Mason & Dixon

[Bill Floyd]

When I turned the final page of Pynchon's novel, I literally hugged the giant thing to my chest, with tears in my eyes.  This book is about America, and Europe, and Africa; history and friendship; stars; lines of great consequence carved precisely upon the earth; grief and laughter and invention; the fading of old orders and the establishment of new ones.  It featured a clock that kept perfect time; a lovesick robot duck; a talking dog; George Washington and Ben Franklin; flights among the clouds and a plummet to the center of the planet.  I began reading it just before embarking on one journey and completed it just after returning from another.  My heart breaks because nearly every reader I rhapsodize to--even the sophisticated ones--will find it too long, too digressive, too arduous for their attention spans.  But it nourished my soul from its first page to its last, and I will carry with me now wherever I may go.  

[Bill Floyd]

I always try to keep in mind that I have to throw out all expectations when I come to Pynchon--which is precisely what I enjoy about him.  For me, M & D is much more about its themes than it's plot, which is actually pretty linear for a Pynchon book, or at least moreso than Gravity's Rainbow.  The overarching theme is the largely unspoken idea of what this Line will eventually do to America and its history, and most of all, Friendship.  Good luck!    

[Michael Brown]

Reading of your enthusiasm has caused me to open my copy again and keep it handy on the off chance that sometime soon I might finish reading it. As I love Pynchon, for the most part, I don't like having unread books of his on my reading list. But again it doesn't hold out much promise.

One of the reviews I found myself most agreeing with is this one: http://www.samizdat.com/isyn/pynchon.html. I did read Barth's Sot-weed Factor lon ago, and remember having found it amusing, fairly easy to read once one picks up the rhythm, well-plotted, and satisfying at the finish. Although I spent many hours absorbed in individual episodes of M&D, I don't recall a real sense of there being a cohesiveness to the plot, and as outlandish and far-flung as the episodes in Gravity's Rainbow were, at the conclusion of my involvement with that tome, I actually felt sated.

But as I trust you, and appreciate your appreciation of things writerly, I am going to give M& D another go--have read more than a third, but find I need to go back and refresh my memory and also, want to hit the ground running when I come to the (for me) fresh stuff.

Thanks for this.

[Teresa]

Just got my copy in the mail!  I noticed that on the first page, there's only one period...;-) 

[J. K. Langham]

WOW!

[Mike Handley]

Love the idea of a six-sentence book review, and this one rocks.

And @ Morschel: Three decades have erased my memory of the actual story, but I can definitely remember that "The Promise" was on my all-time favorite list for many, many years.

[Jeanette Cheezum]

Bill, this is a remarkable review. It makes we want to put it on the list. I'm happy it nourished you soul.

[Cita]

Damnit, Bill.  Now I have to read it.  Like your first attempt with Gravity's Rainbow, I didn't make it past page 3.  And I am WITH YOU GITA on Poisonwood Bible.  And, I am a huge Column McCann fan now because of "Let the Great World Spin."  And I agree with about your non-fiction pieces, Bill. 

[Robert Morschel]

The first book I ever felt this way about was "The Promise", by Chaim Potok.  I read this as a teenager and still remember the feelings it invoked as if it were yesterday.

I'd love to be able to do that with my writing.

[Robert McEvily]

The publisher should use your comments on the back cover.  I'm in.

[Bill Floyd]

The first time I tried Gravity's Rainbow, I didn't make it past page 3.  But that opening line, "A screaming came across the sky," was enough to haunt me and draw me back.  Next time, I knew within a page or two that I was simply going to have to chuck everything I knew about Reading itself and just go along for the ride.  If you do, the rewards are simply amazing.  I think I was so blown away by the prose style and the demented imagination that I didn't see much in the way of his legendary humor.  (By the way, the songs are supposed to be ridiculous.)

With Mason & Dixon, however, I laughed aloud, and often.  My wife said, "It's so strange you're laughing so much when that thing scans as some high literary pursuit."  Surprising, yes, but there's no reason a high literary pursuit can't be funny as shit.  Gravity's Rainbow made me respect the man, but Mason & Dixon made me love him.  The friendship that develops between the two protagonists, the differences between them that make them complimentary, and the history that swirls around them simply pulled me in and never let me go.

My advice: Try Mason & Dixon first.  It's written in that old English style with strange Capitalizations and contractions, (bless'd be), but that's appropriate to the material and becomes a lot of fun after your brain adjusts to it.  DFW once said something like, "Great writers teach you how to read them," and Pynchon is a prime example.  You may give up eventually, but give it a good run and there's a chance you'll get into it.