Bleeding Edge - A Rolling Assessment

[Philip Smith]

Having finished, I’ll keep this spoiler free.

BE, throughout is uneven to me. The reason is a lot of the word-play,
descriptions, humor and pop culture references either work perfectly or
fall flat. I don’t read for plot but it worked; nothing amazing but kept me
interested in what was next. Most surprising was how he was able to make me
feel empathy for Maxine. I would argue that empathy is a major part of the
book in different ways, so he accomplished that.

I have other comments but I’ll wait a little longer for more people to
finish.


On Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 10:53 AM, Carvill John <johncarvill at hotmail.com>wrote:

>  Ok well based on the below - my own comments plus Joe's - I'm suggesting
> this thread as a way of tracking our assessment of Bleeding Edge. I'm
> currently rating the book fairly low on the scale, but that will probably
> change (I hope so) and in all likelihood others' opinions will also
> oscillate over time, before finding their level.
>
> So I'm suggesting an ongoing discussion (spoiler free, at least for now)
> around how we feel about the new Pynchon novel overall.
>
> I feel sadness and anger when I see how Pynchon is treated in the
> mainstream press. As a lifelong Guardian reader, I was shocked (but not
> surprised) that a recent 'Arts Preview' feature failed to even mention
> Bleeding Edge in the literature section, and their review of the book (by
> Theo Tait) was a travesty. That said, around 100 pages into the book
> myself, I am beginning to have serious doubts about this one, doubts I
> never had about IV. Maybe I'll come out of this thinking that it's uneven,
> that it starts badly, but that overall it's as good as Inherent Vice (some
> would say that's no big claim but not me). Maybe others here are loving it
> from the off, or maybe began with great enthusiasm which then waned?
>
> I also expect these feelings to change as we move through the Group Read.
>
> So, opening bids please....
>
>
>
>
> > From: brook7 at sover.net
>
> > That said after a slow reading of 10 chapters I am bouncing between
> extremes of amusement, intrigue and strong annoyance.
>
> > On Sep 23, 2013, at 4:33 AM, Carvill John wrote:
>
> > > I'll eventually be writing some sort of online review myself, and so
> far I'm worried about that. I'm 100 page in and thinking so far this is
> Pynchon's worst book by a mile. I have heard that it picks up and there
> have been a couple of decent passages thus far, but on the whole I am
> finding it quite annoying. If this wasn't Pynchon, I'd be rating this book,
> based on my progress so far, as 'poor'.
>
>
>
>
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