The 'Difficult' is easy.

[Mark Wright]

Why was Gravity's Rainbow (@ 760 pp) so much easier for me to finish than
Crying of Lot 49 (@ 180 pp)? Because, in spite of all its fabulations, it
deals with the real world in a totally immersive manner, rather than with a
fluffy little fantasy diorama. This should be emphasized to new P readers.
CoL49 may seem like an easier way in, but it is a false lead because it
makes P's method seem trivial. Why then, after all, would one bother with
the monster everybody says is so "difficult?" (If one *must* suggest a
shorter 'starter' book, Vineland would more likely set the hook and move
readers on to GR and M&D.) Am I wrong?

I touched on this in my letter to NYTimes book review:

4 Dec 2014

To the Editor:

Tom McCarthy’s review of “Gravity’s Rainbow” (Nov. 23), occasioned by its
new audiobook release, will ward off potential readers/auditors rather than
reel them in.

This is sad, and so unnecessary. “Gravity’s Rainbow” was written to be read
and enjoyed. It is anything but “opaque.” Its voice is that of an American
ecstatic, and that voice will carry you if you don’t struggle. It has, and
relies on, momentum: George H. W. Bush’s “Big Mo.” Do not stop to chase all
those white rabbits down their holes, even though they look like Bugs
Bunny. You are meant only to sense the rooted intricacy, depth and terror
of Pynchon’s subterraneum. One day — later — if and only if you love the
book for what it did to you — you might go spelunking. But to task a
brand-spanking-new reader with mapping these labyrinths is foolish and does
everyone a disservice, including the author. So cut it out.

This new Penguin audiobook is wonderful on two levels. George Guidall makes
complex language scan beautifully. Clearly he knows and likes the book, and
has taken his time with it. He knows what he is saying, and why. A gifted
audio editor then made his performance sound rounded and seamless. But on
another level, Guidall’s reading puts the rhythm of that astounding Voice
front and center where it belongs.

MARK WRIGHT

GLEN RIDGE, N.J.

Regrettably the Times changed my "Dick Nixon" to the arhythmic "George H.
W. Bush." I was making an oblique reference to Oliver Stone's
semi-invented, composite (and therefore Pynchonian) Nixon, not to the
historical President Richard Milhouse Nixon about whom operas will be
written. (Wait...what...John Adams...)
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