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Struggling Through Gravity's Rainbow (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 week ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Holy heck what a slog. It's 90% incomprehensible 1940s pop culture references, nonsense poetry, and word salad. Then, BLAM, the rest is brilliantly hilarious and fantastically written. (Extremely graphic depiction of coprophilia aside.)

It seems like every time I'm about to put the book down for good, Pynchon throws me a bone and massively entertains. I'm 40% of the way through, and I've almost given up a half dozen times. I am at least starting to maybe glean a little bit of the plot out of the jumble. A little bit. I really hope it becomes a little more clear at some point because it's a little discouraging.

Has anyone here made it through? Worth it? Did you understand what was going on?

What a book!

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The first time you read it you're just adjusting to the prose style which is quite complex. I had a couple false starts and then one took. There are good analyses and guides which are very helpful for understanding the structure of it. But I found having read it through like three times that the humor really comes through after you become acclimated to the prose. Its a very funny book in lots of places.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 week ago

For sure! The scene where Slothrop is trying out "candies" with the British ladies had me busting a gut.