eGad: Pynchon excerpt from new novel

[John Carvill]

I think a big factor, when assessing he 'excerpt', is how seriously you
took it when you first read it. I got the first post, and assumed it was
a joke, so hardly even read it properly first time round. Only when we
started to get more 'evidence' that it was genuine did I go back and
read it again (and, yes, again), but of course by then it was too late
for my first impression (however rashly formed) to ever be eradicated
completely. 

As for how representative a sample it is, we'll only know when we've
read the whole book. But unless all of ATD is in the style of the
excerpt, which reads like a pastiche of a parody of Pynchon doing a
western skit, then I still find it a pretty curious choice as the first
passage to show the world.

Of course by including the excerpt in their catalogue, Penguin may not
have been meaning for that to be the first taste the general public gets
of the book, they may have plans for a proper, longer, maybe more
representative sample to come out, perhaps even a first chapter and, if
so, then that excerpt will likely be the man on the street's first
impression, not the tiny sample that filtered through to us on the
p-list?

Whatever, I'm still excited that a new Pynchon is on the way, and it
seems to be getting bigger, and moving closer, all the time!

Cheers
JC





 

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