About this title: A complex novel of ideas in which Pynchon examines conflicting views on the meaning of History through his two main characters, Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil. For Profane (a self-proclaimed schlemiel), history is merely a vast assemblage of tangled accidents. Herbert Stencil believes in a concept of history as a complex conspiratorial game. ...
read more
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Fair. Purchasing this item supports Pierce County libraries. Thriftbooks and PCL have partnered to help raise additional funds for the library system. Ex-Library book-will contain library markings. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Edition: 4th printing.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: A Bantam Modern Classic
Date Published: 1968
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. Signed by previous owner. Minor edge wear. General soiling. Block of pages age-toned more than other sections (varied paper quality in production. ) Single spine crease. 463 p. Black humor classic fiction of the 1960s. Search for a mysterious woman from New York to Cairo to Alexandria to Malta. Pynchon, b. 1937. The novel "V. " won the Faulkner Prize as best first novel, 1963. The novel "The Crying of Lot 49" followed in 1966. read more
Binding: PAPERBACK
Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ISBN-13:9780060930219ISBN:0060930217
Description: Good. 0060930217 Earlier smaller bantam paperback same content exactly-Aside from newer introduction/Afterward, original text has never changed, Standard Used Condition, some cover wear, different cover, No writing or Highlighting, some minor spine creases, minor age tan-well bound and solid, sold for content. read more
Description: Good. Remainder. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. A good paperback copy, lightly used. The binding is solid and there are no reading creases in the spine. The cover shows mild wear, chiefly some light rubbing of the edges. The pages are lightly toned, but the text of the novel is entirely free of marks, notes and underlining. --------------------------------V. was originally published in paperback by Harper in 1986, and this copy is a later printing of the 1990 reissue. The cover illustration by Mark ... read more
Edition: Reprint, 1995
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Perennial Library; Harper & Row, Publishers, New York
Date Published: 1986
ISBN-13:9780060913083ISBN:0060913088
Description: Very Good. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. 492 pp.; 21 cm. First published, 1961. Firm binding, gently creased spine. Clean inside copy. Browning. "The wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men--one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose--and 'V., ' the unknown woman of the title. / Thomas Pynchon was born in 1937. His books include The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, and Mason & Dixon. "-Publisher. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1973
Description: Good. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Bantam
Date Published: 1973
Description: Good. Save some $$$. Perfectly Good Reading Copy. Shelfwear from storage in box with other books. Great Copy. Ships Lightning Fast. read more
Description: NY: Harper Perennial, 1986. 492 pages. Trade paperback. Near Fine-. The usual light age-tanning outside page edges. Tiny light crease bottom rear cover corner. No names or spine creases, a nice solid copy. ISBN: 0060913088 V. is a wild, macabre tale of the 20th century and of two men (one looking for something he has lost; the other never had much to lose so isn't looking for it)-and V., the unknown lady of the title, who may be somebody's mother, somebody's mistress, or the world gone mad with ... read more
Binding: S Trade Paperback
Publisher: Harpercollins, Scranton, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780060930219ISBN:0060930217
Description: As New. A perhaps unread book, square and unlined spine, lovely cover, really sharp--if you dig books like I dig books, you'll dig this book--if not, I will provide a full refund! ! ! read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1999
ISBN-13:9780060930219ISBN:0060930217
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 544 p. Perennial Classics (Paperback). Audience: General/trade. Book is in excellent condition. Cover has some light edge wear. Pages are clean, binding is tight. We ship daily, Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Description: [0-06-091308-8] 1986, 1st thus., 1st thus. (Trade paperback) About very good. Textblock slightly discolored, back cover a bit dirty. (Fiction) read more
"This book won me over completely. Its unhinged prose captures the Twentieth Century in its entirety better than anything I have ever encountered - and it was written barely halfway through the century! Pynchon has a reputation for being difficult, and this book is certainly no exception, but if you lean back in your seat, trust him, and let him take the reins, you won't find it difficult at all. I find that you have to read Pynchon with a kind of soft focus, unclenching certain parts of your mind that you never realized were contracted. Don't get me wrong, the details of every minor character he brings into this twisted narrative are all brilliant, and each one of his multitudinous sentences is mind-blowingly immaculately composed, but the gestalt of the book is its own art, something that can only be appreciated in blurred impressions generated by the insanely precise prose. Some might be frustrated by the elusiveness of the titular woman/thing/concept and the book's narrative drive in general, but I think that Stencil himself puts it best when asked why he pursues V. so intently:
"Why not?...His giving you any clear reason would mean he'd already found her. Why does one decide to pick up one girl in a bar over another. If one knew why, she would never be a problem. Why do wars start: if one knew why there would be eternal peace. So in this search the motive is part of the quarry."
"Is it worth it to commit to a book or movie through to the end, even if you're not enjoying yourself during the journey? I once had an opinion that if I paid for something, I'd sit through it - no matter how mind numbing it was. After all it could get better, right? There might be something I'm not seeing, right?
I was handed this book by a coworker who had tried multiple times to get into it, but couldn't. So I gave it a try. Pynchon's "stream of conscious" writing style, I have determined is not *my* favorite, and after several attempts I have given this book a pass. It's not for everyone, and requires a lot of concentration to get through, much less makes sense of the naming conventions for his characters and other abstract qualities of the work.
Obviously, some of you love it, so it can't be all bad, but it's definitely not for me, and I no longer have the time or patience to sit something out hoping it will get better. You either win me over immediately, or lose me for good, and I'm afraid this book (and consequently the author) has lost me."
"I was utterly confused and I LOVED it. Of all the books that I've read, this was one of the select few that had me biting my fingernails on one hand, as I cradled its spine with my other. What had me so nervous was not the suspense in the plot, or a concern for the characters, but the thought, "Can he keep this up? Can he write 600 pages of prose that is so stupefyingly beautiful, so unctuous, so enveloping?" The answer is yes, that Pynchon's style continued to deliver on the promises made in the beginning of the book.
The prose wasn't the only reason I was biting my nails, however. I also had to wonder how I could possibly put down the book and be myself again. I felt like my personality was stopped dead in its tracks by Pynchon's treatment of his two main characters: Benny Profane and Herb Stencil. One is a discharged sailor living in the Beat Generation; the other is an old adventurer looking for something that he doesn't quite understand. They don't have much to do with each other, and they seem to intersect only by chance, and neither is an antagonist or a protagonist. The author is neither unsympathetic or sympathetic; he simply coldly observes them, all the while dragging out a whirlwind of profane but enchanting detail.
V., besides being a candidate for Great American Novel, is simply the best book related the Beat Generation, as Pynchon's detachment is preferable to Kerouac's proselytization; and he admits to there being a hidden, frustrating world that can't simply be seen directly from the Road. For that reason, his imagination is more refreshing than Kerouac's as well.
It's a shame that Pynchon eventually grew so unfocused and insane; if he had been able to set aside some of the twists and turns of his later plots, he might have been able to leave some 500 pages of pure and (still unpolished) brilliance like V. again."
"This very complicated novel was introduced to me in a literature class in the mid-1970s. I'm not sure I managed to read it all then, because despite an amusing bar brawl at the outset and some truly bizarre scenarios it's mostly tough going. However, my love for puzzling out complicated plots led me back to it later. At that point I was a technical writer for a defense contractor, which made parts of the story more relevant: Pynchon had also been a tech writer for a defense contractor, and his parody of that niche rang very true.
There are two or three interwoven stories in V., but story-telling is not what it's all about. Pynchon is stirring together multiple, seemingly unrelated aspects of our culture, rewriting popular songs and jingles and combining them with allusions to high technology and forgotten moments in history, all in the pursuit of explaining his world view. Often, the combinations are so jarring as to be funny. I rate it top-notch as a literary puzzle, but only second-tier as literature."
We guarantee every item's condition, as described on Alibris. If you are not satisfied that an item is as described, return your purchase for a refund.
rating
