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Against the Day



by

Thomas Pynchon



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Our Assessment:



B+ : impressive in its parts, but near confounding as a whole

See our review for fuller assessment.

Review Consensus :



No consensus whatsoever -- many impressed, but quite a few think it's a bloated mess



From the Reviews :

"With its initial Western setting, hard-bitten, colloquial characters, labor sympathies, and violence, Against the Day could have been an old-fashioned naturalistic novel by Norris or Dreiser, or maybe a more new-fangled proletarian fiction by Dos Passos or Steinbeck, a Book of the Masked that discloses the human faces behind the roles that American capitalism foists on wage slaves. Except Against the Day is a Pynchon Production (.....) The only readers (besides responsible reviewers) I can imagine finishing Against the Day are the Pynchonists, the fetishizing collectors of P-trivia. I hope I'm wrong. " - Tom LeClair, Bookforum





could have been an old-fashioned naturalistic novel by Norris or Dreiser, or maybe a more new-fangled proletarian fiction by Dos Passos or Steinbeck, a that discloses the human faces behind the roles that American capitalism foists on wage slaves. Except is a Pynchon Production (.....) The only readers (besides responsible reviewers) I can imagine finishing are the Pynchonists, the fetishizing collectors of P-trivia. I hope I'm wrong. " - " Against the Day is Pynchon's longest novel -- a not-unterrifying 300 pages longer than Gravity's Rainbow . It's as much genre-bending as mind-bending, with elements of epic (of course), sci-fi, Western, historical novel, paranoid thriller, comedy, adventure story, young adult novel (that skyship), picaresque novel, political novel, and musical comedy. All the usual Pynchon features are here. (...) All the paranoia and silliness and vast workings out of history make it easy to overlook the sheer beauty of Pynchon's prose." - Mark Feeney, Boston Globe





is Pynchon's longest novel -- a not-unterrifying 300 pages longer than . It's as much genre-bending as mind-bending, with elements of epic (of course), sci-fi, Western, historical novel, paranoid thriller, comedy, adventure story, young adult novel (that skyship), picaresque novel, political novel, and musical comedy. All the usual Pynchon features are here. (...) All the paranoia and silliness and vast workings out of history make it easy to overlook the sheer beauty of Pynchon's prose." - "His new novel, Against the Day , represents one of the few cases in which I'd recommend judging a book by its cover. A casual examination will reveal that (a) it's massive (1,085 pages) and (b) if you stare at the blurry title for more than a second, it makes you feel dizzy and your head starts to hurt. This is not unlike the experience of reading the novel. There's no question that the book is written by an exceedingly intelligent, talented writer; there's also no question that it's indulgent and maniacally out of control. (...) But if Against the Day is the most infuriating novel I've read in a year, it's also among the most imaginative." - Yvonne Zipp, Christian Science Monitor





, represents one of the few cases in which I'd recommend judging a book by its cover. A casual examination will reveal that (a) it's massive (1,085 pages) and (b) if you stare at the blurry title for more than a second, it makes you feel dizzy and your head starts to hurt. This is not unlike the experience of reading the novel. There's no question that the book is written by an exceedingly intelligent, talented writer; there's also no question that it's indulgent and maniacally out of control. (...) But if is the most infuriating novel I've read in a year, it's also among the most imaginative." - "Is it any good ? Baffling, yes. Clever and inventive in a cackling, manic, mad-professor kind of way, yes. Intermittently warmed by paragraph-long sunbeams of iridescent prose-poetry, yes. Rambling, pompous and often completely incomprehensible -- yes to all that too." - The Economist





" Against the Day is not as conventionally plotted as Pynchon's previous novel, 1997's Mason & Dixon , nor as urgent as his World War II phantasmagoria, Gravity's Rainbow (1973). Nonetheless, it's chock-full of as many jokes, romances, and arcane scientific concepts (the "fourth dimension ... was enjoying a certain vogue, or should I say vague?") as you can absorb." - Ken Tucker, Entertainment Weekly





is not as conventionally plotted as Pynchon's previous novel, 1997's , nor as urgent as his World War II phantasmagoria, (1973). Nonetheless, it's chock-full of as many jokes, romances, and arcane scientific concepts (the "fourth dimension ... was enjoying a certain vogue, or should I say vague?") as you can absorb." - "To read Pynchon is to slalom between incomprehension and sunbursts of illumination unlike any encountered in other novels. Yet I read this one with a degree of sadness. This is partly because its preoccupation with the passage of time suggests that as Pynchon approaches his seventies he is contemplating the final disappearance which awaits us all. But itís also because Against the Day doesnít measure up to the majesty of his early novels." - Ludovic Hunter-Tilney, Financial Times





doesnít measure up to the majesty of his early novels." - " Against the Day ist deshalb ein Roman, den man nicht einfach lesen oder rezensieren kann. Er stellt einem ständig die Frage, wie man ihn überhaupt lesen soll, wieviel Stoff man im Kopf behalten kann und muß, um der Handlung zu folgen, ohne sich selbst in eine Pynchon-Figur zu verwandeln." - Peter Körte, Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung





ist deshalb ein Roman, den man nicht einfach lesen oder rezensieren kann. Er stellt einem ständig die Frage, wie man ihn überhaupt lesen soll, wieviel Stoff man im Kopf behalten kann und muß, um der Handlung zu folgen, ohne sich selbst in eine Pynchon-Figur zu verwandeln." - "The author knows all about these characters and proceeds as if we already know about them too, far sooner than we do. The major events of the book have already happened or are under way at some remoteness offstage or are looming in the shadowlands ahead. It's a world of mystery and paranoia, of inchoate longing, of disillusionment and anticlimax. Like Pynchon's characters, we wander through a swarm of hints that both promises light and darkens what little day we have. (...) Against the Day is not deliriously exuberant and funny the way Pynchon can be." - Greg Hollingshead, The Globe & Mail





is not deliriously exuberant and funny the way Pynchon can be." - "Like its predecessor Mason & Dixon , Against the Day is built out of vast amounts of period detail, from ladies' hats to the arcane minutiae of the mathematical squabbles of the day. It has a similar, though less concerted, element of pastiche in its style, expertly spoofing Victorian pulp and western dime novels, as well as paying tribute to more contemporary genres (.....) (I)t's quite a challenge to hold its multitudinous threads together in your head sufficiently clearly to grasp what it is they're being woven together to form." - James Lasdun, The Guardian





, is built out of vast amounts of period detail, from ladies' hats to the arcane minutiae of the mathematical squabbles of the day. It has a similar, though less concerted, element of pastiche in its style, expertly spoofing Victorian pulp and western dime novels, as well as paying tribute to more contemporary genres (.....) (I)t's quite a challenge to hold its multitudinous threads together in your head sufficiently clearly to grasp what it is they're being woven together to form." - " Against the Day , at more than a thousand pages, is the text that puts the ram back into ramshackle and most assuredly the shag back into the shaggy dog story. This shambling ragbag of prose rattles with more than a hundred characters, multiple settings in this world and others and a multitude of narratives held together by gossamer skeins of plot. (...) I lasted 850 pages before I was reduced to skimming. First, if we're going to play this game, at this length, the jokes need to be funnier, the puns better, the prose tauter. And the songs ? Maybe just lose them altogether." - David Goldblatt, The Independent





, at more than a thousand pages, is the text that puts the ram back into ramshackle and most assuredly the shag back into the shaggy dog story. This shambling ragbag of prose rattles with more than a hundred characters, multiple settings in this world and others and a multitude of narratives held together by gossamer skeins of plot. (...) I lasted 850 pages before I was reduced to skimming. First, if we're going to play this game, at this length, the jokes need to be funnier, the puns better, the prose tauter. And the songs ? Maybe just lose them altogether." - "The prevailing impression is of incremental chaos, of information piling up with no egress in narrative. (...) Amid such confusion, the author's rare talents as a stylist could be easily forgotten. Fortunately, heartstopping felicities of description lurk around every corner. (...) Against the Day is a startlingly discontinuous novel, a work of full-spectrum intelligence and erudition that is at times bafflingly tiresome and ungenerous to the reader." - Tim Martin, Independent on Sunday





is a startlingly discontinuous novel, a work of full-spectrum intelligence and erudition that is at times bafflingly tiresome and ungenerous to the reader." - "All the same, at times, the length and complexity of the book simply get the better of Pynchon. Against the Day isn't really a large, populous novel operating according to a homogeneous system but three or four novels yoked to a set of overarching themes. As startling and revelatory as Pynchon continues to be at his best, there are long stretches where his best doesn't make an appearance. It's hard to shake the occasional feeling that Pynchon is sifting among his dozens of players, searching for those who interest him or trying on situations until something clicks. (...) Whatever the problems with sheer mechanical execution, Pynchon here offers his most successful and cogent articulation of the concerns that have haunted his work from the start." - Christopher Sorrentino, The Los Angeles Times





isn't really a large, populous novel operating according to a homogeneous system but three or four novels yoked to a set of overarching themes. As startling and revelatory as Pynchon continues to be at his best, there are long stretches where his best doesn't make an appearance. It's hard to shake the occasional feeling that Pynchon is sifting among his dozens of players, searching for those who interest him or trying on situations until something clicks. (...) Whatever the problems with sheer mechanical execution, Pynchon here offers his most successful and cogent articulation of the concerns that have haunted his work from the start." - " Against the Day is a full-blown and full-fledged Pynchon novel -- and thus not only an occasion of joy in every nook of American culture except The New Republic but also a phantasmagoria whose only conceivable analogue is another Pynchon novel, Gravity's Rainbow (.....) (B)rilliant patter, fancy footwork, wishful thinking and a plaintive ukulele." - John Leonard, The Nation





is a full-blown and full-fledged Pynchon novel -- and thus not only an occasion of joy in every nook of American culture except but also a phantasmagoria whose only conceivable analogue is another Pynchon novel, (.....) (B)rilliant patter, fancy footwork, wishful thinking and a plaintive ukulele." - "Hätte man sich einen noch stringenteren Umgang mit Strukturmomenten wie Zeit und Doppelung gewŁnscht -- und damit auch eine festere Einbindung der Handlungselemente ? Eine stärkere Akzentsetzung, die etwa den durchs ganze Buch hindurch präludierten Ersten Weltkrieg dann auch präziser als nur in einigen am Rand des Gesichtsfeldes vorbeigleitenden Bildern zur Darstellung gebracht hätte ? Differenziertere Charaktere mit mehr Entwicklungspotenzial -- und da und dort etwas weniger Sentimentalität ? Vielleicht; aber dann hätte man wohl auch keinen typischen Pynchon mehr in der Hand gehabt." - Angela Schader, Neue Zürcher Zeitung





"Zu diesem virtuos ausgebauten Binnensystem der Doppelungen tritt das Raffinement, mit dem Pynchon sein Werk in weitere Kontexte stellt. (...) Uneingeschränktes Lob gebührt hier last but not least den Übersetzern Nikolaus Stingl und Dirk van Gunsteren: Sie haben Satzperioden von beträchtlicher Amplitude ebenso wie hart geschnittene Dialoge souverän ins Deutsche gebracht und nicht zuletzt auch Pynchons allgegenwärtigen Witz mit spürbarem Gusto in unser Idiom umgeschliffen." - Angela Schader, Neue Zürcher Zeitung





"So Pynchon is easy to like politically; but this book's will-to-nullification is deeply frustrating. First of all, the farcical mode of the novel makes coherence and the making of serious distinctions profoundly difficult (deliberately, I think). The comic principle throughout is vaudeville -- the circus, the carnival, the musical. (...) Against the Day is a massive novel that never feels spacious, because it so rarely slows down to describe anything properly, never indulges in that rallentando of respect whereby each note is awarded its imperishable thisness. (...) The novel systematically denies the reader any purchase, any Archimedean position, and that is its anarchism of method: not Against the Day so much as Against Method . But 1,100 pages of antic surface is an awfully expensive way to pay for these pretty obvious splashings in skepticism." - James Wood, New Republic





is a massive novel that never feels spacious, because it so rarely slows down to describe anything properly, never indulges in that rallentando of respect whereby each note is awarded its imperishable thisness. (...) The novel systematically denies the reader any purchase, any Archimedean position, and that is its anarchism of method: not so much as . But 1,100 pages of antic surface is an awfully expensive way to pay for these pretty obvious splashings in skepticism." - "The deluge of science can blind us to the fact that he is, temperamentally, a mystic rather than a technician. He writes Against the Day , but seeks what lies beyond or under or above the quotidian." - Rachel Aspden, New Statesman





, but seeks what lies beyond or under or above the quotidian." - "The fun of Pynchonís books -- and they are in fact more fun than not, and this is for better and worse one of the key differences between Pynchon and the major novelists who preceded him -- has always been to read them into the present. Gravityís Rainbow , while ostensibly about World War II, was actually about American Cold War hegemony and Vietnam; Against the Day likewise works with what feels like contemporary material, though its subject is ostensibly the turn of the twentieth century." - Keith Gessen, New York





, while ostensibly about World War II, was actually about American Cold War hegemony and Vietnam; likewise works with what feels like contemporary material, though its subject is ostensibly the turn of the twentieth century." - "There are so many roads through Against the Day that to isolate one or five or ten of them in a brief account is inevitably to distort its meaning. (...) It is quite possible to read Against the Day as the fruit of a protracted effort not to lapse into despair, by recalling among other things that other times have looked nearly as bleak. And it is crucial to keep in mind the things that make life worth living. Pynchon is, as usual, very good on food and mind-altering substances and sex óhilarious on the former two and vivid on the latter, as well as extraordinarily wide-ranging. (...) The book does have its longueurs, but for a dictionary-size slab it has rather few." - Luc Sante, The New York Review of Books





that to isolate one or five or ten of them in a brief account is inevitably to distort its meaning. (...) It is quite possible to read as the fruit of a protracted effort not to lapse into despair, by recalling among other things that other times have looked nearly as bleak. And it is crucial to keep in mind the things that make life worth living. Pynchon is, as usual, very good on food and mind-altering substances and sex óhilarious on the former two and vivid on the latter, as well as extraordinarily wide-ranging. (...) The book does have its longueurs, but for a dictionary-size slab it has rather few." - "It reads like a list, at times like a list of lists -- for Mr. Pynchon is never unwilling to interrupt the plot, such as it is, with a bravura catalog. (...) (I)t is as parody -- in fact, a whole album of parodies -- that Against the Day is most enjoyable. Mr. Pynchon takes on some of the distinctive genres of his chosen period and reduces them to absurdity (.....) The silliness of Against the Day about the very subjects where we are most urgently in quest of wisdom proves that, whatever he once was, Thomas Pynchon is no longer the novelist we need." - Adam Kirsch, The New York Sun





is most enjoyable. Mr. Pynchon takes on some of the distinctive genres of his chosen period and reduces them to absurdity (.....) The silliness of about the very subjects where we are most urgently in quest of wisdom proves that, whatever he once was, Thomas Pynchon is no longer the novelist we need." - "Thomas Pynchon's new novel, Against the Day reads like the sort of imitation of a Thomas Pynchon novel that a dogged but ungainly fan of this author's might have written on quaaludes. It is a humongous, bloated jigsaw puzzle of a story, pretentious without being provocative, elliptical without being illuminating, complicated without being rewardingly complex. (...) There are some dazzling set pieces evoking the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a convocation of airship aficionados, but these passages are sandwiched between reams and reams of pointless, self indulgent vamping that read like Exhibit A in what can only be called a case of the Emperor's New Clothes." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times





reads like the sort of imitation of a Thomas Pynchon novel that a dogged but ungainly fan of this author's might have written on quaaludes. It is a humongous, bloated jigsaw puzzle of a story, pretentious without being provocative, elliptical without being illuminating, complicated without being rewardingly complex. (...) There are some dazzling set pieces evoking the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and a convocation of airship aficionados, but these passages are sandwiched between reams and reams of pointless, self indulgent vamping that read like Exhibit A in what can only be called a case of the Emperor's New Clothes." - "In Against the Day , his sixth, his funniest and arguably his most accessible novel, Thomas Pynchon doles out plenty of vertigo, just as he has for more than 40 years. But this time his fevered reveries and brilliant streams of words, his fantastical plots and encrypted references, are bound together by a clear message that others can unscramble without mental meltdown. (...) In Against the Day , Pynchon's voice seems uncharacteristically earnest. He interrupts his narrative from time to time to lay down pronouncements that, taken together, probably constitute the fullest elaboration of his philosophy yet seen in print. (...) Pynchon actually seems to be having fun with his characters. Admittedly, it's often rough play." - Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times Book Review





, his sixth, his funniest and arguably his most accessible novel, Thomas Pynchon doles out plenty of vertigo, just as he has for more than 40 years. But this time his fevered reveries and brilliant streams of words, his fantastical plots and encrypted references, are bound together by a clear message that others can unscramble without mental meltdown. (...) In , Pynchon's voice seems uncharacteristically earnest. He interrupts his narrative from time to time to lay down pronouncements that, taken together, probably constitute the fullest elaboration of his philosophy yet seen in print. (...) Pynchon actually seems to be having fun with his characters. Admittedly, it's often rough play." - "(A) very imperfect book. Imperfect not in the sense of "Ambitious but flawed." Imperfect in the sense of "What was he thinking ?" (...) Against the Day is a kind of inventory of the possibilities inherent in a particular moment in the history of the imagination. It is like a work of science fiction written in 1900. (...) (T)here is the feeling that the magician has fallen in love with his own stunts, as though Pynchon were composing a pastiche of a Pynchon novel. Bravura Pynchonian paragraphs sometimes seem to be setups for goofy Pynchonian jokes. (...) There is too much going on among too many characters in too many places. There are also too many tonal shifts, as though Pynchon set out to mimic all the styles of popular fiction -- boysí adventure stories, science fiction, Westerns, comic books, hardboiled crime fiction, spy novels, soft-core porn." - Louis Menand, The New Yorker





is a kind of inventory of the possibilities inherent in a particular moment in the history of the imagination. It is like a work of science fiction written in 1900. (...) (T)here is the feeling that the magician has fallen in love with his own stunts, as though Pynchon were composing a pastiche of a Pynchon novel. Bravura Pynchonian paragraphs sometimes seem to be setups for goofy Pynchonian jokes. (...) There is too much going on among too many characters in too many places. There are also too many tonal shifts, as though Pynchon set out to mimic all the styles of popular fiction -- boysí adventure stories, science fiction, Westerns, comic books, hardboiled crime fiction, spy novels, soft-core porn." - "It is brilliant. It is oblique, and in some ways obtuse. Very few people will finish it. I read the whole thing in a few days, which is not an experience to be recommended. (Sometime around page 800, it felt as if my brain were trying to claw its way out of my skull.) (...) Trying to summarize any Pynchon plot is a fool's errand. It would be fair to describe Against the Day as a cross between: 1. a revisionist Western containing bomb-throwing anarchists and pre-Einsteinian physics; and 2. an Edwardian science-fiction novel involving Balkan politics and bisexual romance." - Scott McLemee, Newsday





as a cross between: 1. a revisionist Western containing bomb-throwing anarchists and pre-Einsteinian physics; and 2. an Edwardian science-fiction novel involving Balkan politics and bisexual romance." - "The text is overwhelming, unstable, encyclopaedic and extravagantly allusive. (...) At times, the author seems burdened with a surfeit of research material and discharges it, at regular intervals, into long, scene-setting paragraphs that simply list the contents of rooms or environments. That these contents are generally exotic does not preclude their coming to resemble, after, say, the eighth time, a hardware catalogue or a set-dresser's checklist. (...) None of this detracts from the unique pleasures of a mighty novel that will delight Pynchonians and seduce newcomers." - David Gale, The Observer





"It's an acquired taste but once in, there's no turning back." - Heather Thompson, The Observer





"Simple choice: You want goofy names, kooky groups, multi-claused, roller-coaster, Nabokovian sentences, pop-culture sarcasm, abstruse intellectual arabesques, 10-dollar words, inside jokes, fey attributions, self-parodying guides to interpretation -- buy Against the Day . You want order, coherence, clarity, terseness ? Buy a newspaper. " - Carlin Romano, The Philadelphia Inquirer





. You want order, coherence, clarity, terseness ? Buy a newspaper. " - " Against the Day doesn't really start to cohere until a point so far into the book that all but the most fanatical acolyte (and there are plenty of those, of course) will have given up and wandered off. (...) Against the Day eventually wobbles out of focus again, leaving the diligent reader with a grab bag of themes to consider. (...) Which is not to say that there isn't some fine writing in Against the Day (.....) Part of the problem lies in a conflict between Pynchon's would-be populism and the gnomic, smarty-pants style of fiction he practically invented." - Laura Miller, Salon





doesn't really start to cohere until a point so far into the book that all but the most fanatical acolyte (and there are plenty of those, of course) will have given up and wandered off. (...) eventually wobbles out of focus again, leaving the diligent reader with a grab bag of themes to consider. (...) Which is not to say that there isn't some fine writing in (.....) Part of the problem lies in a conflict between Pynchon's would-be populism and the gnomic, smarty-pants style of fiction he practically invented." - " Against the Day is probably the most brilliant book most people will never read. The reason it will probably fail to garner much of an audience is that at almost 1,100 pages it is, to put it bluntly, the novel as literary whirlwind, cryptically dense and unrelenting in its demands on the reader. (...) Strangely enough, despite all the noxious flimflam, the glacial pacing and the self-indulgent and seemingly never-ending prattle, there is actually a remarkably accomplished and worthwhile novel buried in here." - David Hellman, San Francisco Chronicle





is probably the most brilliant book most people will never read. The reason it will probably fail to garner much of an audience is that at almost 1,100 pages it is, to put it bluntly, the novel as literary whirlwind, cryptically dense and unrelenting in its demands on the reader. (...) Strangely enough, despite all the noxious flimflam, the glacial pacing and the self-indulgent and seemingly never-ending prattle, there is actually a remarkably accomplished and worthwhile novel buried in here." - "So the first thing to make clear about Against The Day , his first work of fiction in nine years, is that you don't need a doctorate in literary theory to understand or -- more importantly -- enjoy it. (...) The material may be profoundly pessimistic but, as ever with Pynchon, there is manic hilarity along the way. (...) It is, in places, a raggedy, meandering novel. But that's not the point - its abundance and free-wheeling chaos are all part of its charm. You might as well complain that a Jackson Pollock painting is a bit splattery, or that Miles Davis sounds a little improvised." - Stuart Kelly, Scotland on Sunday





, his first work of fiction in nine years, is that you don't need a doctorate in literary theory to understand or -- more importantly -- enjoy it. (...) The material may be profoundly pessimistic but, as ever with Pynchon, there is manic hilarity along the way. (...) It is, in places, a raggedy, meandering novel. But that's not the point - its abundance and free-wheeling chaos are all part of its charm. You might as well complain that a Jackson Pollock painting is a bit splattery, or that Miles Davis sounds a little improvised." - "Sometimes Pynchon could be accused of surrendering characters to action, which means he is never at risk of over-drawing them. Oddly, this grants them authenticity as modus operandi joining the novel's zillion compass points, but the points are all on the map, and all predictable. Pynchon, in this respect, never takes you unawares. His finest moments -- despite a tendency to overwrite some of his sentences -- come in quiet, lyrical, often entrancing insights. (...) It should be acknowledged, nonetheless, that Against the Day is immensely, if intermittently, funny, an intricate, wheezing shaggy dog joke which characteristically lacks a punchline, yet plays along with our expectation of a punchline -- in a sense, it's the perfect postmodernist, mocking jest." - Tom Adair, The Scotsman





is immensely, if intermittently, funny, an intricate, wheezing shaggy dog joke which characteristically lacks a punchline, yet plays along with our expectation of a punchline -- in a sense, it's the perfect postmodernist, mocking jest." - "Iím far from the first person to point it out, but it bears pointing out again: Pynchonís novels behave much more like jazz than they do like anything else. Themes emerge, are riffed on, returned to, and transfigured. Passages refer to eachother not so much directly as by a sort of sympathetic vibration. You suddenly notice something -- be it as slight as the conjunction of the colours mauve and green -- that clicks in your mind. Iíve seen this earlier. Where the hell was it ? Whatís he getting at ? Accordingly, my notes are as bizarre as those I have made on any book Iíve read for review. (...) What is Against the Day about ? What is it not about ? To try to summarise the plot would be insanity. It is a comedy of ideas with people in it. Describing it as if it were a realist novel would be like trying to transcribe in musical notation the sound of a piano falling down the stairs. (...) It is virtuoso nonsense; it is a giant shaggy dog story, serious as history; it is by turns mind-crushingly tedious and utterly exhilarating; it is remorselessly facetious and yet deeply moving. It is like watching the European apocalypse as scripted by Looney Toons. It is brilliant, but it is exhaustingly brilliant." - Sam Leith, The Spectator





about ? What is it not about ? To try to summarise the plot would be insanity. It is a comedy of ideas with people in it. Describing it as if it were a realist novel would be like trying to transcribe in musical notation the sound of a piano falling down the stairs. (...) It is virtuoso nonsense; it is a giant shaggy dog story, serious as history; it is by turns mind-crushingly tedious and utterly exhilarating; it is remorselessly facetious and yet deeply moving. It is like watching the European apocalypse as scripted by Looney Toons. It is brilliant, but it is exhaustingly brilliant." - "It is an idiosyncratic compendium, however, in which textbook history is all but ignored in favour of forgotten wars or workersí struggles, obscure culs-de-sac in science, overlooked thinkers and daft, ephemeral social trends. What also differentiates it from a conventional encyclopedia is that most of the material is given a comic twist. (...) Sheer amazement is the main response the novel elicits. Pynchonís enthralling ambitiousness and phenomenal imaginative power remain undiminished. But his ability to create stories that grip seems reduced: thereís a weightlessness to the characters that makes them hard to care about, and the point of the proliferating narratives is often elusive" - John Dugdale, The Sunday Times





"If you are willing to negotiate Against the Day 's unwieldy, endlessly ramifying storylines, there's plenty here to keep you busy, particularly the novel's engagement with technology and society." - Anthony Macris, Sydney Morning Herald





's unwieldy, endlessly ramifying storylines, there's plenty here to keep you busy, particularly the novel's engagement with technology and society." - "More than in any of Pynchon's previous books, just what it all means is a problem in Against the Day , where plots and ideas and fantastic developments pile up in exhausting profusion. You've been vouchsafed once again his vision of a bright, beleaguered world, this one with more than its share of resemblances to our realities post-Sept. 11. With another few decades of reading and decoding, you may even get the work's largest intentions to snap into focus. Or maybe not. For all its brilliant passages, this is the book that makes you wonder whether even Pynchon knows what lies behind all those veils he's always urging us to part. But wouldn't you know it ? Even when he jumps the shark, he does it with an agility that can take your breath away." - Richard Lacayo, Time





, where plots and ideas and fantastic developments pile up in exhausting profusion. You've been vouchsafed once again his vision of a bright, beleaguered world, this one with more than its share of resemblances to our realities post-Sept. 11. With another few decades of reading and decoding, you may even get the work's largest intentions to snap into focus. Or maybe not. For all its brilliant passages, this is the book that makes you wonder whether even Pynchon knows what lies behind all those veils he's always urging us to part. But wouldn't you know it ? Even when he jumps the shark, he does it with an agility that can take your breath away." - "Certainly, Pynchonís new novel displays, for all to see, his "lost in the funhouse" narrative proclivities, his intellectual super-nova fireworks and his delight in the arcane, the base, the idiotic. (...) Against the Day eventually settles down into weirdly compelling reading -- that does not require the reader to assume higher cognitive powers or a love of all things recondite. Enter the book thinking of Pynchon as P.T.Barnum -- a great ringmaster, about to take you on a guided tour of the material, technological, geopolitical and philosophical forces that shaped the early years of the previous century -- and you might just find yourself (as I did) caught up in its circus-like reveries. Pynchon can be totally maddening, but he has a great sense of mischief." - Douglas Kennedy, The Times





eventually settles down into weirdly compelling reading -- that does not require the reader to assume higher cognitive powers or a love of all things recondite. Enter the book thinking of Pynchon as P.T.Barnum -- a great ringmaster, about to take you on a guided tour of the material, technological, geopolitical and philosophical forces that shaped the early years of the previous century -- and you might just find yourself (as I did) caught up in its circus-like reveries. Pynchon can be totally maddening, but he has a great sense of mischief." - "What is different in Against the Day is the way absence becomes clearer to us at a structural level. Indeed, one criticism that has already been levelled at the book is that it is impossible to hold on to its many characters. This is partly because of the sheer mass of the narrative, but also because so many of them simply drop out of the plot. (...) There is, in the end, something confrontational about Pynchonís approach to questions of what we should pass up, or pass on. His antagonism is present from the first, in the bookís prepositional title." - Sophie Ratcliffe, Times Literary Supplement





is the way absence becomes clearer to us at a structural level. Indeed, one criticism that has already been levelled at the book is that it is impossible to hold on to its many characters. This is partly because of the sheer mass of the narrative, but also because so many of them simply drop out of the plot. (...) There is, in the end, something confrontational about Pynchonís approach to questions of what we should pass up, or pass on. His antagonism is present from the first, in the bookís prepositional title." - "It's raunchy, funny, digressive, brilliant, exasperating, and defies a simple summary. (...) Falling into a novel can be like enjoying a weekend trip to a place you've never been. Against the Day is more like going away for a month, getting lost on your way there and back, returning exhausted, but with bags full of stories." - Bob Minzesheimer, USA Today





is more like going away for a month, getting lost on your way there and back, returning exhausted, but with bags full of stories." - "The cloud of foreboding that hangs over this book is a fear, a Pynchonian paranoia, that the martial instincts of capitalism, having already corrupted Tesla's idea of free electricity, will come to control and limit the very act of thinking. (...) Against the Day seems, purposely, to eschew the conventions of novel writing, taking the side of anarchy, both historical and metaphysical. However, the narrative anarchy it luxuriates in serves, more than anything, to recreate the kind of conventionality it is, ostensibly, trying to avoid." - John Haskell, The Village Voice





seems, purposely, to eschew the conventions of novel writing, taking the side of anarchy, both historical and metaphysical. However, the narrative anarchy it luxuriates in serves, more than anything, to recreate the kind of conventionality it is, ostensibly, trying to avoid." - "It isnít clear whether Pynchon plots by the seat of his pants or has his own secret and impenetrable designs -- the hither-thither meanderings of character, the appalling songs, the Rube Goldberg contraptions (some not yet invented, some perhaps never to be invented in our time-stream) might all be constituents of some larger, rational order. Such wishful thinking it is criticismís usual duty to propose. (...) Pynchon is more a mechanic of sentences than a stylist, even when the prose doesnít drop into Late Hipster, which may be his default tongue. (...) There are some things Pynchon does superbly well as a novelist and others he does intolerably ill, though his fans can be counted on to call his sins saintliness. He writes like a savant missing significant parts -- a piston here, a gearbox there -- of the necessary machinery." - William Logan, Virginia Quarterly Review





"Vast erudition and technical savvy are on display, mostly to do with math. The novel is spooked by the occult, enchanted with fairy tales and myth. And the writing is orchestral, in registers ranging from magniloquent set-pieces to sass and puns. (...) Pynchon fans will accept this gift from the author with gratitude, but I'm not so sure about mainstream readers. While Against the Day isn't as difficult as some of Pynchon's other novels, its multiple story lines test the memory, and some folks may be scared off by the heady discussions of vectors, Brownian movements, zeta functions and so forth, not to mention words and phrases from a dozen languages scattered throughout. (...) Not for everybody, perhaps, but those who climb aboard Pynchon's airship will have the ride of their lives." - Steven Moore, The Washington Post

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review 's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.



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The complete review 's Review :

Well into Against the Day, Professor Werfner offers a challenge:

Hundreds, by now thousands, of narratives, all equally valid -- what can this mean ?

Actually Quaternions failed because they perverted what the Vectorists thought they know of God's intention -- that space be simple, three-dimensional, and real, and if there must be a fourth term, an imaginary, it be assigned to Time. But Quaternions came in and turned that all end for end, defining the axes of space as imaginary and leaving Time to be the real term, and a scalar as well -- simply inadmissible. Of course the Vectorists went to war. Nothing they knew of Time allowed it to be that simple, any more than they could allow space to be compromised by impossible numbers

It was a tall building, taller than any in London, taller than St. Paul's, and yet no one had ever been able to make it out with enough clarity for it to qualify as a "sight" tourists might be impressed by -- more a prism of shadow of a certain solidity, looming forever beyond the farthest street one knew how to get to.

Lateral world-sets, other parts of Creation, lie all around us, each with its crossover points or gates of transfer from one to another, and they can be anywhere really .... An unscheduled Explosion, introduced into the accustomed flow of the day, may easily open, now and then, passages to elsewhere ....

As of 7:17 A.M. local time on 30 June 1908, Padzhitnoff had been working for nearly a year as a contract employee of the Okhrana, receiving five hundred rubles a month, a sum which hovered at the exorbitant end of spy-budget outlays for those years.

Was it Tchernobyl, the star of Revelation ? An unprecedented harrowing of the steppe by cavalry in untold millions, flooding westward in a simultaneous advance ? German artillery of a secret design more powerful by orders of magnitude than any military intelligence office had ever suspected ?

Time-travel isn't free, it takes energy. This was an artifact of repeated visits from the future.

"So," the Professor had gone on to explain, "if one accepts the idea that maps begin as dreams, pass through a finite life in the world, and resume as dreams again, we may say that these paramorphoscopes of Iceland spar, which cannot exist in great numbers if at all, reveal the architecture of dream, of all that escapes the net-work of ordinary latitude and longitude.

"Sometimes," Miles with a strangely apprehensive note in his voice, "these peculiar feelings will surround me, Lindsay ... like the electricity coming on -- as if I can see everything just as clear as day, how ... everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though. Pretty soon I'm just back to tripping over my feet again."

History has flowed in to surround us all, and I am left adrift without certainty, only conjectures.

Note:

(1) As a reader has pointed out, 'Eusapia Palladino' is in fact a historical figure -- a medium (1854-1918) whose 'talents' were subjected to scientific tests.

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:

See Index of Contemporary American fiction

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About the Author :

American author Thomas Pynchon was born in 1937. He won the 1974 National Book Award for Gravity's Rainbow, and among his other books are V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Mason and Dixon.

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