(original review, 2006)

Art is a social medium, a material medium, an intellectual medium, an economic medium: it consists of a great deal more than surfaces. Art that consisted only of surfaces - if such a thing were possible - would be of no larger significance than a crossword puzzle. This is true even of painting - the only art whose medium can be credibly represented as being 'all surface'. I'll also point out that apart from having entered the language in the form of the term 'Rabelaisian' - now merely shorthand for 'characterized by coarse humour or bold caricature' - Rabelais himself is little read outside the academy and, like Shakespeare, often quite painfully unamusing.

 

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

I think I found it difficult in the sense of its denseness in fact. Well, I find it hard to answer the “difficulty” question with much certainty; I'm equivocating. I don't love it all equally no, that's not the case. There are parts that I prefer immeasurably to others however, simply because I prefer I'm not sure whether that persuades me that it would be 'better' in some sense without them. I don't have the figures for specific chapters with me but I do know that Joyce added a lot to some of the later chapters - from Oxen of the Sun to Ithaca I think - meaning that the manuscript expanded in proof. I think you notice this as you read it, right?

 

 

If you're into stuff like this, you can read the full review.

This was my third novel from Pynchon and it didn't go as well as i expected. In fact i didn't understand anything. LOL.

 

(However i love reading his novels)

I am so disappointed and so jealous. I'm jealous of those who read this book and loved it so much they gave it 5 stars. I can see why it's a classic and I can see why so many would love this book but I did not.
Parts of it (especially Book 2 - Chapter 9) read like an economic and political textbook and I found myself so disinterested and bored that I was tempted to skip chapters. I Feel as though I could have really enjoyed and gotten into the story if the political and economic details hadn't gotten in the way so much, but I suppose that's what makes this book a classic. I again wish that I loved it, I wanted to because it's a classic and everyone loves it, but I didn't love it or hate. There are powerful messages and imagery in this book and I'm not at all sorry that I read it, but overall I just thought it was "Okay".