ATD review in PMC

[Otto]

Great essay!

"for the benefit of the few at the expense of the many"

    "We need to recall Pynchon's publishing history for any assessment
of Against the Day because in this new novel Pynchon is particularly
aware of his earlier texts. We have come to expect so–called
"Pynchonesque" features in his work, such as thematic concerns with
paranoia, the role of technology in controlling human lives, and more
importantly, the role of governments and corporations (the line
between them becoming ever thinner) in guiding those technologies for
the benefit of the few at the expense of the many.
(…)
When we put Against the Day in the context of Pynchon's other novels,
we see vectors (a metaphor drawn from the mathematical matrix of the
text) that clearly connect it to the earlier novels. The most obvious
is arguably the major plot line in the saga of the Traverse family and
their response to Webb Traverse's murder. At the end of Vineland,
Webb's grandson (Reef's son) Jesse is the patriarch of the
Traverse–Becker family that gathers for its annual reunion, thus
making him the father of Sasha, grandfather of Frenesi, and
great–grandfather of Prairie. The genealogical connections track not
only family DNA, but the transformation of Webb's anarchistic spirit
through generations of decline to Frenesi's role as a government
snitch. In the larger story of America that Pynchon's oeuvre presents,
Against the Day redirects our attention to Vineland and to the
commentary each Pynchon novel makes about the forks in the road
America did not take and to our collective complicity in those
decisions."

 "The Exact Degree of Fictitiousness": Thomas Pynchon's Against the
Day  — by Bernard Duyfhuizen, University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire,
Postmodern Culture,  Volume 17, Number 1, September 2006.

When I have finished the novel I (hopefully) will be able to return
the the discussion.