m&d spoiler chap 78 pp 760 ff

[Kelleher99 at aol.com]

spoiler....


























-- The revelation in the final chapter, an authorial quasi- (but non-)
afterthought ("oh, and by the way, here's how Rebekah died") -- and
especially its present-day (1786) repercussion, is unprecedented in ol'
what's-his-face's work for the gentleness and subtlety of its treatment...
Alone worth the price of admission....

-- It is perhaps belaboring the unbelaborable to deplore the priority of
literary dreck over ol' what's-his-face on the bestseller lists.... but how
much more stirring just to note the unusual conjunction, as it were, in the
skies this week:  when's the last time you saw "by John Grisham", "by
Danielle Steel", and "by Thomas Pynchon" all within one column-inch?...
 [i.e.:  I'm just glad he's _there_]...

-- So the figure of interest has been simplified, from a parabola to a
Line... and reviewers (including Lane?) have noted that this particular
Pynchon narrative is remarkable for its "linearity", which we may presume is
no coincidence...........