Has anyone read Gravity's Rainbow?

[armyowalgreens]

I started reading a couple nights ago. It's a crawl. I've never met a modern author that uses such odd forms of writing.

I heard it's a really tough read and one of my friends said that they know someone that wrote their masters thesis on it. So, for a sophomore undergrad, this may be more than I can handle. But the premise sounds too interesting for me to abandon.

Has anyone read this book?

[Kutjara]

1. Yes, I read it for the first time nearly 20 years ago, when I was in college.

I love the book. It's pretty dense, but the writing is, in turns, beautiful, playful, puzzling, absurd, profound and nonsensical. The shifts in perspective and character can be dizzying, but they do all ultimately tie together in the greater story of the "Schwartzgerat" and its parabolic flight from the opening "screaming" to the final instant before it strikes.

In between, Pynchon weaves fact, fable, history and conspiracy, so that you really don't know what's "real" and what isn't. It's an undeniably unsettling book, but a brilliant one.

You won't get it all in one reading, however. It's a book you'll reread several times over your lifetime.

Remember, even a screaming comes across...in time. ;)

[mitchum]

2. Yes, it is tedious and overrated junk...

as is all of his work.
Literature for people who really don't like literature.

[Chan790]

3. Yes.

It's great. I'm a huge fan of Pynchon though. He's a difficult read though.

[Ohio Joe]

4. Yeah, I plodded through it 20 some odd years ago

I would never do it again but it is worth reading once though.

[Ivan Sputnik]

5. I like "The Crying of Lot 49", his short novel

But I couldn't get through "V", another massive Pynchon tome. Haven't attempted the "Rainbow". Anybody read his new one, "Inherent Vice"? I think it's another shorter one. It's a detective story, though not a conventional one, I'm sure.

[zinziber officinale]

6. Funny you should mention Pynchon. My boyfriend goes on and on about him

I bought him "Mason and Dixon" for his birthday a couple of years ago. It's written in antiquated language and also seems like a chore to plod through, but he read a portion of it. Now he's reading "The Recognitions" by Gaddis. 1000+ pages and he's almost done!:rofl:

[JitterbugPerfume]

7. It is on my bookshelf

Lord knows I tried

[pitohui]

8. i read it

in fact i was an undergrad, maybe a freshman or sophomore, when i read it and i enjoyed it

however, i was interested in the subject matter and the storyline, and i didn't find it particularly difficult (compared to his other books, which don't interest me, although i've tried) -- anything can be a chore if the storyline doesn't capture your imagination

[bif]

9. I tried several times.

Finally gave up and threw it in the trash.

[Fire Walk With Me]

10. It is brilliance at its utmost.

One day I'll be able to finish it.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

11. Find a synopsis, and fake it -

it's utter crap.

No one has ever actually read it. It's subliterate trash.

But idiotic lit professors keep pushing it on kids as if it has some literary value.

It doesn't.

Good luck, kid. You're in a rite of passage, that's all............................

[Chan790]

12. I read it.

I love Pynchon's style of writing though, it's very Joycean. I will concede that it's not for everyone, though it is hardly sub-literate crap. I know crap when I read it.

[armyowalgreens]

14. Well I don't have to read it for any particular reason. I'm just reading it for fun.

But I'll keep at it for a little longer just for the hell of it.

[Kickin_Donkey]

13. No, but I plodded through every page of "V" ...

It was the most difficult book I've ever read.

I have no idea what I read.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

15. I've read it three times

Thoroughly enjoy it, as with most of his stuff. You'll miss/won't get a lot of what's going the first time; but you'll catch a BUNCH more with each subsequent read. It's really densely layered, and, as you noted, he plays around with language and expectations of style a LOT. This makes it kind of seem like a mess at times, but it's actually very deeply structured and thought out.

(Also, I'm apparently sub-literate and don't actually like literature according to some of the other folks on this thread. I'll have to inform my alma mater...)