false 409 13 Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all. With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred. The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx. As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them. Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction. Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck. --Thomas Pynchon 3016553 21 11 2006 Against the Day total:1092|5:439|4:362|3:188|2:64|1:39| 1092 4374 2664 288 5 25 false false Sat Mar 08 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Jun 12 07:54:24 -0700 2007 Sat Mar 01 19:35:11 -0800 2008 Update the second, March 08
Well, well, well [she says, much subdued, pensive; not at all her normal, boistrous, effusive self].

Here we are, March 1, 2008, and I have just closed the cover of Against the Day.

I suppose it's hard to even talk about a tome like this, a thin...more...]]> 5 6 false false Thu Jun 28 11:32:35 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 28 11:43:40 -0700 2007
Bomb huckers, outlaws and anarchists lurk everywhere and—surprise, surprise—nearly all of them are likable. Against the Day is like a Louis L’Amour novel in reverse but instead of the saga of the Sackett family moving westward, endlessly cro...more...]]> 4 5 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon May 07 08:48:19 -0700 2007 Tue Mar 11 12:09:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 5 false false Thu Feb 21 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 28 10:46:25 -0800 2007 Thu Feb 21 19:00:25 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 4 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Sep 25 12:41:09 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 12:51:21 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 5 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat May 26 03:45:40 -0700 2007 Sat Oct 06 12:09:09 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 5 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1913 Wed May 23 17:31:11 -0700 2007 Wed May 23 18:10:49 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 4 false false Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Apr 15 22:58:20 -0700 2007 Sat Jan 26 02:15:31 -0800 2008
All I can say in review at the moment is: Holy Crap.

Perhaps later I'll be able to add something more relevant, but at the moment, I apologize, because...more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jun 14 18:23:11 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 30 16:57:36 -0700 2008 This is a beautiful, moving book, very sad but also very silly.

It's one of the easiest Pynchon books to underst...more...]]> 5 4 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Apr 08 08:30:46 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 08 08:35:33 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Wed Aug 08 19:11:52 -0700 2007 Wed Aug 08 19:24:29 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 3 false false Sun Apr 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 19 20:25:19 -0700 2007 Mon Apr 28 01:45:03 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Sun Jul 29 19:26:29 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 11 13:40:20 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 21 19:49:57 -0700 2007 Wed Nov 14 08:32:17 -0800 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Feb 27 12:48:12 -0800 2009 Thu Sep 10 22:07:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Thu Jul 10 11:02:02 -0700 2008 Thu Jul 10 11:16:43 -0700 2008 more...]]> 0 1 false false Wed May 14 20:26:44 -0700 2008 Wed May 14 20:26:44 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Feb 21 09:44:47 -0800 2008 Mon Mar 09 20:49:35 -0700 2009 A...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sat Dec 01 12:26:56 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 03 12:02:19 -0800 2007 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue Nov 13 13:48:11 -0800 2007 Wed Dec 05 18:55:32 -0800 2007 more...]]>