That Locke Review of GR

[Mark Kohut]

Sure. All of the industry journals, quite inside baseball then in general, would have reviewed it. Real buzz buzzed around the MINDLESS PLEASURES --twice used by Locke--manuscript in publishing circles, I have heard. Paperback houses read a manuscript copy with that title--a friend met later still has it--.

A quick Google search teaches that Poirer's review did precede Locke's. March 3 issue, out in late Feb as the book lands. 

That's all I know. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 16, 2017, at 5:25 PM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Is it possible their were pre publication reviews? I remember being primed for something quite prodigious when I picked up my copy that publication morning. Had read about it beforehand I'm pretty darn sure and not just as an announcement. Maybe that it was being put out in a more popular priced format of paper cover for 4.95. But it was more than that. A high falutin review on par with Locke, Poirier. Of course my brain my be giving out on me.
> 
>> On Sun, Apr 16, 2017 at 7:43 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> This is a very nice personal memory from David Cowart about discovering and reading Pynchon, in which he too remembers Poirer's review in The Saturday Review. 
>> It might have been the first review published, dunno,  since Locke's review was in March and pub date of GR was in February. Editors tried to have most major books reviewed
>> on or shortly after pub date; Pub week (or the Sunday before) by the NYTBR. 
>> 
>> Poirer was already teaching Lot 49 at Rutgers. 
>> 
>> https://books.google.com/books?id=77eNSYr2gsQC&pg=PR4&dq=cowart+on+pynchon&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj9zqKF76jTAhWI2SYKHaiUAFgQ6AEIIzAA#v=onepage&q=cowart%20on%20pynchon&f=false
>> 
>>> On Sat, Apr 15, 2017 at 12:20 PM, Douglas Holm <dkholm at mac.com> wrote:
>>> I think Richard Porior (SP?) 's review in Saturday Review was also a big help.  That's where I first heard of the novel.  Still have the review in a file folder somewhere.
>>> 
>>> > On Apr 15, 2017, at 3:26 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > Besides Pynchon's steadily growing " underground" (cultish) reputation at the time, this review
>>> > Probably did most to make Gravity's Rainbow the literal NYT bestseller it became, I dare to guess-remember and connect.
>>> >
>>> > Factually, I think he may have been wrong about the sales of THE CRYING OF LOT 49, Which I once learned were outstanding and steady and building in paperback. ( didn't happen in hardcover). But even if I remember truly, I don't know the timeline with surety and those outstandingly noticeable sales might not have been that until after GR was published. Many readers tried discovering TRP first with that book, no surprise.
>>> >
>>> > You want another intellectual treat? Look up Locke's NYT review of TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY. In which Pynchon is name-checked.
>>> >
>>> > Sent from my iPad
>>> >
>>> >> On Apr 15, 2017, at 5:50 AM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> What a magnificent review. Especially given it was written
>>> >> pre-internet, and that the critic displays a deep familiarity with
>>> >> Pynchon's previous work. Things to disagree with, but a long way from
>>> >> today's hot take published ten minutes before the book is released.
>>> >>
>>> >>> On Fri, Apr 14, 2017 at 11:18 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >>> http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-rainbow.html
>>> >>> -
>>> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> >> -
>>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>> > -
>>> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> 
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