New Pynchon novel due in December: "Against the Day"

[alcibiades_mystery]

No Pynchon without weirdness. In this weird episode, Pynchon apparently wrote the Amazon blurb himself, then it was taken down at the request of the publisher, and now stands again. Penguin confirmed that it was indeed Pynchon who wrote the description (what a kidder!). Here 'tis:

Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred.

The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.

As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.

Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.

Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck.

Will be ordering advanced copy. Yes, yes, I know. There will be twenty posts about how much Pynchon sucks, etc. I love his books, as do many others, so, whatever. Looking forward to this one.

[Arkham House]

1. My mouth is watering...

...this sounds terrific, and very Pynchonesque. Wonder what the publishers were in a snit about? References to "corporate greed"? By an author? Gee whiz...poor babies... Pynchon is the greatest living artist in America, and "Gravity's Rainbow", in my opinion, was the greatest novel of the 20th century, and that includes everybody...

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. There is not a doubt in my mind

that Gravity's Rainbow is the greatest American novel in the postwar period.

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. Agreed

Gravitys Rainbow is the best.

I will definitly read this one!