Reviews

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon

lucasgarner's review against another edition

5.0

This is probably the most incredible book I have ever read in my life. It is completely insane, usually makes little sense, and at times makes absolutely no sense. However, this book is absolutely beautiful. Whether you understand what the hell Pynchon is talking about or not, it is impossible not to find something of value in this book that will completely blow your mind. An experimentation in just about every reference you can think of, it's like grinding up the dictionary and spitting it out with an abundance of rockets and erections. Read this book, it will warp your mind for the good.

jayden_mccomiskie's review against another edition

5.0

There's a farting across the sky. So like...yeah. Whacky shit. Literally. There's more shit and perversion in this book than a toilet in a city club at 3am, closing time, where everyone forgot to do a routine stool before filling their bodies with poison and dancing all night, the shit bouncing its way through the bowels. In all seriousness. Its great. Its funny. Super smart. But mainly fun. Now everybody--

adrianasturalvarez's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

As this is my first time reading Gravity's Rainbow I don't have a clear picture of anything I have read. It is like I had a dream a few nights ago and the dream I'm trying to remember is this 887 page masterpiece of high and low humor, astonishing metaphysics, what I can only imagine are in-jokes about actual physics, and a cast of characters so large and interconnected I got lost many times. What I can tell you is that in its broadest stroke (heh) this is a novel about a man who happens to either predict or direct the location of a V2 rocket's fall every time he fucks. But whoooa nelly it is not about that, although a lot of that is covered, often in salacious detail (Georges Bataille would have absolutely loved this novel). It is about the nature of humanity and it's future. It is about the act of reading and contemplating this nature. It is about the death drive. Above all it is about the arc a rocket makes as it pushes away from the earth, suspends, and is pulled down with the force of gravity, an arc that makes a rainbow and which is a perfect metaphor, I think, for what a lot of Pynchon's concepts have clustered around.

I will read this again some day; perhaps less anxious to get to the end and more careful reading each section.

jbramlett's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense slow-paced

4.0

thatone2112's review

challenging dark funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

ichirofakename's review against another edition

5.0

You are not smart enough to read this book (I know I'm not). This is the best novel. Highest recommendation.

Not to be described. Concerning: paranoia, conditioning, the V-2, sex, farce, WWII's aftermath. Poetic.

Not comprehensible in the normal sense: before reading, let go of desire to understand it, and for any sort of resolution at the end. Use online resources, like encyclopedia.com.

It's the novel that Finnegan's Wake should have wanted to be.

A few of the 521 characters:
Avery Purfle – one of the two Runcible Spoon Fighters
Bert Fibel – pinball mechanic
Blazzo – stuntman for Greta Erdmann
Blodgett Waxwing – false identity specialist
Byron – immortal lightbulb
Clive Mossmoon – possibly gay plastics expert, married to Scorpia.
Pfc. Eddie Pensiero – speed freak barber (1 hair at a time)
Eisenkröte – electrified iron frog in the latrine
Frans Van der Groov – ancestor of Katje, slaughters dodos.
Francisco Squalidozzi – leader of Argentine anarchists seeking refuge in postwar Germany.
The Fungus Pygmies
Grigori, aka Grischa (octopus)
Sir Hannibal Grunt-Gobbinette
Jeremy "Beaver" Swanlake
Katinka (dog)
Kim (cat)
Sir Marcus ("Angelique") Scammony
Michael (panda)
Mickey Rooney
Lieutenant Oliver "Tantivy" Mucker-Maffick
Seaman "Pig" Bodine – of the USS John E. Badass
Dr. Porkyevitch – conditions Grigori the octopus such that Slothrop falls in love with Katje.
Dr. Spontoon – one of two castrators of Dwayne Marvy.
Terence Overbaby
Tyrone Slothrop aka Ian Scuffling aka Max Schlepzig, aka Rocketman aka Plechazunga (German pig-hero) aka Schwartzknabe. Where he sleeps with women in London, a V-2 falls within 2 days.
Ursula (lemming)
Werhner (owl)
Wolfgang (chimp)

beans_init's review against another edition

5.0

i can't rate this book because i don't know what happened

cruelspirit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 At long last I have finished Gravity’s Rainbow. Since 2016 this book has sat on my shelf, leading it to be one of the longest unread books I own. Back in 2016 I picked this book up after hearing about the “Kenosha Kid” section in a video analyzing it, discussing the legacy of the book. As someone who had just moved out of Kenosha it felt poignant and caught my interest. At this point in my life I was nowhere near the reader I am now. I was in the midst of college and the only reading I really did was occasionally reading of assigned books for class. To put it simply, I was fully unprepared to take on Gravity’s Rainbow.

I got about 40 pages in that first attempt and put the book down for years. After college I got back into reading and slowly built up my ability to take on more challenging works. I read multiple Pynchon books (Inherent Vice, Crying of Lot 49, V) as well as a few other Postmodern Maximalist works to better prepare myself for Gravity’s Rainbow. While I do think becoming accustomed to Pynchon and the genre did help, there really is no way to prepare yourself for Gravity’s Rainbow.

I can’t think of another author where you read three of their books prior and still feel like you are reading that author for the first time. Sure the quintessential Pynchon staples are here. You get the narrative that drifts through time, geography, and perspective while bouncing haphazardly; intent on giving you all the puzzle pieces you didn’t know about while the same questions remain unanswered. The Pynchon familiarities are perverted and warped, showcasing a perverted and warped world. 

Pretty much anytime you ask someone to describe Gravity’s Rainbow they always say “It’s about a guy named Tyrone Slothrop, he gets erections”. This point is true but I was still surprised by how horny this book is. There are plenty of erotic and perverse moments in other Pynchon books but here it truly is the main theme, or at least a major element to the main theme.

Like any Postmodern work, especially a work of Pynchon’s, I’m not going to pretend I understood or caught even half of what is going on in this book on a first read. That being said I will try to collect my thoughts on some of the bigger takeaways I had reading this for the first time.

My biggest surprise was just how cartoonish this book is. When people discuss Gravity’s Rainbow it is heralded as one of the most important works of fiction of the 20th century and that it is a masterpiece of literature. This is true, but it is also wacky, zany, and full on bonkers. I was blown away reading many sections that were full of slapstick, goofy moments where characters are running around like they are in a Tom and Jerry or Looney Tunes cartoon. Pynchon has made it no secret that he is a fan of pop culture. Whether it be old movies, bands from the 60s, or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pynchon utilizes the entertainment of the time to paint a picture of the world his story takes place in. Still, this animated element was something I’ve never really seen done like this in a book.

I would compare these cartoonish sections to the same tone as a Ren and Stimpy or Animaniacs cartoon (of course those shows would come 20 years after the publishing of this book). This is where I first started to recognize the influence of Gravity’s Rainbow on culture as it progressed after its release. The first time I heard the name Pynchon was probably with his cameo in The Simpsons in the early 2000s. It’s no surprise he would be a fan of the show and it’s no surprise that the writers on the show would be fans of Pynchon.

This really is the quintessential Postmodern novel. Pynchon subverts society in a way that I don’t believe was done to this point, and has rarely been done since. Gravity’s Rainbow takes place at the tail end and immediate aftermath of WWII. WWII, being seen as the biggest event in modern history, has been depicted in many different ways, heralded almost more so for its folkloreish depictions than the actual historical events. 

While I was not alive 50 years ago, when this book was first published, I do know that WWII has been a pop culture focal point since the war was first declared. The Great Dictator, Donald Duck “seig heiling” in a Disney Cartoon, pulp paperbacks depicting the glory of US soldiers during The Battle of the Bulge, Hogan’s Heroes. All massive pop culture moments. Since the book’s release we’ve had punks try to co-opt the swastika, Saving Private Ryan, “Wehraboos”, and dozens of first person shooter video games. WWII is more myth than moment at this point. Pynchon struck on this point early on and really did it in a way that still feels fresh among all of the pop culture slough. 

While pop culture had already corrupted the image of WWII by 1973 I don’t think anyone had truly made this critique yet. Pynchon flips this world on its head. Instead of having strong, brave heroes as his protagonists, the allied forces are often bumbling, gawky weirdos, chasing after women and getting high. Instead of having cruel authoritarian villains the Germans are often depicted as sexually deviant deplorables more akin to the “queer and flamboyant villains” of a Disney movie. Pynchon removes the reverence held for this era by the society of the time and brings it down to earth, poking fun at the horrible atrocity it actually was.

One of my favorite examples of this is when Slothrop is in Switzerland and a man on the street is trying to sell him LSD in a way that is very akin to a drug deal you’d see going on in the decades after. LSD was first synthesized in 1943 in Switzerland, so to pretend like Slothrop has any idea what this is and would be accustomed to someone coming up to him on the street is a funny scene to imagine. This is just one instance. There are plenty of times characters are talking or acting in a way that seems more in line with the cultural expectations of the post psychedelic 1960s than wartime 1940s Europe.

Another subversive element that I think helps define this as the “quintessential Postmodern novel” is the way in which it is portrayed. While not often or overtly done the fourth wall starts to come down and make it feel like you are viewing a performance rather than the elements of this story happening in real time. References to the “camera lens” or the many musical chorus line breaks really make it feel like you are watching a musical or a play depicting a silly and outrageous interpretation of a man in Europe during the tail end of WWII and that musical or play is called Gravity’s Rainbow. Of course, with the shift in perspectives and timeline this would more closely resemble a film, one in which we are only now starting to see these narrative storytelling elements utilized.

You can compare Gravity’s Rainbow to any form of entertainment you like and none of them will fit perfectly. That is the beauty of the medium of a novel. This sort of story can only really be done, in its full scope, as a book (at least for now). If there were to be an adaptation of this book it would have to incorporate film elements, with theater elements, as well as probably radioplay. It would be quite a feat and something that is unlikely to ever be done well, if done at all. 

There’s so much that can be described and discussed when it comes to Gravity’s Rainbow. If there is any complaint I have, it's that there’s so much going on at once that it’s hard to recall everything (or even most things) in detail. This leads to the necessity of rereading but when a book is as fun as this I’m happy to do so.

I’ve long been a fan of the post psychedelic, out of the box, surreal, art of the 1970s. I’m surprised it’s taken me so long to get to Gravity’s Rainbow as it really is the flagship work of the era. Books like The Illuminatus Trilogy! definitely followed in the footsteps of Pynchon’s work here. The closest piece of art that I can compare to Gravity’s Rainbow is the work of Frank Zappa, specifically 1979’s Joe’s Garage. If you have not listened to Joe’s Garage and are a fan of Gravity’s Rainbow I cannot recommend it enough as it really covers a lot of the same absurdity and Postmodern introspection that you can find here. I’ve tried looking for any discussion on correlation or influences of Zappa and Pynchon on eachother but I haven’t found much. 

To an extent it has felt like all of my previous reading has built up to reading Gravity’s Rainbow. Everything was in preparation for working through this text. All of the Pynchon books, the other books of the 1960s, the history and German literature books about the war. Gravity’s Rainbow is a book you could spend a lifetime analyzing and still not catch everything. While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book over the last few months and I can’t wait to reread it, I’m also ready to read some of the many other books I have yet to read. I set the goal of reading V and Gravity’s Rainbow this year for their respective 60 and 50 year anniversaries; I’m happy to have completed that goal.

 

phantomthreadost's review against another edition

5.0

holy fucking shit

bibliotequeish's review against another edition

2.0

oof

Before I read this book, I saw this article about "How to read a Thomas Pynchon Novel" It included tips like, finding a quiet comfortable reading space, it included pictures ... I thought it was hilarious.

And then I started reading Gravity's rainbow... I read the first 100 pages, and then went back and read it again, because clearly I missed something.
After reading the first 100 pages again, I realized I was still lost.  

This was one of the most challenging books I have read. 

And after all that, I didn't even enjoy it.