Against the Day

A Novel

By: Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by: Dick Hill

Length: 53 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

"Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

"With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred. The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.

"As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.

"Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.

"Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck."
—Thomas Pynchon

©2006 Thomas Pynchon (P)2007 Tantor Media Inc.

Critic reviews

"[Pynchon's] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel." (New York Times Book Review)
"Pynchon delivers a novel that matches his most influential work, Gravity's Rainbow...in complexity, humor, and insight, and surpasses it in emotional valence....A capacious, gritty, and tender epic." (Booklist)

Palaver

I ordered Against the Day because so much fuss is made about Thomas Pynchon. I now wonder more than ever why so much is made about his rambling style. I could not become interested in any of the characters, and just when a plot thread starts to appear, it is abandoned. I do admit he has a command of the English language and that he is creative with names and factoids. However, that was not enough to keep my interest. Listening to it made me long for James Joyce - I left Against the Day, which goes on for years, and returned to Ulysses, which in my mind, accomplishes more in a Bloomsday.

Well crafted road to nowhere.

I loved the author’s literary style and use of language. He creates numerous interesting characters that he always abandons in mid-circumstance. After listening to over 5 hours I realized the book has no plot whatsoever and I gave up listening.

Dissapointed

After 4hours I simply had to give up. Sad I have no idea what this story is about nor can I name any characters.

Worst audio book I have ever purchased

I have perhaps listened to over 100 books over the years and have never failed to finish one. This one was so bad, so poorly written that try as I might, I couldn't get through more than about 20% of it. Yuck!

I generally love longer books (I read Mitchner's "The Source" three times), but this one is the exception. The narrative wanders aimlessly around, with so much useless blather, that I found myself yelling "Get on with it!"

This book needs to be deleted and the trash immediately emptied thereafter.

terrible reader...overacting, distracting

Would you try another book from Thomas Pynchon and/or Dick Hill?

Pynchon, YES! Dick Hill never again

Would you recommend Against the Day to your friends? Why or why not?

No by Dick Hill.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Dick Hill?

A serious and discrete narrator.

You didn’t love this book... but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The writer.

Any additional comments?

It will be fantastic if you open two categories....
1) similar experience to read yourself ( beautiful tool)
2) similar experience to hear a terrible movie about the book ( caricaturesque version)

long winding and too much shock factor

I was half way through it (which is a monumental feat in itself) and just couldn't carry on anymore. It's boring, over written and the shock factor parts didn't lend anything to the story but made it that much more painful to endure. I hope the narrator was paid well.

Against this book

I've awaited an audibook from this author for some time although I was a little hesitant to embark on a novel 50+ hours long. The reviews on here didn't help either since they were posted a few days after the audio became available and were most likely from a fan or someone who wanted it to look good with 5 stars without having actually read the thing. I gave this book two hours of my time, but none of it was compelling. I kept asking myself why I was being thrown into this story and could find no justification for remaining interested after two hours. I understand this is not a typical novel, but I think a published book should grab you somewhere within the first two hours (or in print, by at least the second chapter). Still, I was let down. I am giving it two stars because I thought the narrator was wonderful. I would not warn against reading it, but I think this was definitely the wrong place to start with Pynchon

COULDN''T LISTEN TO THIS BOOK

This is one of a very few books I haven't been able to finish, and I've read and listened to a great many books.

There didn't seem to be a plot, the characters were cartoonish, at best. Sorry to say, I thought it was awful, and after giving up the first time, I went back several months later and tried again.

I know Pynchon has a big fan base, but if this book is indicative of his style, I just dont' get it.

Anti-insomnia

I enjoy listening to just about anything so I find it hard to tell if this would be a better listen if not for the narration. However, the readers sing-song voice is hard to stay awake to, let alone pay attention to the story thread.
The narrator has an interesting repertoire of character voices but the one he has chosen to narrate the story between when the characters are speaking (and this encompasses the vast majority of the story) should be used to calm unruly children.

Ugh - Nonsense and boring

What would have made Against the Day better?

It would better if the discrepant storylines were better joined. This jumps around and is hard to follow. A single plot with spin-offs would work, or a single central character...

What do you think your next listen will be?

Anything but this. This suggested clever historical intrigue. Its not clever, its not historically credible, its just, blah and silly.

Which character – as performed by Dick Hill – was your favorite?

The story over-bore his narration. He's good. The story - 5 minute snippets that change fanciful direction - isn't a story, really. 2 hours into it, SOMETHING should be emerging as a worthwhile thread.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Against the Day?

Most of it. Stick to one clear thread.

Any additional comments?

So sorry to learn this has been in my library too long to return it.