Vineland underrated

[joeallonby]

on 9/25/03 8:48 AM, John Carvill at jcarvill at algsoftware.com wrote:

> On 24  Sep 2003 15:50:06 joeallonby wrote:
>> Who is it that you feel is underrating Vineland?
> 
> Well Mr Bloom for one, who called Vineland 'a disaster'.
> 
> And I (dimly) recall the negative reviews in the broadsheet press here in
> the UK, when the book came out in 1990, reviews which were at least partly
> responsible for my not getting round to Vineland for over 10 years: I read
> it just over a year ago and couldn't believe how good it was. But of course
> as I now know, when you're dealing with newspapers, you need to keep in mind
> the political viewpoint of the reviewer, and Pynchon's overt left-wing views
> in Vineland may have helped earn him the negative reviews.
> 
> But perhaps what surprises me most is that the book which seasoned Pynchon
> fans most frequently recommend as an introduction to Pynchon, something
> people should read before tackling Gravity's Rainbow, is V. The reason given
> is usually that V is more accessible than GR. Well I really don't agree with
> this, V may start off seeming to be a nice easy read, but I found some of
> the historical episodes a slog. I would recommend Vineland as the best
> introduction to Pynchon, for readers who might be intimidated by GR at
> first. 
> 
The first review that I read was in The NYTBR. It was written by Salman
Rushdie. We all get the joke. Rushdie was practically gushing. I bought the
book the next day. I loved it.

I don't understand how anyone could find V. more accessible than GR. I
usually recommend COL49 as an introduction.