AtDtDA(34): Balkan Dog's Dinner

[Dave Monroe]

   "'They're the guardians of the thing now.  Of this whole sad,
unreadable Balkan dog's dinner, come to that.  They don't want the
job, but they've got it.  I don't want to believe them, but I do.'"
(AtD, Pt. IV, p. 954)


"this whole sad, unreadable Balkan dog's dinner"

dog's breakfast  Noun. A mess. E.g."I've made a bit of a dog's
breakfast of that essay, and will probably have to rewrite it." Cf.
'dog's dinner'

[...]

dog's dinner  Noun. 1. A mess. Cf. 'dog's breakfast'.
2. See 'done up like a dog's dinner'.

[...]

done up like a dog's dinner Phrs. Smartly or extravagantly dressed.
Usually disparaging use. {Informal}

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/d.htm

Cf. ...

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.

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Against_the_Day
http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9781594201202,00.html#
http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/thomaspynchon/