The Crying of Lot 49

by

Library Binding, 183 pages

English language

Published May 8, 1997 by Buccaneer Books.

ISBN:
978-1-56849-320-6
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4 stars (4 reviews)

The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel written by American author Thomas Pynchon and published in 1966. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman, who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies; one of these companies, Thurn and Taxis, actually existed (1806–1867) and was the first private firm to distribute postal mail. Like most of Pynchon's output, Lot 49 is often described as postmodernist literature. Time included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005".

10 editions

reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Goodreads Review of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

3 stars

This was a re-read for me, figured I'd read it on a train to New York, finished it on the way back. I definitely enjoyed it more than I did the first time around, I think because I was way young when I first read it and didn't understand it's place in the literary canon, or what it was trying to do. But with that being said, I still didn't know what the hell was going on or what I was supposed to take away from it. It is just as dense and inaccessible as I remember, but there were several moments that made me laugh during this read because I caught a reference I know I didn't catch before. I probably won't re-read it again knowing my feelings still stand despite being older, but it was fun.

reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Review of 'The Crying of Lot 49' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

The back cover says “comic talent” and “wild humour” but I didn’t get it. There was one hilarious seduction scene early on and the characters are quite amusing but I found the most of it rather dull.

The writing reminded me of the Ipcress File which I read earlier in the year and they were published 4 years apart n the 1960s so this post modern splurge of multi page paragraphs was obviously the thing back then. Now it reads like a NANOWRIMO project someone would churn out in one month.

The worst parts are the endless information dumps about the Courier’s Tragedy. I only finished it because it was mercifully short and I don’t think I’ll be trying any more Pynchon.

Subjects

  • Literary
  • Fiction - General
  • Fiction