Has anyone read this? How difficult is it in comparison to Gravity’s Rainbow? I have a copy that has been sitting here for a few months and I just cannot start it. Whenever, I am about to finish a book and start something new I just look at and think that this is going to dense and take a month to read. I know I will get around to it sooner or later, but for now it just seems to be haunting me. Convince me it should be sooner.
I thought it was a lot easier to read than Gravity’s Rainbow, and thoroughly enjoyed the book. The main difficulty comes in the sheer bulk of the novel, trying to keep the characters and times of events straight in your head. Other than that, I found it to be relatively straightforward.
If you haven’t read ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ - read it! It has all the virtues of Pynchon and none of the vices. That said, I am planning on waiting until I can devote a relatively long period of time to reading AtD because it looks amazing.
I gave up about 150 pages in. Unlike V or Mason and Dixon, there just didn’t seem to be anything to latch onto in the way of characters or plot. I know Pynchon is famous for this but this time, it felt like too much. If you do read it, take DaphneBlack’s advice and be ready to spend a lot of time writing down notes and references.
I had to go on pause about 200 pages in – I was picking it up so sporadically that I couldn’t keep the characters or settings straight. I did make it through Gravity’s Rainbow and Mason & Dixon, so I’d like to chalk this up to an overloaded schedule of late, and not that fact that I’m getting stupider and that I now have cable TV. Although it may be the latter two.
I wouldn’t say it’s much less difficult than the first two-thirds or so of GR, from my limited perspective.
I pretty much decided to use the Against the Day Wiki when I read it to help keep track of all the characters even though it kind of feels like cheating.
I’m struggling with it, I’ve read half and have stalled of late. It’s less difficult than Gravity’s Rainbow because it’s not as dense and complicated, but it’s also more difficult than GR because it’s nowhere near as good. It’s harder to persevere in that sense.
I’d be enjoying it more if I was making a better job of reading it day in day out, I’ve not managed that and it’s taken me ages just to read the half of it. I’m going to try and give it both barrels for the second half and polish it off in a week or two.
Definitely make it your #1 book and go to town on it if you’re planning on picking it up. It doesn’t work just dipping in and out of it IME.
I just saw there is an audio version of the book. Unabridged. 42 CD’s. 54 hours.
Could you imagine trying to work your way through 54 hours of Pynchon on CD?
http://www.amazon.com/Against-Day-Thomas-Pynchon/dp/1400103703/ref=ed_oe_a
Coincidentally, I just finished it.
I’m a big Pynchon fan.. Mason and Dixon is the only one I haven’t finished. I thought Against the Day was good but not his best. Excess is often the point the Pynchon, but he needed a more ruthless editor for this one, IMHO. The first and last 200 pages were good, but that still leaves 600 pages of hard slog (with occasional forays into the utterly brilliant) in the middle. Is it worth it? If you’re a fan, yes. If you haven’t read the rest of his works, I would say read Gravity’s Rainbow or V instead.
Does anyone want to read this and do a thread on the book? We could discuss it in sections of around 250 pages a week.