Birthday greetings, praise, editions of M&D, very good sales

[Eric Alan Weinstein]

First, Happy birthday to my favourite living novelist, Tom Pynchon.
What a great present to give oneself for one's 60th:
a great, big, beautifully written, richly conceived,
meticulously executed, deeply moving, hilarious and 
brilliant novel. 


On the assumption that I might be among the first people
to have seen both the Cape and the Holt editions
of M & D, they do seem to be exactly the same,
with the exception that the Holt uses a dust jacket,
which I must say I think makes it look better, as the
letters appear to float over the paper cover page.
 Also, the J. Cape edition is £16.95, which makes its
 price about US$ 27. It is currently
being discounted by 30% at Dillion's/Boarders, and
by 20% at Waterstone's. M&D is Waterstone's book
of the month, which means they are selling it pretty hard.
A brief chat with the Waterstone's manager at Watford's
Harlequin Centre Mall confirms---only a dozen copies left 
out of a gross. This is nothing, however, compared
to Cambridge, Mass B&N, which I understand sold
out 120 copies in less than two working days.

Eric Alan Weinstein
Centre For English Studies
University Of London
E.A.Weinstein at qmw.ac.uk