The first time I read this I was completely discombobulated from the experience and had no idea what I had just read. This was a decade ago, I was busy, busy, busy, living a modern life, working out too hard at the gym and trying to read this before I went to bed. I would never get through more than five pages before I fell asleep.
Reading this book at that slow a pace just didn’t work as this is not pedestrian literature. It requires your attention. It breaks rules, like naming main characters with the same first letter: Pirate Prentice, Pointsman. It shifts the narrative without giving you warning. It introduces characters in the first 200 pages and doesn’t mention them again for 400 pages.
A decade later with some trepidation I decided to take on this book again. But I came armed with a slower lifestyle and less sleep debt. I also read it in conjunction to listening to the now defunct “Pynchon in Public” podcast. I would read my required chapters then listen to the podcast to get some interesting insights.
Another thing I did when reading this book was take breaks. The book is broken into four distinct sections:
- Beyond the Zero page 1 - 177
- Un Perm’ au Casino Herman Goering 181 - 278
- In the Zone 279 -616
- The Counterforce 617-760
After reading each section I went and read a different book, and I found reading it in this manner quite enjoyable.
RIP - Pynchon in Public podcast.