The Crying of Lot 49

Thomas Pynchon is a revered author and for good reason. His prose is exceptional. He paints perfect pictures of the absurd. Clarity of thought from the mind of a mad person it seems, but the book is hilarious and especially intriguing from a semi-post-USPS perspective.

I could outline the story here, despite you being able to easily find it elsewhere; a deadman's will puts Oedipa in charge of executing the estate. She sets off without her husband, Mucho Maas, and meets up with an attorney to begin her journey unraveling how to handle the estate.

I listened to much of this fever dream on a 5am four-hour interstate blitz of a car ride, which simultaneously helped and hurt my experience here.

The book is really about anything but what I just described as you bound from one scene to the next uncorking the odds and ends of the subversive culture intertwining with the dead man's estate (e.g. postage stamp collections). And the names are absolutely absurd, including but not limited to:

• Oedipa Maas
• Mucho Maas
• Dr. Hilarious
• Mike Fallopian
• Genghis Cohen
• Pierce Inverarity
• Manny Di Presso
• Randolph Driblette

There are stories within stories here, overlapping into great big allegories all wrapped up in some of the most unique writing I have ever had the pleasure to come across. The autistic style strikes me as that of the brilliant mind of Neal Stephenson (a la Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon, etc.). One moment you're going down one highway, the next you're taking a detour and then a detour of the detour and before you know it you're cleanly back on the highway.

As per usual, this was on Audible but was a poor production. A good narrator chapters changed literally in the middle of the Audible chapter giving you opportunity to hear the narrator catch his breath, take a gulp of water, and otherwise provide an unusual presentation. I don't believe that was intended but it didn't take too much away from the story, just an odd note for those who may like to milemark their listening at chapter stop/start.

This is my start into the world of Thomas Pynchon (although you may be able to say One Battle After Another on the silver screen was that). But I'm excited to dig into more of his work.

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