Another M&D review

[Sean Klein]

I don't know if this review has already been mentioned on this list, but....

That bastion of journalism, the Oakland Tribune, printed a review of M&D by
Donna Rifkind of the Baltimore Sun this morning.  Ms. Rifkind gave the book
a favorable, straightforwared review, bringing up only a few negative points.
She also spoke very favorable about Tom himself.  Since I don't think this
review will end up online, here's a few excerpts:

"Pynchon's glamorous low profile forces his books to speak for themselves; and
speak they do, at great length, often brilliantly, not always comprehensively,
setting generations of literature majors aflame with thier labrynthe plots and
inspired language."

Re: the nearly 800 page length of M&D and the fact that people may balk at it
due to its length: "[T]ake heart: There is magic here."

"[T]here are enough miscellaneous settings and characters here to make a Dickens
novel seem like My Weekly Reader."

"[A] novel as fit to burst with energy and promise as early America itself."

and the negative bits:

"[T]he plot of [M&D] is a mess, veering out of control, losing its focus as it
jumps from one teeming scene to the next.  There are long loose episodes here
that are nearly impossible to follow and probably should have been cut.  But if
the book doesn't quite hang together, it most assuredly does hang separately,
with passages of breathtaking virtuosity.  There isn't another writer alive who
could imagine anything along the lines of this thrilling, sloppy monster of a
novel."