On the train this morning I got stuck into the part where Slothrop gets let back out into London, and runs into Darlene and goes with her to visit with old widow Quoad (In this edition of the book, it starts on page 116). The description of him in the sitting room with the widow, eating her horrific wartime candies is one of the brilliant scenes Pynchon has a knack for—the absolute horror of this foreign and frightening experience of eating chocolate, hiding their multitudinous delights (?) is so well conveyed… it’s one of those Pynchon-esque passages you wish you’d written, yourself.
This falls shortly after the incident in which the Dutchman is writing back about his time exterminating the dodoes, and the reasoning for doing so, which is a great little sidestep… this isn’t so much of a story about this book, more of an endorsement, I suppose.
You might be put off the by the sheer weight, or its weighty reputation, or any number of things related to how heavy a thing might be, but it is well, well, well worth it.
In a time when people shell out good money for a Neal Stephenson (thick) pile of excrement about the 17th century (Hello, Quicksilver), you’d be much better off investing in Mason & Dixon and Gravity’s Rainbow by this fella.
