Pondering Lot 49

[Cal McInvale]

Tongiht I was at our local Borders Bookstore (the finest chain store I've
ever been in, BTW) and was checking out the Pynchon lit crit.  I'm pretty
new to Pynchon, have only read Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland, and was
wondering what lit crit book would be best.  They had "Punchon's Poetics,"
two books on The Crying of Lot 49 and part of that "Mark Twain Lectures
series" (the volume on Pynchon).

Now, each of the books stated in some manner that Lot 49 was the most read
and easiest understood book of the author's works.  (This in mind, I am
going to read Lot 49 ASAP.)  My question: Is this true?  I read Gravity's
Rainbow in 1985 on the advice of a college professor who was teaching the
book in one of his classes (I was not in the class).  I found the book to
be dense, chock full of references and multilingual, but did not think it
was "difficult."  (Finnegans Wake... now *that's* difficult.)  When I read
Vineland, not having read anything else of Pynchon's, I was bewildered; it
is not near as layered or complex as GR.  In an attempt to get to know
Pynchon's work, I started with V... and was bored near to tears.  After
twenty pages I put the book down, never to return to it.  Next was Slow
Learner, which was remarkable only for the author's foreword.  Thus, jaded
by these two works, I stayed away from Lot 49.

>From what I gather, I am missing out.  (I do this from time to time,
reading all of an author's canon except for one work.  For example, I've
read all of Tom Robbins except for Skinny Legs and All, all of Cormac
McCarthy except for Suttree, all of Milan Kundera except for
Immortality...)  So I will begin reading it as soon as I can get a copy.
But I'd like to ask you all ahead of time:  How does Lot 49 compare, in
your opinion(s) to Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland?  Is it more "personal,"
less epic?  (I notice it *is* slimmer.)

I'd appreciate your replies.


Cal McInvale        e-mail:  godot at rt66.com
WWW: http://www.rt66.com/godot/welcome.html
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"What are a woman's breasts? Just so much adornment... they lie like some
chalice on an altar waiting for adoration. Like the writing on the
scroll... the handles on the urn... the gold that lines the vessel. I
wanted the mystery inside."  --Jim Carroll, The Book of Nods