Peenchon?

[Dennis Jones]

Adam Lou Stephanides asks if Pynchon is considered a great author outside 
the US.
 Well, back home I always found a fairly balanced division of opinion 
between the convinced and unconvinced, with the scales perhaps dipping 
towards the latter. Perhaps this has, at least in part, something to do with 
a certain, thinly disguised reluctance I've always felt many in  the ENGLISH 
(rather than British) litcrit world show when it comes to accepting  the 
true value of contemporary American works. I  remember going through the 
early GR reviews and getting a strong sense of this,(or perhaps I was just 
feeling defensive towards our boy). Anyroad, those who know better do indeed 
seem to put TP into a special category, though whether this be  "great" or 
just rather special I really couldn't say. 
 As for here in the land that spawned Cervantes, I can only say that in the 
nine odd years I've been out here, I've yet to meet ANYONE (expats apart) 
who has even heard of TP. When Vineland's translation came out here I 
checked and found it was the first of his to be published in Spain. And 
considering the level of English language penetration here, there can't be 
that many out of a population of 39 million well-armed enough to get past 
the first few pages of the original version. There again, speaking as 
someone who still hasn't got round to reading the original (or Pierre Menard 
for that matter) version of Don Quijote, I'm a fine one to talk.
 As a matter of interest, has anyone come across a Latin American 
translation of GR or V?  < El Arco Iris de la Gravidad> hmm. Not sure I'm 
ready for that, but I'd sure like to shake the translator's valiant hand.    
                                 dj