About this title: 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, and elsewhere.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Edition: 1st Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Penguin Press, New York
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781594201202ISBN:159420120X
Description: Fine in Very Good + jacket. This 6.5 x 9.5 hardcover has 1085 pages. Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years after World War I. With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, flase religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781594201202ISBN:159420120X
Description: FINE. In NF jacket. (Jacket Brodart Protected). 1085pp. DESCRIPTION: 1st edition, unclipped jacket. Book and pages clean, binding tight, mild sun fading to top edge. Jacket clean, minor corner/edge wear. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Vintage
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780099512332ISBN:0099512335
Description: Good. **SHIPPED FROM UK** We believe you will be completely satisfied with our quick and reliable service. All orders are dispatched as swiftly as possible! Buy with confidence! read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Penguin Group USA
Date Published: 2007-10-30
ISBN-13:9780143112563ISBN:0143112562
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780143112563. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics)
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780143112563ISBN:0143112562
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Very good; Collectible. 2006 Penguin Press hard cover-first edition first printing-no dust jacket-some staining to page edge-otherwise a fine clean copy-enjoy. read more
Edition: First Edition
Binding: Hardcover; First Printing
ISBN-13:9781594201202ISBN:159420120X
Description: Fine in Fine dust jacket. Hardcover. The Penguin Press, 2006. 1st Edition/1st Printing. Fine Book in Fine Dust Jacket. Price Intact. Overall, a clean and tight copy to add to a collection or read and enjoy. Dust Jacket protected with a new archival cover. Bubble wrapped and shipped promptly in a box. read more
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Binding: Hardbound
Publisher: The Penguin Press, New York
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781594201202ISBN:159420120X
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. Collectible. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. First printing. Mint condition. read more
Binding: Hardback
Publisher: VINTAGE Country = UNITED KINGDOM
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9780224080958ISBN:0224080954
Description: BRAND NEW HARDBACK. 1104 pages. (1104 pages) spanning the period between the chicago world's fair of 1893 and the years just after world war i, this work 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, and mexico during the revolution. (Hardback) read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: The Penguin Press
Date Published: 2006
ISBN-13:9781594201202ISBN:159420120X
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"When did I start this, April? Yes, it took me 5 months to make it through this epic novel while reading 20 pages at most a day. And no, as usual, I didn't understand every thing I read. Accepting this very fact, the general lack of complete understanding about what I'm reading, is the first step in making it through any Pynchon novel. Rather than being confused and frustrated I let the words cascade into my brain and realize that no one does it quite like Pynchon. With that said every Pynchon novel is an education. Want to know about WWII go read Gravity's Rainbow, want to learn a little something about line surveying and British-American relations during colonialism? Pick up Mason & Dixon. I'm beginning to understand that Pynchon has done a truly mind boggling amount of research to craft the tales he does. Against the Day largely centers around a single family and how they branch out into the world, as set between 1845 and 1917. Within the book there are some classic revenge plots, dynamite loving anarchists, brutal violence, explicit sex with a particular fascination with the anus, high level mathematics you could only dream of understanding, oh and balloonists. It's a long journey with parts I will truly never forget and a book I look forward to reading again, and probably again. My favorite book I've read by him so far which is sort of like saying one of the best books I've ever read. Yes, it is just that good."
"I really enjoyed this book, actually more than any of his others. I won't say it's "better" because I've never taken the time to try to understand the complexities that people like so much about Gravity's Rainbow. Maybe Against the Day is just easier. But I don't think so. The tone is lighter, even though it's about the the end of the world, in a sense - the collapse of the old world order in the runup to the first world war, which Pynchon paints as the moment when the window of revolutionary possibility of the Wobblies and free thinkers of all kinds closed, and the 20th century of bureaucratized mass slaughter and hopeless modern realpolitik began. It's very dark. But at the same time he's drawing it as a joyful time, full of a sense of possibility for a different world. By the time our heroes complete their escape from Bosnia all that possibility is gone, but it's not by accident that he's written this detailed, loving portrait of revolutionaries in Chiapas and international anarchist travelers, at the end of the 1990s, if you want to look at it that way. It's about creating possibilities here and now.
The women characters are a whole lot more sympathetic and more respectfully written than in the older books. The action and humor are up to his standard. It's lots of fun to read. I don't really get what he's up to with all the different kinds of light, but maybe someone will fill me in."
"It took me a month to finish this book, and when I was done with all 1,085 pages I had expected to feel relieved, even ebullient. Instead, I was kind of sad it was over. This is a beautiful, moving book, very sad but also very silly.
It's one of the easiest Pynchon books to understand, along with Mason and Dixon, and one of the easiest to get through, in part because it doesn't have large sections that are really really sad and twisted, as is the case with Gravity's Rainbow and V (one of my all-time favorites). I disagree with the critics who say Pynchon doesn't create characters you can sink your teeth into; I felt that his characters (and there are a LOT of them) are so poignant and sad I don't think I could have made it through this book if I'd they'd been any more fully developed.
Having said all that, it's not exactly like reading Janet Evanovitch. Pynchon is a literary treasure but he doesn't really "write books" like other professional authors. He doesn't really create a plot, which is maybe why his books are so long. He just keeps going until, I guess, either he gets exhausted or his publisher makes him turn it in or, I dunno, his printer breaks down.
It helps to know a few things going into this book. It helps, actually, if you can keep a laptop with WiFi next to you while you read so you look stuff up as you go along. But, some tips that might help (and I"m sure I"ll forget or miss a bunch, so anyone who reads this should feel free to add more in 'comments')
First, Pynchon is easiest to read if you don't come to it with an expectation of a normal story arc and normal plot development. There isn't a beginning middle and end, really, and only one character (Cyprian) has a classic epiphany. Don't try to find one, or you'll be disappointed. Just read and enjoy every page as it comes to you. Trust me, you'll find yourself getting totally involved in what's happening.
There are so many many characters and they all speak in a kind of distinctive voice, I found it helpful to assign a well-known actor to many of the recurring characters. The Chums of Chance, for example, seem like utter twits until you try reading Darby in a Denis Leary voice and Chick Counterfly in an Owen Wilson voice. For the evil Scarsdale Vibe I used Christopher Walken and for his sidekick Foley Walker I found John Heard (remember him from Big and the Milagro Beanfield Wars?).
Curiously, I could never find actors to fit the supposed three main characters of the book, the three Traverse boys. Somehow they seemed the least coherent of all the characters in this book.
Everyone will tell you this is a wacky travel tale about anarchists and corporate greed. I didn't think so. I think it was basically kind of an existential book; there are all these characters searching desperately for redemption in a world that's completely chaotic and out of control and heartless. In the end the ones who find it, find it in love (yes, can you believe it? In Thomas Pynchon?) and in the trivial details of everyday life. Over and over the most insightful characters repeat that it's love and trivia that are the only refuge from life.
But that doesn't stop all these characters from trying to find redemption in insane areas. Math and science, for example. You always feel like you need a pHd in physics when you read pynchon. But in a way, he makes all the math and science nerds the bad guys; they've gotten too involved in things that are too refined.
There are SOME science things you need to know, though. But before I get into them, i have to go feed my family dinner, an act that is trivial and loving."
"Thomas Pynchon's first book in almost 10 years is...what we've come to expect. Against the Day is a sprawling narrative that includes over 100 characters and covers time travel, advanced mathematics, mining sabotage, a gang of boy scout-like zeppelin-riders, and much more. It's dense and convoluted, just like everything Pynchon has ever written, but this feels different. He's more settled in this novel, maybe due to his age, but the plot feels more like a regular book than a typical Pynchon head-spinner. His characters are as rich and colorful as ever, breaking into song for no reason, walking through walls that aren't really there, performing complex zeta-functions on the bottom of beer bottles...you get the idea. While anyone discovering Pynchon should start with The Crying of Lot 49, this is a welcome addition to his catalog."
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