Thomas Pynchon

Against the Day

Colton Ray

This novel expanded my ideas of what a novel can do. It inspired me because I've always attempted this same sort of style, this mix of high and low culture, silliness nestling next to sincerity, but I've never seen it mastered in the way it is here. That said, even for me, I had to sadly tap out around page 600-something, due to personal reasons. At that point, I'd been reading the book for over two months on a steady basis. There's just so much of it that reading it becomes exhausting. I might honestly like it better had it been sectioned out into a trilogy of 400 pg novels. No one needs me to tell them that Pynchon is a genius, but perhaps it was foolish of me to start out with his longest book. That doesn't mean I'm not committed to reading all the rest.

 I want in an early twentieth century period piece.

Nick Whalen

Everything I want in an early twentieth century period piece.

Anthony Sabourin

Thomas Pynchon is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-fact occurrences occur. Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be.

Against the Day

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