Having just been released from the Navy, Benny Profane is content to lead a slothful existence with his friends, where the only real ambition is to...
read full description
reviews
Dec 17, 2009
Dave-O
rated it: 
Reading Thomas Pynchon's first novel is like plunging head first into a room with very little light. As the novel progresses, Pynchon regulates that light sometimes letting the reader see very clearly, narratively speaking, and other times enveloping the reader into near darkness.
The two main characters are discharged Naval officer Benny Profane the self-described "schlemiel" and Stencil, the hunter of the elusive woman/idea known only as V. Though not exact opposites, thei More...
The two main characters are discharged Naval officer Benny Profane the self-described "schlemiel" and Stencil, the hunter of the elusive woman/idea known only as V. Though not exact opposites, thei More...
Dec 24, 2010
Nate
rated it: 
What to say of Pynchon's half-century spanning epic?
Like Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon's first novel (published, I think, at an astonishing age 26) is concerned with questions of life and death, here both at the internal, personal scale of our relations to people, things, and the outer world, and on a broad international scale of war, colonialism, and political intrigue. Linking the two, Herbert Stencil, adventurer and obsessed historian, tracking the intertwined history of his British f More...
Like Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon's first novel (published, I think, at an astonishing age 26) is concerned with questions of life and death, here both at the internal, personal scale of our relations to people, things, and the outer world, and on a broad international scale of war, colonialism, and political intrigue. Linking the two, Herbert Stencil, adventurer and obsessed historian, tracking the intertwined history of his British f More...
0 comments
like
(9 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Aerin
rated it:
I've been meaning to tackle Pynchon for some years now, because everything I'd read about him made it seem like his books would be right up my alley.
I should have known, however, not to start reading him now, when I'm crazy-busy with school and work. Pynchon is famously difficult and dense, and I just don't have the time to devote to serious reading these days. I kept telling myself, "After summer term finishes up, then we can get into some more meaty novels."
More...
I should have known, however, not to start reading him now, when I'm crazy-busy with school and work. Pynchon is famously difficult and dense, and I just don't have the time to devote to serious reading these days. I kept telling myself, "After summer term finishes up, then we can get into some more meaty novels."
More...
0 comments
like
(14 people liked it)
Jun 12, 2010
Jimmy
rated it:
"A phrase (it often happened when he was exhausted) kept cycling round and round, preconsciously, just under the threshold of lip and tongue movement: "Events seem to be ordered into an ominous logic." It repeated itself automatically and Stencil improved on it each time, placing emphasis on different words-"events seem"; "seem to be ordered"; "ominous logic"-pronouncing them differently, changing the "tone of voice" from sepulchral to jaun
More...
7 comments
like
(16 people liked it)
Feb 05, 2008
Nicole
rated it: 
I tried, lawd knows I tried.
“It is something less than heaven
To be quoted Thesis 1.7
Every time I make an advance;
If the world is all that the case is
That’s a pretty discouraging basis
On which to pursue
Any sort of romance.
I’ve got a proposition for you;
Logical, positive and brief.
And at least it could serve as a kind of comic relief:
[Refrain]
Let P equal me,
With my heart in command;
Let Q equal you
With Tractatus in hand More...
“It is something less than heaven
To be quoted Thesis 1.7
Every time I make an advance;
If the world is all that the case is
That’s a pretty discouraging basis
On which to pursue
Any sort of romance.
I’ve got a proposition for you;
Logical, positive and brief.
And at least it could serve as a kind of comic relief:
[Refrain]
Let P equal me,
With my heart in command;
Let Q equal you
With Tractatus in hand More...
0 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2007
Dustin
rated it:
I think the only thing I'd say about this book that hasn't been said already (at least that I've seen) is that Pynchon's narrative style adds and drops characters like a c-average senior drops and adds classes--frequently.
There's something very appealing about this attitude in a novel. We are, according to P, moving from the animate to the inanimate, so I suppose the fact that characters serve only a fleeting function is to be expected. The minor members of the Whole Sick Crew were More...
There's something very appealing about this attitude in a novel. We are, according to P, moving from the animate to the inanimate, so I suppose the fact that characters serve only a fleeting function is to be expected. The minor members of the Whole Sick Crew were More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
May 02, 2008
Lane
rated it: 
EDIT: I give up again. 'V' is a travesty of juvenile puns, unconvincing dialogue, and (my own pet peeve) characters with impossibly trite names. Seriously, what gives?
EDIT: I decided to try reading it again.
have you ever had the feeling that an author is simply trying to bludgeon you over the head with abstruseness? have you ever read one of those books that all of the "serious readers" swear is an infallible masterpiece, despite its meat-fisted appropria More...
EDIT: I decided to try reading it again.
have you ever had the feeling that an author is simply trying to bludgeon you over the head with abstruseness? have you ever read one of those books that all of the "serious readers" swear is an infallible masterpiece, despite its meat-fisted appropria More...
2 comments
like
(6 people liked it)
Dec 05, 2011
V. is like some weird, half dreamed dispatch from a mind that is hermetically sealed off from the world. It's a book that seems to revolve more around a specific set of images and motifs, clocks, yo-yo's inanimate objects, Malta, espionage, etc. than around a set of characters, though the characters are often compelling and weirdly poetic in their own ways. It's hard to believe that this book is almost 50 years old. The way it tries to tie together so many odd, all but forgotten historical threa
More...
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Mk
rated it:
From this book I learned that:
a) Thomas Pynchon may be the smartest man alive.
b) Pynchon's vocabulary is one of the most extensive I've ever come across.
c) Reading Pynchon is tedious and often unpleasant.
Even with the companion and a book discussion group, reading this novel was like wading through a bog. Every time I grasped the plot, I'd lose track of Pynchon's message, and every time I caught a glimpse of the message, I lost the plot.
No wonder More...
a) Thomas Pynchon may be the smartest man alive.
b) Pynchon's vocabulary is one of the most extensive I've ever come across.
c) Reading Pynchon is tedious and often unpleasant.
Even with the companion and a book discussion group, reading this novel was like wading through a bog. Every time I grasped the plot, I'd lose track of Pynchon's message, and every time I caught a glimpse of the message, I lost the plot.
No wonder More...
2 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
May 29, 2007
Bill
rated it:
Between the extended novella The Crying of Lot 49 and the sprawling behemoth Gravity's Rainbow lies V, a book that's neither long nor particularly dense but still finds space for Pynchon's trademark historical digressions and lyrical flights of fancy. Pynchon's first novel is a thrilling mish-mash of Baedeker-Guide colonial intrigue, 1950s bohemia, and a hilarious set piece about alligators in the sewers of New York, all held together by an enigmatic meta-textual thread that is one of the more
More...
2 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Feb 17, 2008
matt
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
0 comments
like
(3 people liked it)
Jun 03, 2008
Jeffrey
rated it:
a story split in two, converging to a sharp, crisp point. one story, that of a group of go-nowheres, is fun and light, and probably a more accurate and unforgiving portrait of the beats than is present in their own work. the other alternating half are Stencil's tales of potentialities and impressions concerning espionage in various exotic locales earlier in the century, all tied around the enigma of the entity V.
0 comments
like
(5 people liked it)
Oct 08, 2009
Max
rated it:
This book won me over completely. Its unhinged prose captures the Twentieth Century in its entirety better than anything I have ever encountered - and it was written barely halfway through the century! Pynchon has a reputation for being difficult, and this book is certainly no exception, but if you lean back in your seat, trust him, and let him take the reins, you won't find it difficult at all. I find that you have to read Pynchon with a kind of soft focus, unclenching certain parts of your min
More...
Sep 16, 2007
Except for German missiles and some scatological sex, it is all a swirling morass ...
Sep 03, 2008
Jan
rated it:
I was utterly confused and I LOVED it. Of all the books that I've read, this was one of the select few that had me biting my fingernails on one hand, as I cradled its spine with my other. What had me so nervous was not the suspense in the plot, or a concern for the characters, but the thought, "Can he keep this up? Can he write 600 pages of prose that is so stupefyingly beautiful, so unctuous, so enveloping?" The answer is yes, that Pynchon's style continued to deliver on the promi
More...
0 comments
like
(4 people liked it)
Jul 02, 2008
Stephen
rated it:
This very complicated novel was introduced to me in a literature class in the mid-1970s. I’m not sure I managed to read it all then, because despite an amusing bar brawl at the outset and some truly bizarre scenarios it’s mostly tough going. However, my love for puzzling out complicated plots led me back to it later. At that point I was a technical writer for a defense contractor, which made parts of the story more relevant: Pynchon had also been a tech writer for a defense contractor, and his p
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 02, 2008
Stephanie A.
rated it:
Amazing, incredible book. Amazing, incredible writer. -1 for the two chapters I didn't like and for a few other sections that dragged on a bit longer than they could have. Otherwise: wow. Just wow. I still can't believe Thomas Pynchon wrote this when he was 26 or that this is his first novel. Off the charts imagination plus really exciting language. Pynchon's sentences are sometimes convoluted beyond belief, which is why he is rather difficult to read (I say "rather" because I've had m
More...
2 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 17, 2008
Cody
rated it:
'The experience, the experience. Haven't you learned?' Profane didn't have to think long. 'No,' he said, 'offhand I'd say I haven't learned a goddamn thing.'"
Moral of the story: our entire trajectory, as animate humans, consists of nothing more than an inevitable progression from being animate to being inanimate. What? You don't find solace in this point? It makes you feel a bit uneasy, and, dare I say, paranoid? Welcome to Thomas Pynchon's world.
"V." More...
Moral of the story: our entire trajectory, as animate humans, consists of nothing more than an inevitable progression from being animate to being inanimate. What? You don't find solace in this point? It makes you feel a bit uneasy, and, dare I say, paranoid? Welcome to Thomas Pynchon's world.
"V." More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Dec 12, 2007
Mike
rated it:
In keeping with Pynchon's penchant for songs, I wrote one as the review for this book (and perhaps Pynchon in general). As I do whenever I come across songs in his books, you'll have to make up a melody and sing it yourself:
You don't come for the plot, cos its tied in a knot,
you don't come to escape, cos your mind will get raped,
[Refrain]:
but you do....
....come for....
.....the fun!!!!
There's a whole lotta fun, on-a every page,
More...
You don't come for the plot, cos its tied in a knot,
you don't come to escape, cos your mind will get raped,
[Refrain]:
but you do....
....come for....
.....the fun!!!!
There's a whole lotta fun, on-a every page,
More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
May 08, 2007
Ben
rated it:
"I write poetry," she announced. They were at her place, a modest hotel near the great lift.
"Oh," said Profane.
"I am the twentieth century," she read. Profane rolled away and stared at the pattern in the rug.
***
Like that last reviewer below me, V. is also my favorite Pynchon novel. This isn't exactly any kind of definitive statement, as I've only started four (Lot 49, V., Vineland, Gravity's Rainbow) and finished two ( More...
"Oh," said Profane.
"I am the twentieth century," she read. Profane rolled away and stared at the pattern in the rug.
***
Like that last reviewer below me, V. is also my favorite Pynchon novel. This isn't exactly any kind of definitive statement, as I've only started four (Lot 49, V., Vineland, Gravity's Rainbow) and finished two ( More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
May 31, 2007
Michael
rated it:
For the most part I found V. very exciting. It is a books that takes on so much, from alligators in the NYC sewers to Chilean riots in Florence, and manages to pull it off. There are so many great characters, some better fleshed out than others, but the two protagonists Profane and Stencil, are incredible.
A few passages in the book seemed to trudge along for me. There is one episode which takes place in South Africa that is quite dazzling at times but could have been cut down a bit i More...
A few passages in the book seemed to trudge along for me. There is one episode which takes place in South Africa that is quite dazzling at times but could have been cut down a bit i More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Jun 09, 2011
Jeruen
rated it:
Have you ever had a time where you read something, and then after finishing it, you feel like you came out of it more confused than when you started? Well, this novel is like that. And somehow, I think I like it.
So, what is this novel about? V. (note the period) is the first novel of American novelist Thomas Pynchon, and it tells the story of two men. The first one is Stencil, who is looking for something he has lost; and Profane, who has nothing much to lose. It also has a third chara More...
So, what is this novel about? V. (note the period) is the first novel of American novelist Thomas Pynchon, and it tells the story of two men. The first one is Stencil, who is looking for something he has lost; and Profane, who has nothing much to lose. It also has a third chara More...
Mar 02, 2011
Hârum
rated it:
Varios autores han explorado modelos de hipernovela en las últimas cinco décadas en búsqueda de la historia que contuviera todas las historias. Famoso es el trabajo de combinación de Italo Calvino en ‘Si una noche de invierno un viajero…’, a base de fragmentos interrumpidos que mutan en nuevos incipit que a su vez dan lugar a un circuito potencialmente inagotable.
La opción que tomó Thomas Pynchon al darse a conocer al mundo en 1963 con ‘V.’ es la opuesta: la hipernovela a través de l More...
La opción que tomó Thomas Pynchon al darse a conocer al mundo en 1963 con ‘V.’ es la opuesta: la hipernovela a través de l More...
Dec 17, 2010
Drew
rated it:
Came really close to giving this one five stars. Pynchon's manic, maximalist style really suits me, and his prose style is unimpeachable. His evocation of Malta, South Africa, and a half dozen other places is pretty breathtaking. And the titular V. is as fascinating as she is elusive, the latter of which made up one of my few problems with the book. All of the spy stuff was pleasantly absurd, as has been the case with the other Pynchon stuff I've read.
The major flaw for me was th More...
The major flaw for me was th More...
0 comments
like
(2 people liked it)
Sep 05, 2010
Timothy
rated it:
A really dense book that I didn't understand. There were times when I felt as if I was on the verge of understanding, of finding some underlying connection between all the disparate characters and situations (much like the characters searching for the meaning of the sferics and tunnels and Vheissu) - but then I lost it again. Perhaps it doesn't mean anything at all, and perhaps that feeling of "I'm perpetually on the verge of understanding, of finding some greater connection or truth"
More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Apr 17, 2010
Jason
rated it:
What is most infuriating about V. is that it is a book that goes to great lengths to leave no thread left unraveled and yet it simultaneously refuses to tie them up for you. It is a rejection of the excess of the fifties just as it is a rejection of modernism and technology; it is a tumbling forward through the new century and new times just as it is look back to the dead past.
The story of the novel alternates between Benny Profane, a schlemeil who wanders the Street and Stencil who More...
The story of the novel alternates between Benny Profane, a schlemeil who wanders the Street and Stencil who More...
Apr 19, 2009
Jonathan
rated it:
Is it worth it to commit to a book or movie through to the end, even if you're not enjoying yourself during the journey? I once had an opinion that if I paid for something, I'd sit through it - no matter how mind numbing it was. After all it could get better, right? There might be something I'm not seeing, right?
I was handed this book by a coworker who had tried multiple times to get into it, but couldn't. So I gave it a try. Pynchon's "stream of conscious" writing style, I h More...
I was handed this book by a coworker who had tried multiple times to get into it, but couldn't. So I gave it a try. Pynchon's "stream of conscious" writing style, I h More...
0 comments
like
(1 person liked it)
Feb 06, 2012
Mateus
rated it:
Velho, no fim das contas, esperava mais do livro de estreia dele, não que seja inteiramente ruim, não, não é isso; é que simplesmente achei que o livro morreu na praia.
Tem algumas ótimas passagens com descrições muito boas, mas o livro tem toda uma confusão conflituosa que não lhe deixa alcançar o âmago da história, você fica com a sensação que praticamente não ouviu nada de relevante para a compreensão da narrativa. Eu não sei se é proposital [provavelmente o é] ou se o Pynchon ainda não More...
Tem algumas ótimas passagens com descrições muito boas, mas o livro tem toda uma confusão conflituosa que não lhe deixa alcançar o âmago da história, você fica com a sensação que praticamente não ouviu nada de relevante para a compreensão da narrativa. Eu não sei se é proposital [provavelmente o é] ou se o Pynchon ainda não More...
Mar 19, 2011
Matthew
rated it:
On the surface, V is about the search for the titular woman, if indeed she is a woman and not an inanimate object of some sort. V. is just one of the threads which holds the intricacies of the plot together.
Instead, V explores what it means to be a citizen of the 20th century. What occurs when we invest more in our inanimate objects, like our car or a glass eye, than our relationships with the animate world?
V is a great book because it manages to be hilarious and pro More...
Instead, V explores what it means to be a citizen of the 20th century. What occurs when we invest more in our inanimate objects, like our car or a glass eye, than our relationships with the animate world?
V is a great book because it manages to be hilarious and pro More...
Oct 17, 2009
Jake
rated it:
At one point in V., one of Pynchon's characters is pontificating on his Beat Generation ennui, and decides that the best tact in life is to "Love with your mouth shut, help without breaking your ass or publicizing it; keep cool but care." Much of this novel seems to be about Pynchon's post-college struggle to find a way of living— some middle road between existential despair and the Romantic path of old. Both of the narratives involve groups of people struggling to find meaning again
More...
