The Crying of Lot 49

Author: Thomas Pynchon

Three word summary: Pacey, witty, inaccessible.

Thoughts: Well, I found this is a difficult book to get my head round.  I had high hopes after the first chapter.  It all made sense.  There’s a girl who is asked to co-execute an estate of an ex-boyfriend.  She meets the co-executor and they start to have an affair.  It was funny, readable, and most importantly easy to follow.  However, after this is goes downhill very quickly.  Perhaps it was the cultural references that I just don’t understand.  A lot of it was just, whoosh, over my head.  I intend to re-read the book again at some point after I’ve read a companion to the book or something.  There’s enough Pynchon-inspired musicians that I like (Radiohead and Yo La Tengo) to make it worth my while getting back into it.

Mark out of 10: 4