The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

[Chinook]

That was just awesome. It's all a conspiracy! At the post office! And that was the oddest sex scene ever, followed by the odd idea of sex in a closet on occasion. That was such a fun romp - though I suppose I don't really have much idea through what exactly.

[Kristel]

The Crying of Lot 49 Thomas Pynchon. So it helped to know going in a bit about this book. It is a quest. Oedipa is going someplace to find something. This book was written in 1966. Oedipa is a housewife who has just come home from a Tupperware Party to find she is been named Executrix of an old bf's will.

This book reminds me of Ulysses by James Joyce. Same kind of feel, same plot (quest). Here we have a female protagonist with a lot of male supporting characters. Pynchon used a whole lot less pages than Joyce.

This is classic for the sixties. Women entering the liberation movement. Sexual freedom. It also features conspiracies. In this we have some kind of conspiracy that involves the post office, postage and mail delivery. We have drugs, LSD. And as is common in post modernism we have isolation. But as the author reminds us in his book, "don't try to read too much into it" but how can you not with characters named; Dr. Hilarias, Mike Fallopian, Gengis Cohen, Stanley Koteks, Manny di Presso. There is even a bit of technology and modernization with Entropy (Oedipa's last name is Maas, wich could be mass and entropy) and Maxwell's Demons. So, one could say, this book is science fiction, conspiracy mystery with no resolution. But Oedipa does grow into a stronger, more confident female by the end of this short work of fiction.

If this is Pynchon's writing. I am pretty afraid to read his other works which are much longer.

[Kelly_Hunsaker_reads]

1 star for me

I apologize to the Phynchon fans out there. I apologize to the lovers of satire. I do not like this book. At. All. I found it confusing, dull, sarcastic... I would have DNFd it if not for the fact that it is on the 1001 Books to Read list. I would have DNFd it and never looked back. Instead I read the entire thing, hated every moment, and will never look back.

[Diane]

2.5 Stars

Not my thing. I enjoyed some parts, but as a whole I can't say that it was enjoyable. I can see how others would like it, though, and it did have quite a few redeeming qualities. As, Kristel said, I am afraid of his longer works, especially since this one is considered to be the "most accessible" by Pynchon.

[Melissa]

2 Stars for me

Our Oedipa falls down the rabbit hole her ex-lover set for her and is lost. For me personally it was The Da Vinci code of postal conspiracies, but with a less scholarly conspiracy tracker, whose cast looked like 60-70’s typecast rejects, most of them heavily drunk or drugged out of their mind most likely seeing hallucinations everywhere. Maybe Dr Hilarious and Mucho Mass were slipping LSD in everybody’s drinks. If not her ex got what he wanted, a conspiracy that polled her back into his world and most likely will never let go of her now....because really how can she ever not have doubts now.

[Dan]

On the one hand, we have fiction and imagination. On the other hand, we have reality, facts, and things. It is not clear if people can tell the difference. It is not clear there is much difference.

[Jenni is on storygraph]

I started off strong with this book. For the first chapter, I really felt like I knew what was happening and was interested. Somewhere after that, I got lost, and by the end I was just confused. It’s short, competently written, and made me laugh a few times, plus the narration was good. I just don’t really get the point?

So does Trystero exist? Is Oedipa insane? Perhaps a better question... do I care?

I gave it 2 1/2 stars.

[Dree]

2.5-3 stars

What a weird little book!

Oedipa Maas is named co-executor of her ex-boyfriend's estate. He owns much of the commercial property in San Narciso, CA, outside LA. Yoyodyne is there and is the largest employer. As she travels from the SF peninsula down, an back, she discovers a conspiracy of an ancient European mail system functioning in CA. And their ancient competitor is here as well. The estimator of the value of his stamp collection finds a number of forged stamps with the same symbol.

Is this real? Is Oedipa mentally ill? Is she caught in a prank? She meets many people who know a little, she sees carriers. Or does she?

In the end, the forged stamps are set to be auctioned (cried) off in lot 49.

No resolution.

Weird, possibly satire (most of which I missed, this book is 50 years old though it rarely feels it), good wordplay. Is San Narciso meant to be Irvine, or is it just one of many places like Irvine?

Not completely satisfactory since there is no resolution. Some very good parts, some total confusion.

[Leni]

After the first chapter I wanted to abandon the book, but it gradually grew on me. Is this book a hallucination by the protagonist? Or by the author? Would it be more accesible to a reader who has experienced southern California in the early 1960s? I suppose it is, at least in part, about our need for symbols and patterns, and our (in)ability to constitute reality. I enjoyed the (potential) conspiracy, and the many absurd scenes. I'm left mainly with the urge to scribble the Tristero symbol everywhere.

[Jamie]

This book reminds me a bit of Dirk Gently's adventures, enough that if Dirk landed himself in the middle of this story he would feel right at home. In this book a woman is roped into being executor for her ex-boyfriend's will. The ex was very wealthy and eccentric, and maybe involved with a bizarre extra-legal postal system that started in Belgium centuries ago, if that postal system is not just an elaborate hoax. The story is more vague and maybe a bit less interesting than the Dirk Gently books, but still entertaining enough to finish. I really didn't care about the characters, or the mysteries or anything by the end, so it was not a great read, but I've read worse. I gave this book 3 stars on Goodreads, though if we had half-stars it would have been at 2.5.