomes a simple feast for the ears ; I enjoyed reading this book because it sounds so good. I would want to read my friends non-sequitir passages about bananas and artillery because I thought that lingually they were beautiful, and that perhaps the book is not supposed to be taken as a serious political/historical novel. Read it for the words ; language can be meaningful and intimate and special just because it sounds, well, neat. If you are going to sit there and look up every reference, then you will miss out on Pynchon's most amazing literary talents.
Rating: 
Summary: Porque algunos libros hay que dejarlos pasar
Review: Recientemente me embarque en la lectura del libro de este libro. No me asustaba el tamaño del libro pues he leído ejemplares mucho más grandes en ingles y no me molestaba. Pero de todo esto he aprendido que no todos los libros están hechos para todos los públicos. Sé que habrá personas que se enfrascaran en la lectura de Pynchon y que les gustara, pero después de leer por segundo día consecutivo me di cuenta de que este no estaba destinado a ser uno de los libros que terminaría. Me sentía como si perdiera mi tiempo y la historia nunca fue mía. El libro trata de manera someramente, pues es grande, de un mapa que contiene las aventuras sexuales de un elemento de la armada, y que coincedencialmente, esa es la ruta de unos proyectiles. Al principio, parece desordenada pero parece que va a tomar forma, aunque por ratos me recordaba de James Joyce y su novela Ulises. El desorden y las palabras que parecen inventadas hacen que el lector pierda el interés en el relato que da muchas vueltas en el primer capitulo. Creo que las novelas largas deben atraer al lector y ser más livianas que las pequeñas, pues hay mas posibilidades de dejar el libro a la mitad si es pesado y de terminarlo si aunque sea pesado, es corto. Habrá mucha gente que le leerá y que no dejen que este comentario los desanime, pero hay escritores que no se hicieron para mí y creo que este es uno de ellos. Luis Mendez
Rating:
Summary: The Great American Novel of the 20th Century
Review: In Slaughterhouse 5, Vonnegut writes that Dostoyevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov" used to have all the answers to life's problems -- but that after Dresden that wasn't enough anymore. I think GR may come closer to fitting that bill than any other book around. It is the Moby Dick of the 20th century, where the hunt is on, not for the Great White, but for Rocket 000. Pynchon knows his history and entwines it into the story in such a way that it becomes hard to know what is real, and what is not. The result: paranoia. And paranoia is a condition of the modern individual. After reading this for the 3rd time, I became aware of things like Operation Paperclip, John Foster Dulles' work for Nazi industrialists, MK ULTRA, intelligence work with LSD and other drugs, the official abuse of children, and Pynchon's work took on more and more meanings. There is a lot here. And if it is difficult to read, consider what it was like to get the "A treatment" at Cornell or Harvard and keep your sanity -- TK is a case in point. I would not be surprised if Pynchon knew about this too, given Slothrop's discovery that his family contracted with authorities to perform Pavlovian conditioning experiments on him. Read it. Read it again. Think about it. It's a great book.
Rating: 
Summary: i love this stuff
Review: It's been years since I read GR and I still enjoy thinking about it.
Rating: 
Summary: Slothrop's Odyssey
Review: Mix Joyce's "Ulysses" and a modern sci-fi novel, set it during WWII, and you get "Gravity's Rainbow". Like Joyce, I felt that GR was simply too much effort for too little gain. To understand even half of the book, not only do you have to read very slowly, but also slog through annotations or a separate guide. The time investment in comprehending this book is very large, and I simply do not feel that I walked away with enough to justify the time spent. If you are the type of reader who enjoys stopping to dig for secrets on every page, this book is for you. If you are a casual reader, it is not.
Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: A post-modern bible of sorts, this tale leaves one and all scratching the head. Outragious characters, impossible storyline, difficult narrative, dark humor abound, one cannot but puzzle and as a result love this tale of whatever . . .
Rating:
Summary: the kirghiz light
Review: I read this book on autopilot at times because it is difficult, perplexing, and too much to handle after a while. There comes a point when you just have to put it down and nurse your wounds before going at it again. Pynchon is the heavyweight of all heavyweights. I've never read anything close to the calibre of Gravity's Rainbow. What brought me to it was a class in college. We had to read COL49, and i liked that a lot. Then i read V., and it was even better. Then i picked up GR. Nothing could have prepared me for its heft. People wonder at the intelligence of the man(Pynchon, that is), and, of course, the man is obviously brilliant. But, the true secret is, the guy has read everything! No wonder no one knows anything about him. He's too busy reading at the library of congress. He doesn't have time for interviews. What really makes this book so fantastic is the fact that it is the epitome of fiction. It is art, a tool to show us something, to make us aware of an otherness, what lies just beyond our grasp. GR is more like life than anything because it doesn't always make sense, because you will never figure it all out, and neither will its characters. GR accomplishes what Pynchon's other novels attempt. It reveals the puzzle, the game, the maze that life is.
Rating:
Summary: For De Mille, young fur-henchman can't be rowing!
Review: The rumors are true: this book is difficult. It's obscure. It's labyrinthine. It requires unusual feats of memory and patience on the part of the reader. But none of these qualities is, in itself, bad. NO considerable work of literature, from any period of history, yields up all of its pleasures to the idle reader. And "Gravity's Rainbow" is a very considerable book. A great book, even. It rewards diligence and attention, because through its web of symbolism and verbal acrobatics Pynchon has created a very beautiful and, yes, meaningful statement. This statement is not hidden by the symbols and puns; it is CREATED by them. To say that "Gravity's Rainbow" is a good book burdened by an overly indulgent execution is to miss the point. The execution is the book. There is no way to separate the two. So, should you read "Gravity's Rainbow"? Or, more appropriately, would you enjoy reading "Gravity's Rainbow"? It depends. I definitely wouldn't recommend it as light reading, but I wouldn't recommend almost any of the books I really love as light reading. If you like big, complex, sprawling literature ("Ulysses," "One Hundred Years of Solitude," "Moby Dick," Blake, etc.) then this book might be just what you're looking for. If you prefer the minutely crafted and the rigorously controlled ("A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man," Fitzgerald, James, Austen, etc.) then this one might not be your cup of tea. Me, I like 'em both. And I say, go for it. If your head starts spinning after a couple of hundred pages, that's just space-sickness kicking in as the rocket hangs in its single moment of stillness, about to plunge down... (also, any book containing a law firm called Salitieri, Poore, Nash, De Brutus, and Short can't be all bad).
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