The Book

[Tom Stanton]

In high school I wanted to study physics, but the math stumped me and,
besides, I had discovered women. When I started college PolySci sounded
interesting, but after a year I decided English Lit was more my style.

Summer 1973, having switched majors, I completed a seminar on James Joyce
and started working construction. Unsure about being yet another Joyce
scholar, a friend drops a review of "GR" from the Atlantic Monthly in my
lap. The reviewer claims _GR_ is as good as Joyce, full of science, full of
political intrigue, and funny to boot. Well, sez I to me, this sounds pretty
serious. I purchased _GR_ in hardcover (a big expense for me) and started
reading. 

Every morning before work I read for two hours, then sweated for eight more
to earn my next year's tuition, then returned home to read some more. As I
moved through _GR_ I was shaken by how much the book spoke to me,
personally. The rich technical details and the enthusiasm the characters had
for their work rang true to my own experiences as an adolescent science
geek; the politics and intrigue and values that made the plot so fascinating
were my own as surely as if I'd written the book myself; and the musical
hall lyrics, the slapstick comedy, the obscene (but often hilarious) sex,
and the endless drug references all seemed too new, too radical for a very
sheltered Midwestern undergrad, but I devoured it all. 

To this day I have to say it is the only book I've read that materially
changed my life. Other books have had an important effect on me, but _GR_
was a kind of wake up call for me at 19, and I was never quite the same. I
found more sex and drugs in Burroughs, darker themes in Djuna Barnes and
Anna Kavan, more comedy in Kosinski, Barthelme, Heller, etc., but never that
unique fusion of all these elements (and a few more besides) that informed
TRP's work. I've read the cannon of course, all the non-fiction, and proudly
own several critical tomes. 

I moved on from thinking I could be an English teacher into being a
copywriter, reporter, and reviewer. In 1979 I moved into computers where I
could fuse my love for technology and the humanities into a career and have
never doubted this was meant to be. Was that *all* due to TRP? Not really,
but I wonder what might have happened otherwise. There are personal moments
where your world changes forever, and that summer, drenched in sweat and
dirt and beer and nights reading _GR_ remains one of the first seminal
turning points in my adult life. Mr. Pynchon, my thanks for a wonderful
summer...