breaking it down

[Rcfchess at aol.com]

In a message dated 07/15/2006 10:06:57 P.M. Eastern Standard Time,  
dmeury at yahoo.com writes:

I could  have sworn jbor's link brought up the Amazon
page with the extended book  description.  It does not
appear on the page anymore.  Am I  looking in the wrong place?




It did, & I saw it there this morning - on the Amazon homepage (!),  & yep, 
now it's gone; God knows why. But if you (or anyone else) needs it,  here 'tis: 
 
- RF

Amazon.com, under 'Editorial Reviews': (!!!)

Book  Description

Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893  and the years 
just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor  troubles in Colorado 
to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and  Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, 
the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time  of the mysterious Tunguska 
Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar  Paris, silent-era Hollywood, 
and one or two places not strictly speaking on  the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead,  it is a time of 
unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic  fecklessness, and 
evil intent in high places. No reference to the present  day is intended or 
should be inferred.

The sizable cast of characters  includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, 
corporate tycoons, drug  enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, 
mathematicians, mad scientists,  shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, 
spies, detectives, adventuresses,  and hired guns. There are cameo 
appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi,  and Groucho Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their  ears and an 
unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just  trying to pursue 
their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes  it's their lives 
that pursue them.

Meanwhile, the author is up to his  usual business. Characters stop what 
they're doing to sing what are for the  most part stupid songs. Strange 
sexual practices take place. Obscure  languages are spoken, not always 
idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact  occurrences occur. If it is not the 
world, it is what the world might be  with a minor adjustment or two. 
According to some, this is one of the main  purposes of fiction.

Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good  luck.

--Thomas  Pynchon

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