Getting GR

[Greg Montalbano]

It seems kind of funny to me, but when I first read GR (at it's first paperback
publication, anxiously awaited in the years following V) I didn't really give
any thought to "getting it";  it wasn't until my third reading (about three
years later), after hearing & reading about all the controversy over the
ULTIMATE MEANING of the book, that I really started to worry about what it
all meant.
Not to suggest that there IS no meaning to it (although I personally believe
that's a possibility), but I think my initial enjoyment of the book as one
HELL of a good ride demonstrates one of the major strengths of GR:  the fact
that there are so many levels on which it may be enjoyed -- something for
everyone, and many things for someone.  (A parallel can be found in John
Barth's THE SOT-WEED FACTOR, which can be read as an historical novel, a
truly fine parody of historical novels, a farce, a social satire, and --
since the author is Barth -- an exercise in post-modernist self-reflection.)

GR is one book (there's even dispute over whether or not it can be called
a "novel") that offers drama, suspense, comedy (both high-brow & slapstick),
intrigue, sweeping historical perspective, a mind-numbing labarynth of paranoid
speculation, meditative mantras, a-and those characters you can love and hate.
I think I was happier when I didn't try to puzzle out the ultimate meaning;
I (personally) believe this book has no more definable central theme than
life among humans can be found to have.
But I know you all won't stop trying to find that magic key -- and I wouldn't
have it any other way.