Bleeding Edge

By: Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by: Jeannie Berlin

Length: 18 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

Thomas Pynchon brings us to New York in the early days of the Internet. It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Silicon Alley is a ghost town, Web 1.0 is having adolescent angst, Google has yet to IPO, Microsoft is still considered the Evil Empire. There may not be quite as much money around as there was at the height of the tech bubble, but there's no shortage of swindlers looking to grab a piece of what's left.

Maxine Tarnow is running a nice little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side, chasing down different kinds of small-scale con artists. She used to be legally certified but her license got pulled a while back, which has actually turned out to be a blessing because now she can follow her own code of ethics - carry a Beretta, do business with sleazebags, hack into people's bank accounts - without having too much guilt about any of it. Otherwise, just your average working mom - two boys in elementary school, an off-and-on situation with her sort of semi-ex-husband Horst, life as normal as it ever gets in the neighborhood - till Maxine starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO, whereupon things begin rapidly to jam onto the subway and head downtown. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler's aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, plus elements of the Russian mob and various bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course.

With occasional excursions into the Deep Web and out to Long Island, Thomas Pynchon, channeling his inner Jewish mother, brings us a historical romance of New York in the early days of the Internet, not that distant in calendar time but galactically remote from where we've journeyed to since.

Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will she and Horst get back together? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance?

Hey. Who wants to know?

©2013 Thomas Pynchon (P)2013 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

A New York Times Notable Book of 2013

"Brilliantly written...a joy to read.... Full of verbal sass and pizzazz, as well as conspiracies within conspiracies, Bleeding Edge is totally gonzo, totally wonderful. It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best." (Michael Dirda, The Washington Post)

"A precious freak of a novel, glinting rich and strange, like a black pearl from an oyster unfathomable by any other diver into our eternal souls. If not here at the end of history, when? If not Pynchon, who? Reading Bleeding Edge, tearing up at the beauty of its sadness or the punches of its hilarity, you may realize it as the 9/11 novel you never knew you needed...a necessary novel and one that literary history has been waiting for, ever since it went to bed early on innocent Sept. 10 with a copy of The Corrections and stayed up well past midnight reading Franzen into the wee hours of his novel’s publication day." (Slate.com)

couldn't get used to the Narrators voice.

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

I'm a Pynchon fan, but this novel really didn't draw me in.

What was most disappointing about Thomas Pynchon’s story?

The narration was probably the most disappointing.

Would you be willing to try another one of Jeannie Berlin’s performances?

No Thank You.

An Amazing Performance by Jeannie Berlin

If you could sum up Bleeding Edge in three words, what would they be?

Hysterical, dazzling, provocative, Pynchon's masterpiece combines his trademark concerns about postmodern chaos (the Internet, consumer capitalism, the politics of surveillance) with a delightful tale of a Jewish mother's investigation of mysteries grand and silly. Sentence for sentence, no one writes a more entertaining fictional prose, or better jokes. Not everyone appreciates a Pynchon novel, but if you do, you'll love this one.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bleeding Edge?

The description of New York in the hours after 9/11 achieves sublimity without descending into maudlin sentiments or pre-packaged political rhetoric.

What about Jeannie Berlin’s performance did you like?

I've listened to many audiobooks, and this performance ranks as the best. Berlin's voicing of Maxine Tarnow, upper-West Side Jewish mother and comic detective, is pitch-perfect. I laughed out-loud a thousand times. The book is good in print, of course, but in this case the audiobook experience is far better.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

This is a long listen, and not a book held together so much by plot as by episodes of manic or grand conjurations of contemporary life.

Worst narrator I have ever encountered

Any additional comments?

First I have to say that my trouble with this book may very well be the fault of the narrator, Jeannie Berlin, than the author. Her monotone drone and lack of any distinction in the voices of the characters made it very hard for me to figure out who was who, and who was say what. Until she tried to do an accent, then all I could focus on was that she has some of the worst accents I have ever heard, and I have seen hundreds of amateur theater productions! I was confused throughout the entire book, then it just abruptly ended. I checked my Audible library just to make sure I hadn't missed the last part of the book! If you are going to attempt this book, I highly recommend you don't select the audiobook.

Worst I ever listened to

This is really auch a bad narration that I nearly ripped it of my ears in mid-drive on a bycicle tour.
Unbelievable, I really want my money back in this one.
Can't continue, might be an interesting book ... and this is I think the first time in 20 years I dont finish an audiobook

Truly Insufferable Narrator

Would you try another book from Thomas Pynchon and/or Jeannie Berlin?

Definitely Thomas Pynchon. Jeannie Berlin, never. Neverl

How could the performance have been better?

I cannot honestly understand why anyone would choose to have this narrator read a book.

Any additional comments?

Stopped listening after 15 minutes. Going to get a refund. There's no way to recommend 18 hours of listening to this voice.

Horrible reader makes book unlistenable.

What would have made Bleeding Edge better?

Any other reader. The reader is so bad that I cannot finish the first 2 hours. It is more than just distracting. I find myself ignoring the story because I cannot stand the readers voice, lack of intonation, and the total lack of continuity in the reading. She pauses in the middle of phrases and leaves the reader hanging.

Please redo this book. I bought the hard copy to read it as Pynchon is a master.. But the reader totally butchers this book.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Bleeding Edge?

I cannot remember being able to follow the story because the reading is so bad.

What didn’t you like about Jeannie Berlin’s performance?

EVERYTHING!. THe worst reader I have ever heard on audible.

Any additional comments?

Please redo this book. You owe it to Mr. Pynchon.

Defending the narrator

Pynchon (who presumably wrote the jacket copy) says he’s channeling his inner Jewish mother in Bleeding Edge, and I suspect this is what inspired the choice of reader. Jeannie Berlin is soon to be seen as Aunt Reet in the film version of Inherent Vice, and sounds like a middle-aged New York Jew. Older than Maxine, the main character, so perhaps we're hearing Maxine’s chronically disapproving mother tell her story. Like all the other reviewers to date, my initial reaction to the narration of this audiobook was, to quote from the text: Wahhabi Transreligious Friendship (to the unitiated, that’s Whisky Tango Foxtrot)! But I made it to the end, then read through my hard copy, and finally started the audiobook again (yeah, I’m that big a Pynchon fan). Now I’m liking it quite a bit.

True, the cool jazz rhythms of Pynchon’s prose become jarringly stilted at times, and the characterizations are hit and miss, particularly with the male characters. She doesn’t even try to perform the songs, and I don’t think I’d want to hear her try. Nevertheless, it has grown on me, and I think it got better as it went on. I wouldn’t be too surprised to learn that Pynchon himself advised on and approved this production. It's unique.

About the book, if you’re not already a Pynchon fan this is a good place to start, though if you’re going to start with an audiobook I’d suggest Inherent Vice, with is masterfully performed. If you’re already a fan you’re going to get it (in one form or another) no matter what I say, so try the sample of the audiobook and decide from there.

terribly read

too distracting to complete I'm just going to buy the physical book and read it myself

Boring and uneventful

This is the most boring and uneventful book I’ve ever read in my entire life

difficult to get into

What disappointed you about Bleeding Edge?

The narration was bland and not a very clear voice.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

she was very gravelly and bland in expression.