Vineland

Rating:
Summary: You have to know Humbolt County
Review: "Vineland" is not "Gravity's Rainbow," and it is not "V." It is a delightful ride with a master wordsmith who has more than a few tales to tell. But realize, as in his other works, all things are connected, and you'd best have someone watching your back.

Pynchon provides a slightly - but only slightly - exaggerated account of the war on drugs as pursued in northern California - facile fascism in the guise of moral purity. Well, purity is sort of an absolute, and Pynchon has always seemed more comfortable with ambiguity - or obscurity - I forget which. And what is "sort of an absolute?" This guys writing really does things to my thinking process.

A film adaptation of this book would need Tim Robbins to produce, Carl Hiaasen to cast (Johnny Depp is Zoyd), Tom Robbins to write the screenplay (maybe Vonnegut could consult), and David Lynch to direct. Killer movie - award winner at Sundance and Cannes - box office bust!

I love Pynchon's work, and while "Vineland" is not "Gravity's Rainbow" or "V," I couldn't read it without looking over my shoulder. Was that my shadow I just saw? Castenada, can you help me out here? Who is that masked man?

Good read.

Rating:
Summary: You have to know Humbolt County
Review: "Vineland" is not "Gravity's Rainbow," and it is not "V." It is a delightful ride with a master wordsmith who has more than a few tales to tell. But realize, as in his other works, all things are connected, and you'd best have someone watching your back.

Pynchon provides a slightly - but only slightly - exaggerated account of the war on drugs as pursued in northern California - facile fascism in the guise of moral purity. Well, purity is sort of an absolute, and Pynchon has always seemed more comfortable with ambiguity - or obscurity - I forget which. And what is "sort of an absolute?" This guys writing really does things to my thinking process.

A film adaptation of this book would need Tim Robbins to produce, Carl Hiaasen to cast (Johnny Depp is Zoyd), Tom Robbins to write the screenplay (maybe Vonnegut could consult), and David Lynch to direct. Killer movie - award winner at Sundance and Cannes - box office bust!

I love Pynchon's work, and while "Vineland" is not "Gravity's Rainbow" or "V," I couldn't read it without looking over my shoulder. Was that my shadow I just saw? Castenada, can you help me out here? Who is that masked man?

Good read.

Rating:
Summary: The Best, Truest, Most Entertaining Book In The Universe
Review: I had not, until very recently, even heard of Thomas Pynchon. But after two days and two nights up awake in bed with the man, drinking cup of tea after cup of tea to keep my wits about me, I can, safely and with certainty, call myself officially In Love.

Now, I am a reader who enjoys complexity: I first read Ulysses at 16, proclaimed literature our god and James Joyce as his prophet, and subsequently (modern library edition of The Blue Book of Eccles in hand) moved on to our other 20th-century towering intellects--Perec, Calvino, &c.

But I never dreamed THIS existed. Only now can I say I have found a writer who matches Joyce's sheer genius, word for word. I would heartily recommend Pynchon over any other author, living or dead.

This man is, truly, a great writer. He says in pointed, funny PARAGRAPHS the very things people spend years and years and pages and pages just trying to adumbrate in their novels. If ever there was an author closer to what Life Must Really Be All About, Pynchon is.

Please, do your soul a favor, and READ THIS BOOK.

Rating:
Summary: pynchon's "gilligan's island"
Review: i must admit upfront that this is my first pynchon novel. i was drawn to it as an entry into his fiction which will lead me to gravity's rainbow.

the book is a study of america from the 60's to the early 80's. it is interspersed with outrageous characters (a ninjette that can kill by simply touching), events (ufo abductions and monsters crushing bldgs under foot) and thanatoids ("like death, only different). in between however is a harsh view of america over these 3 decades.

no one comes out looking good. the hippies have no real deepseated beliefs. the government is totalitarian. the vietnam war plays a small influence, but interestingly is not very significant. how can one study the history of the 60's without seriously considering its influence. that is unless the author believes it was an excuse and not a cause--which may be accurate, but what a devastating statement to the movement.

the one other significant influence the book hits on is television and movies. the female protagonist made real time documentaries during the hippie movement. part of the plot includes efforts by a character to make a movie about the people making the documentaries. there is "tubalabuse", "tubefreeks", and rehab facilities for those who suffer from "video related disorders".

what we see is a society driven by the hypnotic effect of tv and the screen. what's real and unreal is no longer distinguishable. modern day life is not a time of free expression as thought by the 60's movement, but one of mindless following without regard to moral consequences. this is not a story about what the government did to us, but what everyone, of which the government is part, has done to society.

not a pretty picture presented in a humorous and well written novel. now let's move on to GR.



Rating:
Summary: Why no one cares about your acid flashbacks
Review: I primarily write to advise against reading this as an entrance to Pynchon. Surely a good book, this book is not the most entertaining, enlightening nor engaging. While not his most difficult (and therefore seen as an easy entrance) it is still Pynchon-esque and may put off readers from reading V, G's Rainbow or Mason Dixon, which are some of my favorite books - the place to start if looking for depth and thoughtfulness (plus, as of 2003, the book feels really dated b/c of the heavy use of 80's lingo- something that doesn't happen in other of Pynchon's books). Additionally, if you have no personal connection with the 60s I think the book is less relevant (like it was for me) than his other great books.

Rating:
Summary: Gentle but Substantial (and Funny!) Critique of the Sixties
Review: I'll admit right off the bat that this is one of my favorite novels. It's packed with more sly nods to American pop-culture of the last 8 decades than Dennis Miller could ever hope to cram into a whole week of Monday Night Football. The prose is cumbersome and labyrinthine, but Pynchon rewards those with the patience to stick it out. If you are willing to work your way through this dizzying journey to the heart of left-wing politics in America, there's a lot to be learned.

Like I said, Pynchon's style is really frustrating at times; clauses hang in places one wouldn't normally find them, long phrases get stuffed in parenthetical asides, and sentences--beautiful though they are--sprawl all over like lines of Whitman or Kerouac. What we lose in ease, though, we make up for in depth. The prose of "Vineland" almost forces you to slow down and savor it, and, given the wealth of historical and cultural moments to which Pynchon either pays subtle homage or deals a slight blow, you NEED to slow down.

This matter of style is directly related to the critique that Pynchon develops, through the course of the novel, of the Woodstock generation. "Vineland" charts the counter-culture's successes and failures in a very fair way, and measures the 1960s against the larger tradition of radical politics in America dating back to the first-half of the twentieth century.

Rather than narrowmindedly berate the hippies for their rejection of traditional moralities (as a whole ugly slew of right-wing critics has done, from Michel Houellebecq to William Bennett and Rush Limbaugh), Pynchon's problems with sixties radicalism revolve around the gut-instinct, spur-of-the-moment flightiness of the era. What was needed, the novel seems to suggest, was more thought and study, less immediate action, and a better understanding of the long term--all of which was total anathema to a generation hell-bent on living for the moment and equally convinced of the revolutionary potential in doing so.

Against this, the advice given to Prairie Wheeler (whose search for her lost mother sends us on this trans-generational and -historical thrill ride) to study the things she doesn't quite get, is good advice for anyone who wants to slog through this book. Pynchon knows a hell of a lot of important stuff and he's not afraid to show it; however, obscure references should not be a reason to discard "Vineland," but rather a reason to open an encyclopedia, to find out more about a sort of hidden history of the left half of the USA.

I've made the whole thing sound very dry and political, but there are other forces at play in "Vineland" that simply can't be categorized or explained: mysterious, Godzilla-like footprints that flatten buildings, for example, or ninja death-touches gone astray. And this is to say nothing of the sheer humor of this book, which is off the charts from the outset, when an aging ex-hippie jumps through a plate-glass window to ensure that his government disability checks don't stop.

If you are interested in where the 1960s got us, where they didn't get us, and what we can learn from it all, or if you just want a demanding but rewarding and humorous read, then this book is a must.

Rating:
Summary: Not My Cup of Tea
Review: Pynchon is widely regarded as an author of considerable talent, and at least one of his books, "Gravity's Rainbow," is considered a modern classic. Pynchon also has both detractors and admirers, and which category you fit into will certainly influence your enjoyment of this book.

Pynchon is in love with language, and has considerable gifts as a writing stylist. His prose is thick with description, one might even say artistic digression. If that pumps your 'nads, this will probably be a great book for you. Personally, I find his style to be overwrought and self-congratulatory; as if he is saying, "Look at the cool things I can toss off--ain't I talented?" Plenty of other people disagree, of course, and find it hilarious, fascinating, brilliant, or what have you. I didn't. I found it stupifying.

Further, Pynchon's penchant (sorry) for picking up and dropping plot lines is for me vastly irritating. One friend once pointed out that life is like that; plot threads in life don't always intertwine neatly by the end. And sure, that's true, but why the heck put a lot of effort into reading fiction when it turns out frustrating and irritating like life? I have plenty of frustration and irritation already; I don't need to plunk down 10 smackers and spend a lot of time getting more.

Other reviewers have commented on the post-60s boomer navel gazing that is also prevalent in the novel, and I certainly agree with that assessment. Obviously I'm not the right person to recommend this book if you're a Pynchon fan, but if you're on the fence, I would skip this one and read "The Crying of Lot 49," a collection of his short stories, or bite the bullet and give "Gravity's Rainbow" a try.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant but deeply flawed political manifesto for dopers
Review: Pynchon turns a demented eye to the sixties' leftist movement in this oddball look at sex, drugs, and politics. Zoyd is an aging California hippie, heavily into drugs, rock and roll, and easy living. He lives on a government subsidy (disability) that provides for the simple needs of himself and his daughter, Prairie. His ex-wife Frenesi, the daughter of two old-time Wobblies, takes the leftist movement very seriously until she falls for the fascist federal prosecutor Brock Vond. Despite the story's initial focus on Zoyd, most of the book is devoted to Prairie trying to understand her mother. She is helped in this quest by a butt-kicking ninja babe called D.L. who through press releases, personal interviews, and a series of politically charged home movies, reveals the truth about Frenesi.

As is typical, Pynchon's novel is more effective on a symbolic level than on a literal one. Just as V investigated the dichotomy between the human and the inanimate, Vineland (the name of a city, perhaps similar to "Holly" "wood") explores the relationship between the sixties counterculture movement and leftist political philosophy. Those who view this book as a leftist manifesto have perhaps overlooked the fact that it is Zoyd, the hippie, who is most sympathetic to the reader (and his daughter as well), while Frenesi (the true political leftist) who comes off as a driven, destructive witch. At some level Frenesi's lust for Vond symbolizes her hunger for the power he represents. Her lust for power drives her to sell out her ideals, just as the sixties leftists sold out theirs once the possibility of achieving real power came within their grasp. Thus the difference between the hippies and the leftists was that the hippies wanted freedom, while leftists wanted control, and as such had more in common with the fascist right than with the counterculture that they manipulated. Viewed in this light, Pynchon's message is not that leftist politics is better than fascism, but rather that both forms of political extremism are fundamentally flawed. The book's hero is Zoyd, who is politically paranoid and legally insane (by government standards), so we see that Pynchon's political solution is merely to live one's own life, and maintain a deep distrust of anyone who encroaches on our freedoms whether from the left or the right. And the heroine is not Frenesi, but D. L., who also takes care of Prairie at a crucial moment, and who uses her feminine power to deal with injustices one at a time, rather than trying to change the world.

Despite the metaphorical richness of this book, however, it suffers from some serious problems. The science-fictiony presence of the so-called Thanatoids (ghosts of the unjustly dead) really adds nothing to the story, and along with the occasional reference to high-tech snooping devices, mid-air abductions, and strong female characters, seems a cheap ploy to draw in the cyberpunk audience without the necessity of actually studying science first. But worse than any of that is the depressing world-view that pervades the entire book. Frenesi's betrayals cast a pall over the entire novel, destroying everything in her path, and most of the novel simply follows her downward spiral into depravity and insignificance. Pynchon is a fine writer and has created some amusing characters and situations here, but the bleakness of his political message undercuts the fun of the novel, leaving the reader, like Zoyd, happy to have someplace else to go home to. This is in a many ways a brilliant book, but it's too X-files wacky for serious political readers, too unscientific for cyberpunks, and too dark for good escapism. If none of these bother you, perhaps you'll really love it.

Rating:
Summary: Why no one cares about your acid flashbacks
Review: So, I picked this book up at a library sale. Those fatigued librarians don't actually shelve donations handed to them over the counter. They stuff them in the basement, and every six months or so make a buck or two off people like me -- overeducated underemployed people, people who've heard of Pynchon, read about writers with Pynchon-esque prose, but couldn't be bothered to actually read him. About that time I also picked up The Crying of Lot 49. Vineland is about four times the length of Lot 49, and I feel I got ripped by the former and made on the latter.

Vineland opens strong. Zoyd, ostensibly the hero, but noticeably absent for half the book, makes a faux-insane public nuisance of himself to keep a disability check coming. The writing during this opening is so crisp a reader can feel that Pynchon knew he had a quality idea on his hands. It's good stuff, a small town personality carving out a life by getting paid for public humiliation. Hey, that's commentary, that's allegory, and Mr. Pynchon might've be on to something there. Too bad it's completely abandoned for a long, meandering story of a loosely connected group of nobodies marching through fantastical sixties nostalgia and nonsensical symbolism.

Why we learn so much about these people is never really clear, because there isn't a plot in Vineland. Oh sure, people are looking for Zoyd's ex-wife and such, but Pynchon makes it pretty obvious he couldn't care less about all that. Rather, he focuses on this wickedly outrageous hippie lamentation for the promise of social revolution during the 60s, if only those radicals zigged when the shoulda zagged. It isn't hagiography by a damn sight, but sure as hell isn't structured fiction either. Unstructured stories aren't bad in and of themselves, but the author has to give the reader a reason to care about the book. Pynchon simply doesn't.

He's got some nice scenes, some well-turned phrases ("concrete surf"). The strongest bit outside the lead chapters is about Zoyd's mother-in-law, of all things. Her impact on the story though is nothing more than negligible. She's an excuse for Pynchon go off on another tangent.

Pynchon must have been saying something with this book about a little NoCal town, about reformed and unreformed hippies, the man, regret, and so forth, but he sure wasn't talking to me.

Rating:
Summary: What you discover when you clear away the brush.....
Review: that hides your soul is the subject, focus, dialectic of this remarkable achievement. From my standpoint, this is one of the greatest novels ever written, and deals so viscerally and passionately with the questions a man faces in dealing with how he might have been, even willingly, ground beneath the wheel of a technological age. Our alienation from our planet is played out in our relationships. Sexuality takes the place of intimacy, technicological surveillance usurps wisdom and insight, and yet the human soul refuses to take the hemlock, and like a Socratic heroine and hero who have resolved to rise up from paying homage to the shadows before them, a daughter's search for her mother and her father's search for himself uncover all the dangerous questions we face when our lives come apart. And in the end there is a triumph of profound dimensions. I would encourage you to pick this up at once. I have read it several times and come away enriched after each reading. This is the story of how we exist at this point in the epoch of time.