AtD has landed!! Ahoy, all!

Of course I carefully looked over the copies available, making sure to get the copy nearest perfection. I waited to start my reading experience until I got home - ahhh, the comfort of one's own surroundings. Lit some candles, said some prayers, opened some wine and began...

(...am too engrossed w/it to say much more; perhaps I'll continue later this week...)

I've just begun.

Jules Verne. Dime Store Novels. Appreciating the Lesser Things in Life.

Smartly, on Pynchon-l the comprehensive read-through won't begin until the advent of the new year, thereby allowing us appreciators of a richly-endowed first digestion of AtD to savor it, swish it around a bit, and drink it down plentifully.

Great News! Pynchon is up for the Literary Review Bad Sex Award -
'a tough challenge from Thomas Pynchon, with a sex scene between a man and a spaniel ("Ruperta had trained her toy spaniel to provide intimate 'French' caresses of the tongue for the pleasure of its mistress... Reef followed, taking out his penis, breathing heavily through his mouth. 'Here Mouffie, nice big dog bone for you right here...'" '

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/books/features/article2016606.ece

User addict wrote a long review of ATD. The review covers the strengths and weaknesses of the book (addict, though, gave ATD four stars).

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

That same review appeared in PW and is now on Amazon. (There is no byline; maybe they are the original reviewer, too.)

finished it yesterday, who else has made it through?

Just ordered my copy :)

Still working on Gravity's Rainbow (for the umpteenth time) and my copy of ATD is sitting there as a carrot to inducing me finish GR rather than just relishing its delicious words and images.

Have to admit, though, that I have taken a slight breather before going Into the Zone to read Tolstoy's The death of Ivan Ilych.

So, ateolf, what was your overall impression of the book (without giving away any spoilers)?

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

it was good...not nearly as good as Gravity's Rainbow, but very good...(i'm generally bad at reviewing stuff, so "very good" probably isn't all that helpful, but...)

Am I allowed to say I think it's shit? And I mean, quite incredibly shit. I considered heaving it off Blackfriars Bridge into the Thames (no small undertaking given its weight and heft) such was the extent of my ire. Really saddened me. Honest.

Heyo, cyril_and-methodius (great name, by the way), of course you are allowed to think it's shite, but, just for the record, I completely disagree. I just posted my own knee-jerk reactions to having just finished the book tonight in the main thread of this group.

Golly, since I live on the Thames, myself, I wish I could troll for your copy, but (unfortunately) I live on the Thames (pronounced with an American "Th" and a long "a") that starts in Norwich (Connecticut, that is).

At any rate, hope your bad experience with Against the Day hasn't soured you toward Pynchon's writings in general.

Cheers!

Douglas

"In the end, only kindness matters."

Douglas, no fear, Pynchon is still one of my favourite writers and means more to me, personally and artistically, than most. I just thought AtD was bollocks. But you'll be glad to hear I didn't hurl my copy into the Thames, or the Thames, or any other river, sea or body of water. It's still in my house, where, until such time as someone pursuades me to undertake a re-evaluation, it's doing sterling service as a footrest.

(grins)