(Next to no) Progress Report

Oh, God, what a wasted weekend from a reading point of view. Saturday morning I read ten pages before heading off to an antique show. $4 to park, $5 per person to enter the show, so my wife and I plunked down $14 before ever seeing an antique. That, of course, is how they get you. If I could have somehow previewed the antiques that were for sale on the floor, I'd have stayed home reading Gravity's Rainbow.

30 Jan. - Page 154 - I wish something would happen.

Gravity's Rainbow - My Book of the Month

I'm reading Gravity's Rainbow this month (and probably will be throughout February, too), so I'm a little afraid this blog will be fantastically boring until I'm done. Why? Because I can't very well review a book until it's finished and on the shelf. The best I can do is give you progress reports as I go.

26 Jan. - Page 138 - Plot still largely absent.

The trouble with Pynchon is that his style of writing is so seductive that I keep coming back for more, even when nothing is happening. Getting through twenty pages a day is a solid achievement! Reading Pynchon is like reading Proust: you're not after a good yarn; it's the writing.

This, by the by, is my third attempt at Gravity's Rainbow. So far, it's my most successful attempt. How do I know, you might ask? Because I actually know what's going on this time! My previous two attempts (when I was young and had read nothing) were like wandering through a cloud bank. Vague structures loomed. I was always wandering off the path (Pynchon is not for those who have trouble focusing their thoughts). So, both times, after about a hundred pages (bad omen; see above) I gave up.

Now however, I finally find myself able to pierce the fog and follow the narrative. It's about time! I read V. while attending seminary (long story, which I'll save for later), and I reacted to it in a way I had not experienced since reading The Sound and the Fury. I immediately read The Crying of Lot 49 and Vineland. But Gravity's Rainbow stopped my progress through Pynchon's library of work cold. That was my second attempt at the book, the first being while I was in college at a time when extracurricular reading of any kind was all but impossible.

Perhaps once I've navigated this fogbank, Mason & Dixon will lift, also.

Welcome to the Review Desk

You have reached the Review Desk, the purpose of which is to disseminate reviews of books, the occasional film, and the even more occasional compact disc. The books I review will not necessarily be newly published. In fact, part of this project is an attempt to work my way through the to-be-read (TBR) stack, which, thanks to Christmas, has grown to a height of several stories (oh, God, no pun intended, I swear!). For your amusement, I'll also keep a running tab on the (often ridiculous) number of new books purchased during any of my all-too-frequent visits to Barnes & Noble, Broad Street Books, or Prince Books.

Enjoy.