Vineland

De: Thomas Pynchon

Narrado por: Graham Winton

Vineland, a zone of blessed anarchy in Northern California, is the last refuge of hippiedom, a culture devastated by the sobriety epidemic, Reaganomics, and the Tube. Here, in an Orwellian 1984, Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter, Prairie, search for Prairie's long-lost mother, a '60s radical who ran off with a narc.

Vineland is vintage Pynchon, full of quasi-allegorical characters, elaborate unresolved subplots, corny songs ("Floozy with an Uzi"), movie spoofs (Pee-wee Herman in The Robert Musil Story), and illicit sex (including a macho variation on the infamous sports car scene in V.).

©1990 Thomas Pynchon (P)2018 Recorded Books

A ride on the wild side…

Narrator is Graham Winton who did an excellent job. Listeners indicated… Rollicking Story - Hilarious Digressions - Exemplary Performance - Stoner Innocent Embrace - Complex Character Arcs

I agree. Although I’ll need to listen or read it a second time because it needs your full attention and I didn’t give it that. While listening I enjoyed the writing, the humor, the multitude of references to everything under the sun.

In brief, it’s a story about hippie Zoyd Wheeler and his daughter Prairie who is trying to find out what happened to her mother Frenesi, a 60s radical who ran off with a narc when she was still a baby.

Below I’ll add some excerpts of the best reviews I found. Mostly because I can’t do it justice by myself.

“Compulsively funny and featuring some great crackerjack riffs, if you take the hippie movement and roll it around with a dose of political satire and then throw in some Asian ninja flicks, 80s action B-movies, wacky cartoons, spirituality (possible extraterrestrials) and more, you kind of get Vineland.” —Steven

“American History is always the unnamed character in a Pynchon story and its antagonist always seems to be the mythology of American History.” —D.A.

About Pynchon: “…all his gifts and his mysteries are on display here, wrapped up in one of his most enjoyable, inexplicable, and lushly all-enveloping plots.” —Warwick

“I’m not going to summarize or anything, because this book is too sprawling and reeling and anyway that would be an affront to its amazingness.” —Oriana

So in a nutshell… go along for the ride… you won’t be disappointed as long as you allow yourself to be lost and have faith you’ll be okay on the other side. It’s kind of like falling down a rabbit hole like an Alice in Wonderland… but it’s into the 80s.

Not like the movie

I can see now why movie is loosely adapted. I enjoyed the parts with Zoyd and Prarie but had a hard time keeping up with characters and following the story. Could’ve been just distracted but failed to hold my attention.

A classic

A classic from Thomas Pynchon, loved it. Will definitely listen again 5 years from now.

Pynchon is the best

I loved this book. With Thomas Pynchon is more about the journey than the destination. So just kick back, don’t worry about the plot, and enjoy.

Dark Comedy of Cultural Memory

Pynchon’s unique blend of pop culture references, high theory, slapstick comedy, and lyrical description elevates this work. The narrator acts as a steady guide through the stylistic chaos, weaving the intricate plot threads from 1980s Reagan-era surveillance to 1960s idealism. Listening to the words aloud lets you fully savor the cadence and the sudden, often hilarious, tonal shifts. An adventurous political satire with profound insight into American fear and longing.