Steven Douglas Maloney

Posts Tagged ‘Thomas Pynchon’

I’m now past where I have read before in Against the Day. Only 900 pages to go. Something I think I have noticed so far. I remember reviews saying that ATD is Pynchon’s “most accessible” book. I think I know why. Pynchon’s usual MO is to tell traditional stories in ways that completely obscure their form so that we may see something substantive that form hides. Pynchon is on to something different here. Rather than disguising form, he is forcing several explicit and distinct storytelling forms to coexist in the same narrative. Even though it is still unusual, the explicit tropes of the forms make it feel more familiar in it’s narrative pattern, and thus, more readable.