Vineland

A quick read (I know it’s been awhile, but I was just vacationing in Sweden, all spring and summer) by Thomas Pynchon standards, but not by any means "lite," or even "light," or even “lingonberry sparkler.” This novel came out in 1990, a year, as you may recall, that seemed to mark scraping the bottom of something (little did we know). There had not been a Pynchon book published in many years, except for a collection of short stories, so the hubbub around this book was considerable. Most reviewers considered it a disappointment, but I have to admit, it's my favorite of all of his books (haven’t read the last two yet!).

Zoyd Wheeler has run out of Count Chocula and must settle for Froot Loops-- and this simple event propels him through a series of misunderstandings, missed connections, and coincidences in a story that mirrors Orwell's 1984, the year the story is set-- but not really, of course-- that's just the jumping off point.

The characters-- friends and family of Zoyd's-- find themselves battling secret underground organizations and the banality of the popular culture, both-- and little distinction is made between the two. As the story progresses, in fact, little distinction is made between Zoyd and his posse of old hippies, dropouts, and counterculture casualties and the forces of evil they are battling. Eventually the realization is reached that they are battling themselves; the opposing forces have just set up a mirror at the crossroads and the freaks, unable to distinguish very much through a blue haze of marijuana smoke, spend all of their remaining time and diminishing resources catapulting flaming balls of what were once good intentions at hideously reversed images of themselves.

In a post-modern twist, real life author Rick Moody is introduced into the story, along with Japanese auteur/comedian Beat Takeshi. The two bill collectors-cum clowns threaten to take over the novel, and finally release a toxic cloud of radioactive ice crystals into the atmosphere when their demands aren't met. The water of the region, contaminated as a result, is then found to cause personality disorders in the majority of the inhabitants under the age of 45-- a disorder the aligns their neurosis’s perfectly with that of Moody, who when he then runs for mayor, wins handily. Takeshi, in a last ditch attempt to retain the power of terror, shoves a chopstick into each eye of an Austrian action hero while campaigning on national television.

The novel ends with the Phoenix family’s returning to their gypsy days and traveling to Cuba on a homemade raft. Zoyd, in a fit of despair, takes a job at the Sacramento IKEA, retrieving shopping carts from the ghetto. DL, who I haven't mentioned yet, prepares himself for the worst earthquake in recorded history. And Elmhurst becomes the world's greatest authority on later period Brautigan. Echoes of this novel can be found in all of the Coen Brother's films-- indeed, Zoyd is a mirror image of "The Dude"-- and rumors of Pynchon and Garrison Keillor being one in the same were finally put to rest.

Gravity's Rainbow

It took me awhile to get through this one, but I wanted to take my time so that I would really get it completely and express myself perfectly here. I'll zip through the next couple of Pynchon books, however.

This is pretty much the story of Khama, king of the Bechuanas, and his relationship with the Nazi's, and the zoot-suit-ers, in parallel stories. Everything is in shambles due to the incessant bombing on the continant, and so an undergroud sect take all of the important European art, except for the Vermeer's, to the Island of Tulipomania. There, a secret society begins to make perfect reproductions in case the war turns out badly. Now, a Russian man named Tchitcherine discovers the abandoned Vermeer paintings, and using them as colateral, starts a gypsy army called "The Left" who volunteer at the mobile American weapons department testing stations. As they are blowing holes in the earth, trying to develop a bomb that will contain the axis powers. In one of the holes is discovered a secret underground tunnel that leads under the ocean and comes out in the storeroom of a department store in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The U-boat, Anibus, which has made its way through the St. Lawrence Seaway is prepared to attack Wisconsin, and then during an event called "the Last Randevous" the world is saved by pure luck, and the Master of the Woods. I regret to report that the last couple of pages of my book are missing, but still, I think I get the general I got the idea. It's probably worth reading, if you want to get some details I left out.

OK-- there you have it! Bring on whatever is next, and... happy reading!

This last month was bad for reading due to the snowy weather (OR a dog ate my homework)

OK! I'm like 300 pages from the end of G's Rainbow, so I'm going to stay up all night to finish it because the end of Feeruarey was my goal, though i was thining there was LEAP YEAR this year for some strange reason!

I'm going to listen to Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow while I read and eat rainbow colored foods, if I can find any at Whole foods-- I mean they must have, right? With a name like that they wouldnt just have like four or five coloers?

ok, enough chatting, I've got to read......

What in the hell does that mean anyway?

Gravity's Rainbow has slowed me down a little. OK?