New Member/Question

[Daniel Harper]

Given that Pynchon has published six novels and one short story collection, 
you'll probably get about two dozen possible answers as to where to start. 
(Heh.) I was in the same boat as you about five months ago, and started with 
Against the Day. Which taught me one important lesson: don't start with 
Against the Day. It's not only the longest work by far, but it's incredibly 
dense, and even those here who have been studying Pynchon's works for decades 
are puzzling out its meaning. It's a brilliant book, but in retrospect it was 
a bad place for me to start.

I haven't read V or Gravity's Rainbow yet, so I can't really recommend either 
of those. GR, though, is apparently about as complex as ATD, and similar 
reasoning to that against starting with Pynchon's latest goes against GR. V 
was Pynchon's first, and part of me would almost recommend it even unread for 
the reason of chronological order, but I won't go that far.

I'm also not recommending Lot 49 to start with. It's Pynchon's shortest work 
by far, but... well, it's Pynchon's shortest work by far. Many of the 
pleasures of reading P's work come from the feeling of being overwhelmed and 
surrounded by the work as a whole, and Lot 49 just doesn't feel that way. 
Pynchon himself considers it more a novella than a novel, and thus not really 
part of his "significant" work.

M&D is long, written in eighteenth century diction, and utterly bewildering at 
times. That said, it's in some ways a very approachable book, in that the 
title characters are likable and much more straightforward "leads" than we 
normally get in a Pynchon novel. It's also probably his funniest book, as I 
found myself smiling and even guffawing out loud at quite a few moments as I 
went through. Some of it is even slapsticky.

But overall, by process of elimination, I think I'm going to recommend 
Pynchon's fourth book, Vineland. It's his second-shortest, at a little less 
than four hundred pages, and thus is not quite as immersive as the longer 
titles. However, it is convoluted and impressively-staged enough to give one 
some of the feel of Pynchon's longer works, and the fact that it's set in a 
contemporary time period makes it very approachable. Like M&D, it's also 
quite funny in places, particularly in the opening chapter or two, and in 
some ways it combines the best feature of Lot 49 and M&D. 

Vineland isn't nearly my favorite Pynchon, but I think it's the best starting 
point. Maybe after I've read V and GR, I'll feel differently, but right now 
that's my recommendation.

On Wednesday 25 April 2007 21:33, you wrote:
> I am a new member to this list, and in fact to Pynchon's writing.  What
> would folks recommend as my first read?  I've heard that Lot 49 is a good
> one to start with, but I'm stubborn enough to try and tackle Gravity's
> Rainbow first (even though I've heard it's a difficult read).  Suggestions?
>
>
>
> Best,
> Matt Rhodes
> Falls Church, VA

-- 
No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.
--Daniel Harper
countermonkey.blogspot.com