Rating: 
Summary: I could not understand the "higher purpose" of this book.
Review: I found the characters to be unreal, as perhaps Pynchon intended, the jokes and characters'names sophomoric, and the plot incomprehensible. Pynchon hits a lot of easy targets - right wingers, Southern California crazies, environmental spoilage and pointless wealth accumulation - but if there is a bigger theme, I couldn't find it. As a reader, I don't feel challenged; I feel defeated.
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Summary: It runs even deeper.....
Review: After my second reading, I am still too affected to write an emotionally unbiased review. So let me just say that this work is absolutely wonderful, and is one of those few works that really reaches out and grabs you in the gut -- one thinks, if but for a moment, that despite his apparent absence one has really made contact with Pynchon...or at least with a fellow presence amongst the noise, and that together it might be safe to tempt or, better yet, pursue fate (even if only for 180 pages) .Also, this book is soooo much more than merely a Pynchonesque statement about America in the 50's and early 60's (though it is certainly also that and in the most briliant way imaginable): the book plays with the big themes..too big and amorphous to get right here, right now...but you know, don't you? If you have ever thought that you might just be making out against the sensual din about you the Word, momentarily finding some order amongst the oh-so-entertaining flickering of everything about you, only to feel the butterflies in your stomach signaling and guiding you towards 'safer' ground which may not in fact feel so safe or sensible, then you have already met with the Tristero...or perhaps, they have met with you...or, just maybe, you're nuts!
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Summary: Exposes the pleasures of paranoia and conspiracy
Review: Thomas Pynchon presents an anarchic, exhilerating glimpse into a life opening itself to observation and thus paranoia. Executing an eccentric's will, the main character discovers a secret postal service conducting its own deliveries and possessing its own history. The speed and implied meaning of the connections being made moves the reader into the grinning daze of a psychodelic's trance.
Rating:
Summary: Very cool
Review: I find it difficult to believe that people found the prose of this book to be unreadable. This book is fast reading, I finished it the same day I bought it. Of course, my first Pynchon novel was Gravity's Rainbow. I could understand somebody not liking Gravity's Rainbow even though I loved it, because that book is a lot more challenging. But not liking The Crying of Lot 49, which was written straightforwardly with a single plotline, is beyond my comprehension.
Rating:
Summary: Classic
Review: I just finished reading this book about 2 weeks ago. I've started reading it again, and it's so much simpler now, I don't even notice any complexity in the text anymore, and it's much more entertaining and much more funnier. After I finish it again, I am planning on buying the companion to this, and try to get underneath all of the underlying themes, all the symbolism and cubism of this artful book. It's a must-have book for any book lover.
Rating: 
Summary: Not enough stuff
Review: The first chapter of this novel is quite good -- brings out some interesting characters with some very funky names (Oedipa? Mucho? A shrink named Dr. Hilarius?) with keen senses of humor. It ends strongly, with the image of Oedipa imagining herself as Rapunzel and that image just running away and picking up steam, doing its own stuff, quite alive as the chapter closes out. Unfortunately, the rest of the five chapters don't come near the intensity of the first chapter. And when Pynchon goes headlong into the Jacobean play ("The Courier's Tragedy"), he comes out all alone, his readers left behind on the other side, dead cold and wondering just what the heck happened to this novel. When all is said and done, this book just doesn't quite jibe, doesn't quite work. That's not to say that it's a total failure -- in spots, Pynchon's incredible language is still there, like an oasis in the middle of a desert, not to mention some moments of genuine hilarity (like when Oedipa puts on layer after layer of clothing before playing strip poker and the aerosol can zipping around the room like a busted balloon). But for me, these parts just weren't enough. To have to wade through the rest of the gobbledygook just wasn't worth it. - SJW
Rating:
Summary: extremely entertaining
Review: Sure, some people like some books and some like others, but anyone who claims that this book is simply unreadable or that you can appreciate it only on some high literary plain has cheese for brains. This book is totally readable and extremely entertaining. It is funny, irreverent, and outrageous. It is true that Pynchon is brilliant and that the point of the book won't be grasped by everyone (although "ungraspable" cannot be true, because people have grasped it and they're not lying), but a simpler, surface-reading of this book is easy and fun. If you "can't read it," you can't read.
Rating:
Summary: no central theme; no character development
Review: I'm sorry,I really tried to enjoy this novel, since it was given to me by a literature profession friend of mine...but I'm afraid it's not the kind of book for me. Perhaps I'm not part of the intelligencia--those people who swear by this book. As an author myself--Santa Fe Crazy--I think stories should entertain. The Crying of Lot 49 was all work and no play. Gads, it was dreadful.
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Summary: Pattern-seeking is at the heart of this book's discussion.
Review: I read this book at least 14 years ago, and now seek it as a source for discussing bureacracy reform in an historical manner. I have referred to this text while discussing constructivist learning theory, as well. The remnants I hold onto, in my old age, are that Pynchon humorously demonstrated the human penchant for seeking patterns as explanations. It is post-modern only because it explains one downside of scientific rationalism. I continue to hold onto it, in my small sphere, as a book that brought me some understanding of dynamic cultures interfacing with other dynamic cultures.
Rating:
Summary: A work meant to challenge the reader, not merely entertain.
Review: Read the review from East Millstone, NJ of June 17 below. It's truly brilliant and quite funny! One thing that struck me as I read the reviews is all the Grisham bashing. I'll admit I have never read any Grisham and I've read plenty of Pynchon. But I can assure you that the aims of the two are distinct and they cannot be judged by the same criteria. There are books that are intended to amuse and divert and there are books that are intended to engage and challenge. If you read to be entertained only, Pynchon (or Barth, Delillo, Roth, Barthelme, Gaddis, etc.) are not for you. Not to say that there is no pleasure to be found here. Pynchon's books can be quite entertaining, but that's not what they are written for. Stay away from Pynchon if you aren't prepared to be challenged as a reader. The Crying of Lot 49 is not a book that provides the reader with an obvious "message" or "meaning." You will get out of it what you are willing to put in. Expect frustration and annoyance. Of course, understanding is an effort, but as most of the reviews here will tell you the effort is worth the reward.
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