The Crying of Lot 49

Rating:
Summary: Best of Pyncheon...Let the paranoia sweep over you!
Review: ~ - ~ - ~
I'm pretending you know nothing about this book or the author for the sake of this review.
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.....Firstly, Thomas Pyncheon is clearly a genius, and is a very powerful writer.
Too bad it is almost always nearly impossible to figure out what the heck he is saying, or even worse, what the characters in his novels are doing.
(And what continent are they on now?).
He can make a metaphor that sends shivers down my spine about the "dt" in an equation describing a rocket's trajectory. (But I still don't know what the heck happened to Katjie!)- These complaints refer to "Gravity's Rainbow" and "V".
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.....Luckily for us, "The Crying of Lot 49" is the exception, and a great book.
The surface story is clear, and relatively easy to follow. Oedipa Maas finds herself appointed executrix of the estate of a wealthy former lover, in Southern California.
After a series of bizarre coincidences, and meetings with what must be some of the most eccentric characters on earth, she begins to discern a series of "clues". These signs may be pointing to the existence of a vast conspiracy sweeping the city, state, and or Nation.
Alternatively, they may be the manifestations of her own mental breakdown into paranoia. Or possibly an elaborate joke left behind by the deceased.
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...... The beauty of this book is in how we are drawn into the web along with Oedipa, seeing the connections, pondering their meaning.... until we are certainly feeling as paranoid as she.
I found this book very readable and entertaining, unlike other Pyncheon novels like "Gravity's Rainbow" which is exhausting to try to read.
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..... If you've heard of Pyncheon, or just want a sample of a great 20th century writer, this is definitely the book I'd recommend. It is entertaining and satisfying, as well as thought provoking.
You could listen to educated readers debate the merits of different works by Pyncheon. I suggest you not waste your time. Instead, take a look at this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good enough for goverment work..
Review: COL 49 is a good warmup for V. no doubt, but while touted as being more 'accessible' than either V. or Gravity's Rainbow, is more like a notebook or sketchbook for those books.
There are many clever metaphors floating in this Sargasso Sea, but Pynchon will never be a master of character. Not all novels are about human character but those which are not seem to suffer from the problems the aforenamed Sargasso does; still, shallow and crowded with flotsam.
Perhaps Pynchon is the greatest American novelist of our time; maybe Jeff Koons is the 'greatest' American artist of our time; maybe our deepest sentiments and hopes have been invested in our cars. Keep living and see what changes.

Rating:
Summary: A good read
Review: This is a good intro to Pynchon's works.
An unusual mix of light hearted, even slap stick humor, think Three Stooges, and deep literary references.
Combine it with an underlying conspiracy and you get a good feel for Pynchon's style.
I don't think this is his best work. Not as funny as Vineland. Not as deep or dark as V.

Rating:
Summary: postmodern brillance
Review: Through the use of deep reflection and mind-altering substances, I came to a Zen-like understanding of this book and used that understanding to write a brilliant paper on it. My knowledge of "The Crying of Lot 49" is infinite and all encompassing. Although Pynchon dismisses this book in his introduction to "Slow Learner" and critics have said that this book does not compare to either "V" or "Gravity's Rainbow", it is still a definitive postmodern text and far easier to read than a text like "Rainbow". Thanks to the short length and linear plot, readers should not have the same problems with "Lot 49" they may have had with "Gravity's Rainbow". The apparent readability of this text belies its complex nature, however. Through his use of dense language, intricate symbiotics, and an ambiguity on the plot level, Pynchon articulates a multiplicity of meaning that allows an incredibly diverse array of textual interpretations. When the main character, Oedipa Maas, wonders, "Shall I project a world?" she speaks for anyone who has attempted to sort through this novel. For any reader looking for a challenging and thought-provoking book who does not want to sort through 760 pages of "Gravity's Rainbow" I would highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: You need a guidebook
Review: Wow. What does it all mean? I see glimpses of brilliance but have trouble piecing it all together -- much like the main character Oedipa. Maybe the joke's on me.

This was a tough book. There must be 500 pages crammed into the 150 I read. Given that I'm going to need to read some interpretation to figure out what I read that may turn out to be literally true.

This probably is a great book. I'm just not smart enough to make that judgement. It was work trying to figure it out.

I kept thinking it had something to do with religion but who knows?

BTW, in many ways it reminded me of Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins or The Bushwhacked Piano by Thomas McGuane.

Rating:
Summary: Easy Pynchon Access
Review: This is normally called the most accessible of Pynchon's novels, however that should only be in the sense that its under 200 pages. This continues Pynchon's pattern of conspiracy plots hidden just beneath the surface of the book that ultimately drives the main character and the reader towards an unforeseen conclusion. Just as in life, the answers are not always apparent. Involving the machinations of an underground postal system, W.A.S.T.E., the main character Oedipa Maas, searches for the links between her, the postal system, an industry mogul, among other things. Far fewer characters than his other novels but not on a smaller scale (storyline-wise not page amount).

Rating:
Summary: The american tactics - or how the strategy met its match.
Review: I don't have much to contribute with in this forum. It's an interesting book and it could get even more interesting if you took some time out to read another fabulous book by the late Michel de Certeau. The perspectives on strategies and tactics as discussed in "The Practice of Everyday Life" might be of great value to anyone interested in an academic angle on something like Pynchon's book. But please note: De Certeaus book is not in any way directly linked to The Crying of Lot 49 - it is just one hell of a good way to think about possible themes in the life and times of Oedipa Maas.

Feel free to disagree.

Rating:
Summary: Literary Three Card Monte
Review: Thankfully brief, this surreal satire may have been fresh and irreverent some 35 years ago when it was first published, but today it reads as a hyperstylized game of literary three card monte. The book is ostensibly about a woman who has been made executor of a rich former lover's estate, and her attempt to unravel the meaning of an ambiguous set of clues left behind. What this allows is for Pynchon to whisk her into and out of a number of wacky hi-jinks and meetings with post-beatnik weirdoes in an attempt to satirize both humankind's quest for knowledge and meaning, and post 1950s America. This is accomplished with a prose style that is going to either delight or dismay most readers with it's silly wordplay (especially in character names) and grab-bag referencing of physics, Greek tragedies, postal history, drug culture, and much more. I personally found the language tiresome, grating, and insubstantial-like too many Hollywood blockbusters of today, Pynchon is so busy throwing carefully constructed pyrotechnics at the reader that he never provides anything to care about.

Rating:
Summary: Pynchon's "Crying" game is a "Lot" of fun!
Review: Thomas Pynchon's novel "The Crying of Lot 49" is an often funny gem of absurdist fiction. It follows the odd quest of Oedipa Maas, the wife of a California disc jockey. As the story begins, she is made executor of the will of Pierce Inverarity. This responsibility leads her to seek the truth behind a centuries' old international conspiracy. Along the way, she encounters a number of weird characters and bizarre historical revelations.

Part of the fun of "Lot" is the wild jumble of cultural references that Pynchon throws into the mix: a Tupperware party, Cornell University, Muzak, Fu-Manchu, Perry Mason, LSD -- and those are all from the first chapter! He tosses about such names as Warpe, Wistfull, Kubitschek and McMingus (that's a law firm). His whimsical characters include a former child star-turned-lawyer, a specialist on Jacobean revenge tragedies, and a proselytizer for the Peter Pinguid Society.

"Lot" reflects on such topics as U.S. history, pop culture, religion, politics, and mail delivery. It's strange, inventive, brainy, and fun. Recommended as companion texts: "Principia Discordia" and Charles Bukowski's "Post Office."

Rating:
Summary: the most accessible Pynchon....
Review: ...and perhaps the best single book written on the 1960's. While i will agree with other readers that this isn't Pynchon's best book it is still a great read and takes you places that you will want to re-visit periodically. Although ostensibly revolving around the heroine Oedipa Maas' attempts to probate the will of a former lover, The Crying of Lot 49 sweeps us up and down the west coast of a U.S. that is visibly coming apart at the seams. From a San Francisco where folks are "lookin' for a Good Time" to a southern California that is caught in a hollow booming suburbia and rising defense industry (Pynchon enthusiasts will immediately recognize Yoyodyne, an organization that also manages to drift into film in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai)we get a rare glimpse back into a time when just about anything seemed not only possible but likely. The Tristero network can be looked at as an odd but wonderful foreshadow of the Internet, and all too much else that at the time seemed Pynchon's fantasy has now come to pass. Unlike some other reviewers I regularly laughed myself sick -although at times it is a sick laughter. Conspiracy enthusiasts will be delighted to find that not only are They out to Get them, but They have been around much longer than you thought. Did it happen? was the whole thing a practical joke? read it & see. In the meantime, We STILL Await Silent Tristero's Empire.