books, books, books

[Jack of All Parades]

As it is my birthday and I want to relax with a slice of flourless cake with halva/honey filling prepared by the sainted spouse-have the first disc of Dylan's Tell Tale Signs on and have Neil's Out on the Weekend cued up for a spin with the spouse-let me reply- greatly admire Pynchon!!!!!!!he is in my personal pantheon since I was a 16 year old and stumbled onto the Crying of Lot 49-as a 17 year old in 1973 preparing for College- I read Gravity's Rainbowfrom the first screaming across the sky, GR has held my imagination right up to the last rousing chorus with "everybody" which I always equate with the cinematic equivalent of Death and his dancers in "Love & Death"-I revisit this book every decade with renewed admiration for its artistry-I have a lifetime of banana recipes, limericks, songs, general nonsense, a toilet scene that outdoes the one in Trainspotting, a memorable anti-hero in Tyrone Slothrop-having been in London and seen the bomb damage caused by the V2s in the rectorys of churches and uncovered Roman ruins-I can only imagine the terror they caused-

I like the Picador cover you shared-nice Madonnaesque reference complete with missle headed bra cups-would warm the hearts of any SS rocket squad member-I have the American cover in my wellworn paperback from late 1973- am not familiar with your reference source- I own a worn paperback copy of "Essays on Thomas Pynchon" edited by George Levine and David Leverenz from Little Brown1976-like you Mason & Dixon is another favorite-any novel that can create a great comic character out of Dr. Johnson[a personal fav] and a Swedish irredentist is tops for me- I am less enamoured of Vineland or V[too gimicky for me]-I have always enjoyed the short stories and went so far as to seek them out in the college library to read until Slow Learning appeared-to be taught by David Lodge-impressive-his "The Art of Fiction" has a place of honor on my shelves alongside Amis's book on Usage- a valuable reference to me about how a novel is created-have read "Nice Work" and "Therapy"-he must have been a great guide.

Any new Pynchon is eagerly anticipated by me- I even seek out the blurbs on other author's books or his occasional introductions-that he hung with Dylan in the Village, smoked with Joan Baez's sister and his friend Richard Farina, was his best man at his wedding, played poker regularly with Donald Bartheleme, has maintained his independence, still apparantly goes to rock clubs in the City, follows music, took a literature class with Nabokov, has a distant relationship to Hawthorne-I guess makes me an obsessive-I do not stalk but I eagerly gobble up info about him-I have often wondered if I have passed him on the street in Manhattan as he and I go about our daily business- I would love to shake his hand but deep down I have to respect his wish for privacy and public anonymity. There are three current writers I admire- Pynchon, Roth and TC Boyle-in that order-they all have that manic energy that I enjoy-their prose zings and pulses through my brain.

Perhaps those books were "nicked" by Benny Profane and his Merry Pranksters!!!

[Otis Westinghouse]

'A screaming comes across the sky. It has happened before, but there is nothing to compare it to now.'

'It's colder than the nipple on a witch's tit
Colder than a bucket full of penguin shit.'

Damn, used to be able to quote the limerick that rhymes 'Hector' with 'erector'.

Roger and Jessica in the church, 'an army of lovers can be beaten'. Banana mead. Slothrop fragmented around Europe. The shit-eating scene (that I used to read in its entirety as a university party piece).

Yes, indeed. I loved V, but read it in 2 days, which was ludicrous. Was looking at it recently, and recognised almost nothing. Lot 49 I adored, even if Pynchon says in SLow Learner that he'd unlearned most of what he'd learned before then in that book.

The link I gave up above for Melanie Jackson comments on the living in the West 70s. I guess if you greeted him he would just claim ignorance of who you were talking about and shuffle on. Supposedly this is a photo from 11 years back:

I saw another one one time taken from behind, can't find it anywhere now. Who knows? The teeth would have to be goofy. I guess he'll go to his grave cloaked in anonymity. Good on him, especially in the current climate. Strangely prophetic, in many ways - in preparation for a world of instant celebrity, he would become one of America's most famous writers and remain anonymous. I loved the story about how someone tracked down his employee file from his time at Boeing, and it was empty. Or was that Cornell? Either way, nice one!

The orange cover was the original US ed:

http://www.thomaspynchon.com/covers/gr_cvr.html

[Good site, and follow the link to the Pynchon wiki- fabulous for explaining allusions all round, makes up for the Madrid book thieves. Pynchon had an early internet following, he's just that sort of author, so it's great to see this sort of info flourishing.]

What is your cover, then?

Lodge was good. I did narrative theory and James Joyce, the latter every week for a year, including 10 weeks on Ulysses. He was pretty good at maintaining an interest in the callow undergarduates. Pretty dry and serious, but engaging. He's now lost his hearing and written Death Sentencewhich I'd like to read with an increasingly deaf mother and all.

Ain't read T C Boyle but must. Interesting to compare TP and PR - pretty different styles, but I get what you're saying. Both do a nice line in full-on purple prose where you think their verbal dexterity knows no limits. Maybe they've both lost some of that muscularity and flair now, but hey. it's still good.

Well this is fun! Been tempted to join in here, but would probably feel a little inadequate!

http://z11.invisionfree.com/thefictiona ... howforum=3

[Jack of All Parades]

I love amongst many things for both TP and PR-the willingness and joy in being just purely scatalogical-witness Pynchon's strong argument quoted in David Hadjdu's "Positively 4th Street" where he tries to chastise Farina for allowing his editor to tone out the "ribald" word game involving the word "cunt"-his sheer sense that there was humor in it-both have a high moral tone that I respond to as well as an engagement with the political world around them- my book cover is your orange one-it was used for the first edition of the paperback in 1973, as well.

TC Boyle is a wonder and a local boy, having grown up in Peekskill, NY, just down the road. Has been known to haunt our local streets on occasion as a close childhood friend of his owns and operates a Glass Blowing business in town. I highly recommend "World's End" his novel about the Hudson Valley, any of his story collections, "Drop City" a novel about a commune in Alaska, "Budding Prospects" a novel about herbal farming and my personal favorite- his very first book "Water Music" with that intrepid explorer Mungo Parks.----also try his website- he keeps a very funny journal that always makes me laugh.

Just looked at the last site you provided a link to- boy that is scary-I would be so over my head- a stamering kid back in class timid about raising his hand- I do not think I could dive full on into the Pynchon discussion pool and swim with the big fish.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Nice points re TP/RP. They must be pretty similar in age too. Is TC Boyle also The Tortilla Curtain or am I getting confused? Some of those board people are casual fans or people with=not much to say, others are a whole lot more. If you go up a level to the different author section names, it's a hilarious roll call of genius (Beckett, Joyce, Kafka, etc.). Male authors only, though.

[mood swung]

The Tortilla Curtain is TC Boyle, yes. Not as good as World's End, but maybe a little more relevant? I read somewhere that they put his name as TC in the UK because T. Coraghessan is too Irish. Seriously?

Latest issue of Rolling Stone features a truly frightening cover photo of Michael Jackson AND a 2 page review of Inherent Vice by one of my favorites, Rob Sheffield. I did not take time to read it yet.

[Jack of All Parades]

Yes- the "great, late dead writers club" -not trying to be sexist but am hard pressed to come up with a contemporary female novelist to my top three- I enjoy Cynthia Ozick or Joan Didion-but do not consider them strong fiction writers- enjoy more their non-fiction.

Pleasantly surprised when I came home to find a review of "Inherent Vice" in my new New Yorker 8/3/09 by Louis Menand- based on a cursury read- he seems to find it enjoyable or as he calls it "soft-boiled"-appears to like best the lead character and gumshoe Larry [Doc] Sportello-a pothead private dick maybe like the character Elliot Gould played in Altman's "The Last Goodbye"- shame on me should have picked up on the reference in the title- being an insurance person- inherent vice being the concept that certain things are difficult to insure due to their inherent nature. Action seems to take place in and around LA during the late 60's to early 1970s-seems Pynchon is yearining for that golden time when he was staked out in the LA area working on GR.

[Otis Westinghouse]

The review I linked to previously has some good stuff on the title (good review as a whole):

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/ju ... erent-vice

It partly came back to me today:

There was a young something called Hector
Who was a missile erector
The squishes and pops
Of acute pressure drops
Wrecked Hector's hydraulic corrector

Dang, I'll have to look it up. It's maybe 60% there. Now everybody...

[VonOfterdingen]

'Titus Groan' by Mervyn Peake. One of the strangest books ive ever read. Quite a challenge actually but i already look forward to part 2. How well known is the Gormenghast trilogy in UK or other places? Its extremely overlooked in Denmark.

'What a Carve up!' by Jonathan Coe. Good but I expected no less after The Rotters Club and The Closed Circle. Dont think its as good though. The last 100 pages of Miss Marble going-ons wasnt my cup of tea.

[Otis Westinghouse]

I really enjoyed 'What a Carve Up!', but ain't got round to the others yet. 'House of SLeep' is meant to be good. I've never read any of Gormenghast. I guess it's pretty well known and regarded as significant, but probably increasingly few people read it.

By the way, I forgot to say: Happy Birthday to my fellow Pynchon lover Christopher!

[Jack of All Parades]

A sincere thank you for the birthday wishes-me and Mick Jagger on the other side of 50-I have my Borders coupon ready and am waiting to purchase my copy of Inherent Vice once it goes on sale next week as my gift to myself-am not at all familiar with any of the authors posted by the fellow reader in Denmark-probably my own hubris and short sightedness not allowing me to extend myself outside of the English language as freely as I would like-sadly the only Danish authors I am familiar with are Dinesen, Anderson and Kierkegaard-pardon my ignorance-is there anyone in particular I should familiarize myself with at this time?

[Otis Westinghouse]

... though Peake and Coe are both English!

[Jack of All Parades]

Then shame on me for complete hubris-I have my limited tastes outside of poetry- never heard of them at all-will check them out. Shameful on my part!!!

[Otis Westinghouse]

No shame given that you're a Pynchonian!

[VonOfterdingen]

Cant blame you. Thats why i asked how well known Mervyn Peake and Gormenghast are in the UK. Cause I can't figure it out. He seems big but then again ive never heard off him until a year ago.

I guess Jonathan Coe is kind of well-known. Maybe like a secondary Nick Hornby? Coe writes better though. And nobody knows him in Denmark even though parts of both Rotters Club and Close Circle takes place in Skagen, Denmark.

Danish writers.. Karen Blixen is good i suppose, but i prefer the nobel-prize winner Johannes V. Jensen. His Fall of the king is a must for everyone. I really cant recommend any contemporary danish writers. Maybe Knud Romer and Erling Jepsen but dont know if they are translated.

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for the suggestions- I will give them a try if I can find them locally.

[Jack of All Parades]

"Inherent Vice" is in my hands as I write- I have broken the cover and cracked the first pages-read Michiko Kakatuni's review in today's NY Times-she is generally positive about the book-like most reviews I have read seems to most enjoy the main character "Doc"-calls it Pynchon lite-still eager to make progress and form my own opinion-now that I have the cover up close am really spurred by the neon vibe -it literally glows on my edition-the review ran the ubiquitous photo from his high school days- this time could not help but be struck by the feral/rodent nature of his front teeth-looks like the character Max Schreck played in the original Nosferatu.

[mood swung]

The RS review is now online.

http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/ ... r_lebowski

I just finished Cry, The Beloved Country, which had some beautiful moments. On to Possessing the Secret of Joy, which has a few as well. People are just messed up, you know?

[Jack of All Parades]

Thank you for posting the RS connection-got a laugh out of the notice on the Strand Bookstore's website-they say ignore Kakatuni and enjoy Pynchon de-lite this summer-I have been thinking lately about an article I encountered in last weeks August 3rd's issue of The New Yorker- a piece by Nicholson Baker on the Kindle-the gist of the piece is his attempt to come to peace with this device and what it means for the printed word-it appears to be an uneasy association he has with the Kindle-difficulty in focusing on the screen, limited number of books he would read in the electronic library-the fact that it can be difficult to move on the screen{the sense that the book just keeps strolling}- for me the piece has finally made me feel old and in the way of progress{a feeling I never thought I would have previously}-I would like to think I am not a luddite and a contrarian but the evidence is accumulating to the contrary-I really resent the profusion of electronica into my life-the thought that I may one day soon be unable to fold and turn a newspaper page at my leisure with my coffee, that I may lose the tactile nature of a book-the joy of turning pages at my leisure- the pleasure I get out of different typefaces or ink colors- the relish I take in a well designed book cover{something I am relishing with the new Pynchon}my wife would be happy with a bookless house-items only existing on a screen-I cannot envision living that way- I like to surround myself with them and to taste them at my leisure-reading a chapter, a poem, a line at my leisure when I want to take them from the shelf- I do not twitter, facebook, myspace, do not own a cell phone-I now know I am outmoded and a figure of gentle scorn to my daughters who mock my un-technolgical ways-a dinousaur-but I would like to think that books will still be printed and distributed in the future-I think we lose if they disappear-that tenuous connection to our better selves as recorded on clay tablets, papyrus manuscripts, velum and finally paper is and will remain important to me.

[pophead2k]

Very well stated Christopher. There's a shop here in Durham called 'Books Do Decorate a Room', a sentiment that neatly sums up my feelings about having them around.

[Who Shot Sam?]

Read Jonathan Coe's excellent The Winshaw Legacy: or, What a Carve Up! over the weekend, on my long trip up and back from Toronto. It's a very deft, entertaining and well-structured combination of murder mystery, social satire, political commentary and meditation on memory and aging. There were more than a few moments that had me laughing out loud, none funnier than his portrait of Findlay Onyx, the wizened old gay detective who can't seem to control his libido. I haven't had the chance to read any of his other works, but am eager to check out The Rotter's Club now that I've read this one.

I'm curious at to whether any of you have seen the film, What a Carve Up! that is the impetus for the book's title. I'm interested in checking it out.

[pophead2k]

I really enjoyed that book as well.

[VonOfterdingen]

I wanted to see that too after reading the book. And I can only recommend Rotters Club and The Closed Circle. I agree that Findley Onyx is a good character. I also enjoyed the menacing, overdone and furious descriptions of the Winshaws.

[Mr. Misery]

Doc Sportello sounds awfully close to Dec Costello.

[Jack of All Parades]

Had not observed that but now that you have pointed it out could be a plausible near anagram-have had to put "Doc" down for the moment-not properly engaged-instead completed "Wittgenstein's Poker" by David Edmonds and John Eidinow-the apocryphal tale of a 10 minute meeting between Ludwig Wittgenstein and Karl Popper at Cambridge on the evening of 10/25/1946-and the ramifications that those 10 minutes have had for 20th and 21st century philosophy-the clash between "puzzle solving' and 'problems'-social, economic, political and moral-engagingly told and really evocative of the milieu and the animus held by these two men towards one another-refugees from the Vienna Renaissance-they both hold your interest with their polar opposite life stories-now it is on to Edmonds and Eidinow's retelling of the disasterous attempt by David Hume to give shelter to Jean Jacques Rousseau- should be a hoot.

[Otis Westinghouse]

Shame you had to break away from Pynchon as I was looking forward to your reactions, but I've heard about that book and it sounds fascinating. Must read, especially as it's set in my home town.

Back from hols and have finally ordered Inherent Vice, and this, which by all accounts is heaven for Mozfans. Can't wait!