A Companion to the Crying of Lot 49

by J. Kerry Grant

This new expanded and updated edition contains more than 500 notes keyed to the 2006 Harper Perennial Modern Classics, the 1986 Harper Perennial Library, and the 1967 Bantam editions. The majority of notes are interpretive, although some are designed to provide a historical context or to recover the meaning of a reference that, over time, has proved to be ephemeral. This new edition adds quotations and paraphrases drawn from criticism published since 1994. The result is more than seventy new entries in the list of works cited. More than fifty annotations have been added and approximately eighty annotations have been expanded.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Criticism, Literature, Literary Criticism

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

Reviews

[Tom Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel everyone needs to know: this guide provides possible interpretations of the name "Mucho" Maas without once noting that "mucho más" means "much more" in Spanish. This is a gross oversight that really gets my goat, because I identified totally with Mucho on my first reading.

3 stars. It's fun to see someone else's obsessive thought process put down on paper. If you are looking for an extremely close read of Lot 49 to jumpstart discussion, this'll work.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pynchon frequently employs references from pop culture, science and history with which the general reader may not be familiar. In this book Grant supplies background on such things like Maxwell's Demon, Mikhail Bakunin, and Porky Pig cartoons. There is a particularly good detailed discussion on how the concept of entropy in both thermodynamics and communications theory functions with regard to the dominant themes in Pynchon's narrative.

Acquired 1997
Barnes and Noble, Rochester NY

[Horza]

Useful for tracking some of the allusions but Pynchonian in its collation of theorists each with their own bizarre takes and po-faced commitment to missing the forest for the bugs in the bark.

[Adam · Rating 1 out of 5]

My 20th century novel professor at St. Lawrence wrote this book. His son dated meatloaf's daughter and you used to pronounce "lieutenant" like "lufftenant."

[Маx Nestelieiev · Rating 3 out of 5]

useful, but not so much as for example PynchonWiki and Wiki for "The Crying of Lot 49" itself.
The book is just companion to interpretations of "The Lot". And in these places where J. Kerry Grant makes its own statements he sounds very... hm... frivolous.
As it goes for instance in P.50 about Irish folklore and milk: "I have been unable to find any specific reference to the leaving of milk for that purpose". It sounds like - sorry I'm a litlle ignorant in this episode.
Or about Nicholas II instead of Alexander II (P. 60): "An uncharacteristic lapse on Pynchon's part". So what? Maybe it's not a mistake and just the part of the plan:)
Waiting for the Third edition :)

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good companion if you're looking for an overview of the collegiate or university level theses on this novel. Many (not all) of which are important to understand and the think on. However, it largely (almost entirely) ignores the heavy political lenses that Pynchon was clearly trying to get across. Whether or not this was a willful omission or was something Grant did not want to include or just that since other authors didn't focus on it, Grant didn't include it for that reason... idk, it ignores what is in my opinion the most prominent and revelatory purpose of the book. But nonetheless, this did open up some new realms of the novel for me along with showing me how some scholars (not Grant, but the ones he cited and often disagreed with) are complete morons. Definitely a worthwhile companion for your second or third reading on the novel.

[Joseph · Rating 3 out of 5]

As I wrote in my brief review of the novel itself (The Crying of Lot 49), it's a difficult read with more allusions and metaphors jammed into its pages than one normally expects. Hence my reading of this companion work, written by a Lit professor who has been teaching Pynchon to undergraduates for at least twenty years.

But because Pynchon is so cryptic about the intent and meaning of his writing, the author of this critical work admits up front in the preface that some of his annotations are - at best - a guess of what the novel intended. And that's probably the way Pynchon likes it.

[Luke Dylan Ramsey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Check out the Pynchon centered podcast I cohost, Mapping the Zone. We just finished Lot 49 and are moving on to Mason & Dixon next.

Found this book to mostly be pretty damn relevant when discussing Lot 49. Some of the entries weren’t amazing and I do wish there was more stuff defined, kinda like how the Pynchon wiki operates, but whatever. This definitely helped expand my reading of the novel.

[Glenn Richard]

Having read Lot 49 multiple times, it was interesting to read it again alongside the Companion. Some interesting information and interpretations. However the stuff on John Nefastis, Maxwell's demon, entropy, thermodynamics and information theory was utter nonsense

[Barbara T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very challenging read

[Jacob Moose]

A very helpful guide.

[Firsty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good companion that elucidated a lot of what I missed, I'm dubious on some points and would've appreciated a thematic overview of the book however.

[severyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surely it's the Freudian interpretations that come closest to emulating the master's own parodies? Say, Couturier, quoted here: '...that Pierce, feeling himself diminished by Oedipa's inaccessibility, may have sought revenge "by burdening her with an ego-destructive task"'. Or Plater: '...the feminization of Oedipus [into 'Oedipa] is intended to "suggest the hermaphroditic unity of opposites..."'.

[William Harris · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best of the Pynchon Companions (next to the Gravity’s Rainbow one). Both are equally compelling reading for readers familiar with the novel already—explaining allusions, obscure jokes, and integrating snippets of critical readings that help a reader puzzle out the complexities and ambiguities (or often, relevant here, just appreciate and learn to live with them). I’ve taught this novel several times and read it countless, honestly—Lot 49 is my Desert Island read if I could only have one.

[Julie]

oct/nov 2002, i don't think i actually read this one (oops)

[Melody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably would not have enjoyed this as much if I hadn't experienced living in SoCal. Nice gateway Pynchon.

[sam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extraordinarily useful, but entropy is still confusing. Maybe the reader is Maxwell's Demon?

[Keef · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's no Weisburger.