Group Read, April 2019: Vineland

Our April group read is Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Please join in the read and post any comments on this thread.

I’ve made a start on this. My previous experiences with Pynchon have not been happy ones as he overwhelmes you with surreal characters and ideas. This one is relatively grounded so far. “Relatively” being the word as we’ve already had midair abductions off commercial airliners and a heavy metal/punk band playing Tosca at an Italian mobsters wedding.... we also have Pynchons usual theme of underground conspiracies.

There is some good humour (I liked the concept of nightly self-criticism hours by chefs at a left wing mountainside retreat) and the plot is holding together as I reach one third through the book, but I know Pynchon is likely to run away as his books progress leaving you feeling bewildered.

As expected/predicted this did get out of control as the book progressed, with bizarre characters and situations added every page or so, and I glazed over the more I read. I still have two Pynchons in my TBR pile at home and it remains to be seen if I get to these before I die.

I agree - it was all a rather crazy dream sequence.
His other books are the same.

I am about to start this. It is my first Pynchon...

>5 BentleyMay: Me too... and me too!

The Crying of Lot 49 was my first Pynchon and an easier introduction... I reread my review of Vineland and it was a rough go...

"This is my second read from Pynchon. I think we are not friends. The book seemed much more about characters than a story and that's frustrating to me. It's not hard to read, just difficult to "get". Characters flash back and forth through their lives with no transition and sometimes it takes a re-read or two to figure out what's going on. The story has something to do with drugs and ninjas and affairs with crazy DEA agents. Oh, and television addiction. And zombies.

Food: this is a trail of M&M's, meandering through all kinds of crazy terrain, sometimes doubling back, and you have no idea who's laying them out before you. When you get to the end, you have a bellyful of candy, but was it really worth it?"

I am about halfway through. I get the feeling that the author thinks he is hysterically funny and super cool. I don't agree. It will be a struggle to finish.

I found the first section very readable, then I found myself mired in a strange section. I went back and reread it to see if I had missed something, but now, it was down the rabbit hole from then onwards.
I was probably lucky to be reading it in the middle of nowhere with patch electricity, so read a fair amount while swinging in a hammock.

I ended up liking this more and more as I continued. Not to a point were I actually liked it, but I did chuckle once and a while. I am not sure I would recommend it to anyone, but it was interesting. I am glad I read it. I should have read The Crying of Lot 49 first, and that was my original plan. This group read came up, and I took the opportunity.