Against the Day: A Novel

Quite an investment in time, but worth the effort in my judgement. I downloaded this book Jan 30th and didn't finish until June 8th! 53 hours and 38 mins later, I'm still a little confused on some of the plotlines. Nevertheless, the concepts I did understand are brilliant and the character names are like Dickens on steroids. Pynchon has a knack for presenting ideas or observations in a couple of pages that other authors would use to fill an entire book. The wit is very smart, all sorts of sly allusions to history and pop culture abound. Worth the effort for me but, as the WSJ and NYT said in their reviews, this book isn't for everyone. There were times when I thought it might not be for me either, but I persevered and am glad I did. The narrator was excellent, it's got to be quite a challenge to deal with this many characters, the sheer size and all of the mathematical terms, scientific jargon and strange locales.

Against the Day is Thomas Pynchon's most recent and one of his most accessible and entertaining works. (Mason & Dixon and The Crying of Lot 49 are better books, imo, but this one is certainly a worthy addition to Pynchon's formidable oeuvre.) Dick Hill's reading makes it even better.

Taking place between 1893 and 1914 in Chicago at the Columbian Exposition and going from there to the globe, inside and out, the story involves a group of very fictional hot-air balloonists, western mines unionists and anarchists (terrorists?) and their families, tycoons and their goons, scientists, mathematicians and a whole menagerie of assorted characters some historical, some not.

The plot involves the children of slain anarchist Traverse Webb as they basically try to 1. avenge his death and 2. escape the clutches of the evil tycoon Scarsdale Vibe. Meanwhile, the Chums of Chance glide around observing from their balloon above. But that's a very, very simplified version of the intricate convolutions the plot of this encyclopedic novel takes.

The themes are the closing of the frontier and the onset of modern life, including the boom of technology and capitalist greed. Meanwhile, the common man is doomed to live under the oppression of totalitarian regimes willing to use militaristic force to ensure domination.

Different styles are used for different plots of the book varying from Dime Novel to American Western to erotica and spy novel. This is quite effective in maintaining interest throughout such a long book.

The narrator Dick Hill gives a bit of very appropriate energy and drama to the reading and although it took a few minutes to get used to the voice (as usual for me), it's obvious Hill knows and loves the material and his interpretation is "cracker-jack!" Good show!

The broadest and most joyous of this remarkable author's unique, sprawling, epic, poetic sagas. An absorbing, sometimes surreal and almost overwhelming miasma of fact, fiction and fantasy, set during the period of tumultuous advancement in thought and discovery between the 1890’s and 1920’s, and peripheral to the dark and foreboding “war to end all wars”. But even more so than his other masterful works – Gravity’s Rainbow, V, The Crying of Lot 49 – this is a positively decadent and ultimately joyous celebration of history, scientific delusion and fact, mysticism, social turmoil and evolution, love real and imagined, flight, time travel, light, energy and ultimately redemption and hope. Pitting industrial and political czars and goons, unionists, mathematicians, inventors, spiritualists, explorers, anarchists, visionaries, charlatans, airship travelers, transcendentalists - all of them basically regular folks like you and me - against and with each other. Dick Hill's narration, voicing, inflection and pace, at first seemingly quirky, are quickly found to be perfect for the material. Though some 52 hours long, it was increasingly absorbing, and ended most graciously, though I'm sorry it had to end at all. This is one for you, whoever you are.

This is an excellent book, but not for everyone. Some other reviewers pointed out that they couldn't follow it, and, yes, Pynchon is hard to follow. I'm actually listening after reading the book (I read a couple of chapters then listen to the same parts.) With the strange character names, obscure ideas, and many twisted concepts, this is probably not a good choice for something to listen to in the car.

The narrator, however, turns this into a tour de force - his reading is inspired, and his wide variety of voices fits perfectly with the variegated characters.

The only issue I have is with the sound quality of the book. When listening on headphones, there is noticable distortion when the reader's voice gets louder than normal. I don't notice this on speakers, but it does detract slightly from the enjoyment of this book when I listen on my iPod. Also, there are a couple of points where you hear a voice saying "This is the end of CD X." Apparently, the file wasn't perfectly cleaned up when Audible put it up for sale. Finally, there is no cover art attached to the files - no big deal, but another minor quality issue.

Loved this book. True it takes some work to keep all the characters and plot lines clear, but each section, each paragraph and sentance is a chance to be delighted with a precise, playful description or honestly delivered revelation of character. The reader, Dick Hill is great. His multiple voices bring a smile and help keep everyone straight. I've downloaded dozens of books from Audible: this is one of my favorites, and one of the best readers on the team.

Hill does quite a good job with Against the Day. Easy to follow, nice leisurely pace, and a welcome variety of voices, never overdone, make this an enjoyable listen.

The narrator's work on this book deserves to be recognized as one of the great audio performances. Showing infinite patience with an interminable book, the narrator keeps the characters distinct, employing different voices. By bringing out the pathos and humor in each character, he shows that he understands Pynchon's book, or is at least willing to try. His rendering of the Archduke's offensive jokes, for example, is so hilarious that I listened to it about ten times before moving on. I don't think I could have gotten through this book without the narrator's performance, much less keep the narrative straight.

Like everything Pynchon, this is a rare gem of a book. The Dick Hill's narration is amazingly true to the Pynchon characters and spirit of the story.

Not to be missed.

I have read several Pynchon novels before starting this audiobook, so I understood the scope of characters and grand, sweeping events I was in store for. What I *wasn't* ready for was Dick Hill's narration. I have been impressed with audiobook readers before--George Guidall on American Gods, Simon Vance on Wolf Hall, and Roy Dotrice on the Fire and Ice series, each outstanding in his own way handling a multitude of voices and complexity of langauge--but Dick Hill in Against the Day set a new standard which few others will ever reach. His handling of song lyrics, foreign languages, tricksy Pynchon prose mixing both high and low brow culture, and a cast of characters far too long to list here made a very difficult novel come to life and entertain in ways people can't imagine a Pynchon novel can even do. Dick Hill was essential to my enjoyment of this read/listen.

Obviously it compares to Pynchon's other classics such as Gravity's Rainbow and Mason & Dixon. From the point of view of how it synthesizes so many different ideas from so many different cultural and scientific fields, it reminds me of Joyce's most challenging works: Ulysses and Finnegan's Wake. It also covered much of the same ground as Umberto Eco's recent Prague Cemetery, although it does so in a much more fulfilling and far reaching manner.

Too many to count. It could be the many discussions of the cultural and political implications of fin de siecle science and math--aether and Riemann Functions for example. It could be the Chums of Chance, the perfect parody of pulp fiction of the early part of the 20th century (think Doc Savage for example). It could be the exploration of the political changes from the 1890's that lead up to the First World War. It might well be the masterful ways in which Pynchon mixes high brow and low brow culture. He'll move from discussing the Michaelson-Morley experiments in the speed of light moving through aether that helped set the groundwork for Einstein's Theory of Relativity to having a Arabic character named Al Mar-Faud who wears a hunting cap, carries a shot gun and loves to go hunting for "wabbits."

The Traverse boys, all with different points of view spend most of the novel hunting for the man who was responsible for ordering their father's death. They are as a whole perhaps the most human and fleshed out characters in all of Pynchon's work. Their whole story arc is very moving.

It's not an easy read/listen, but it's well worth the time. Enjoy the laughter even as you puzzle through the implications of some of the weightier issues and themes. Pynchon is a master at that blend in a way no one else is.

Plot in a novel is overrated. If you want plot, read Dan Brown instead- though that's all you'll get.

This is a work of genius- and not only because of the author's penchant for self-promotion and intentional obscurity and obfuscation.

This is truly a piece of art painted with intentionally hammy techniques and wonderful surreal and non-linear streams of consciousness. All of these things dance around the sensation of the characters, the essence of spirit that the author wishes to share with those who can sense it.

I laughed when a reviewer preferred to go back to Ulysses instead. Well, that's a mighty difficult yardstick for each and every novel to stand comparison. It's like comparing every portrait to the Mona Lisa.

Full disclosure: this was my first reading of a complete Pynchon novel. I'm not a literary snob and don't feel the need to crow about how much better his other works are. Some folks more learned and well-read than I am have said Gravity's Rainbow is far superior. Great- more to explore!

For me, this is one of the most wonderful author "discoveries" since I first read Kafka.