The crying of lot 49

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Thomas Pynchon, Thomas Pynchon: The crying of lot 49 (Paperback, 1982, Bantam Books)

Paperback

Published Nov. 8, 1982 by Bantam Books.

ISBN:
978-0-553-22724-6
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4 stars (2 reviews)

10 editions

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.