Rating: 
Summary: Book of Revelations
Review: I've read this at least 49 times. If this sounds like pathology, obsession, madness... ...well... ...you're on target. There is a fine line between Gnostic revelation and the leap into insanity. The central issue of this little book---the moment just prior to Gnosis---gets tied up in a morass of puns, satire, smartass language and sophomore humor. A lot of the themes of "49" reappear in "Gravity's Rainbow", in much greater detail and with much greater emotional impact . Part of my infatuation with this novella comes from living all my life in California, mostly on the coast, in places like South Central and Berkeley. The places he describes, sometimes hidden by pun ridden psudonymns, are all familiar haunts. But most of my attraction to "Lot 49" comes from being haunted as Oedipa Maas was haunted, wondering if those connections she encountered---between a need for an alternate communication network... ...anybody remember "underground" radio?... ...and the need to supress the moment of ultimate revelation... ...anybody remember "Eve of Destruction?... ...well... ...I guess that I've walked in Oedipa's shoes more than once. Pynchon has an altogether remarkable ability to express ulitmate paranoia. "49" is not as well written as "Gravity's Rainbow", not as fun as "Vineland", not as "Literary" as "Mason & Dixon", but well worth investigating if you are drawn to that territory. "49" is an occult book that stays occult.
Rating: 
Summary: Brutally honest and true.
Review: I first read this novellete as an assignment for my 11th grade english class, and I will admit, most of it flew over my uneducated and naivete-ridden head. Upon reading it a second time as a fully educated and aware 12th grader at my own leisure, and with the benefit of having read about entropy and began the cyclical process of comprehension and discombulation that comes with it, I was, to put it midly, blown away. I finished the book, and once again suprised that number at the bottom of the page was 154 not 451, I had been bum-rushed by humanity. This is life, regardless that the story took place in the 1960's, for this story will still be painfully relevant in the next 60's.
Thomas Pynchon has a death grip on human society and proves it in The Crying of Lot 49; however, instead of the squeezing it and picking out the seeds then feeding it to the reader in a glass, he picks it up and throws it at the reader.
Such a positive review, but I give this only a 9, because, well, Mr. Pynchon seems to get so involved in his social critism, that he forgets to develop his means: the characters. I just wish that his characters were used less as an avenue for his theme. Instead, I wish that he had considered his characters an indepedent entity, then built his story around them.
Nevertheless, Pynchon is able to keep these characters alive via a life-support of drugs and sex, thereby diverting the reader's attention from the comatosity of the characters and towards the ferverency and vivacity of the plot.
Very well done. If only I could write so well.
Rating:
Summary: "Report all obscene mail to your potsmaster"
Review: Mrs. Maas uncovered a plot so old and deeply rooted, that it turned her life into a festering paranoia. Trystero became an obsession of her's at the moment it's existance became known to her. Why should an organisation as hardly significant as a secret underground mail service be so facinating to her anyway? --@--<|i
Rating:
Summary: Pynchon donates a masterful stroke to mankind.
Review: Pynchon weaves us through one of his most convoluted tales. Mayhem reigns as we follow the misguided Oedipa Mas into debacles of sex and booze, and booze-induced sex. The names alone are worth this relatively quick read (Mucho Mas, Mike Fallopian), but fortunately this is not all the fun with which Pynchon provides us. We spiral hand-in-hand into madness with Oedipa: is she really uncovering the mysteries of the Muted Postal Horn, or is she being driven to the brink by the demented plot of a deceased former lover? There are no definitive answers, but are there ever?
Rating:
Summary: Captivating, tragic, and profound.
Review: Upon completion of this book, I felt sad, dislocated, and yet connected with humanity in a fundamental way. In this book, Pynchon reached out to me and pulled me into his story the way few other writers have. While his penetrating satire is indeed unavoidable, I feel that this book goes beyond mere satire. Oedipa is constantly looking toward the "periphery" but is unable to decipher the message that is waiting for her, just outside of meaning. To any reader who has ever felt that he or she is on the outside of the world looking in, this book will provide answers for all those questions that you can never find the right words to ask.
Rating:
Summary: A good book for intellectuals
Review: I loved this book. Thought it was funny, challenging, but not too hard. A great time capsule of the 60's. Book captures the optimistic openness of that period. Perhaps not understandable to people born later. Should not attempt to read other Pynchon books unless you read this one first to test the water.
Rating:
Summary: A Strange Journey Into Reality (whatever that is...)
Review: _The Crying of Lot 49_ is, let's face it, not the easiest read in the world. To many, reading this great satire may seem like taking on calculus. Indeed: Pynchon never flinches throughout, writing the novel in sporadic prose that explains little and in a wacked-out sense of humor that is rarely laugh-out loud funny.(though the Paranoids, Pynchon's parody of the Beatles, certainly are) So why is it so damn perfect? Because the style is the point. The story is about a woman who becomes executor of an ex-boyfriend's will and becomes involved in an increasingly malicious/strange exploration into an underground postal service originally from Europe, the use of bones as profit, the mental breakdown of her psychiatrist (a classic sequence), and a Shakespeare parody that may house the secrets to it all. OR: none of it may be real, and it might all be a practical joke on the part of the deceased.
The point, then, is not the conclusion but rather the definition. The questions of who we think we really know and what we truly define as true. At less than 200 pages, you owe it to yourself to find out!
Rating:
Summary: Go Postal with this wry conspiracy satire
Review: "The Crying of Lot 49" slowly unfolds into a conspiracy theory so crazy it just might be true. After reading it, I started looking for signs of its truth, and, either it is true, or fans of the novel have planted the signs themselves. Maybe both. Not just a paranoid lark, though, "49" is a wonderful satire of power structures. Like the best cyberpunk novels (Stephenson, Gibson), the satire is not so broad that it slaps you in the face immediately. But by the time you get to "KCUF" radio, you're pretty sure that not everything is meant to be taken at face value :-) Maybe it's the fact that we're recycling a lot of 70s culture now, but the satire doesn't seem that dated. Like Swift, it ages well. If you've been afraid of Pynchon for his pop-yet-pomo reputation, try this one out.
Rating:
Summary: Deep, frustrating, rewarding
Review: Profoundly disturbing, if only for its impenetrability. This strikes me as acid jazz for the literary set--angelically resonant prose that surrounds some "deeper meaning" like a cage. The reader can see, but never grasp, the glittering, captured daemon of meaning beneath. I'd recommend this only to readers willing to wade through much maddening obscurity to claim a higher ground.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books ever written
Review: Funny, obscene, puzzling. I was unable to stop reading this silly, profound book. Read it read it Read it
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