Customer Reviews

New Essays on The Crying of Lot 49 (The American Novel)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I purchased this book from Amazon because I wanted to expose myself to some alternate views of "The Crying of Lot 49"; and in that respect, this book was quite helpful. Including the five essays in this book, I have read about a dozen pieces of criticism on the novel, and there is virtually no agreement among any of them. Every single essayist interprets names, symbols, events, and passages differently. So "New Essays" won't lead you to the one key truth of "Lot 49", if there even is one. What's better though, is that this book will expose you to five divergent ways of thinking about the novel. Reading and understanding various conflicting arguments about "Lot 49" will only help you in your own quest to understand this book. I would give this book only 3.75 stars, however, because of the quality of some of the essays contained within. Some of the essays are quite excellent. Johnston's look at semiotics in the novel very interesting, thought provoking, and well written. Further essays on "disrupting story" and the use of metaphor are also very good. The book's first essay, a comparison of Borges to Pynchon, is not as strong. Perhaps my dislike of this essay was fueled by my inexperience with the work of Borges, or the fact that I only took Spanish for six years and was unable to understand many of the passages the author used by Borges. Mainly, I felt that this essay was not as insightful as other essays. Yes, it linked Pynchon and Borges well, but it didn't have too many interesting ideas about "Lot 49" itself. My biggest problem with the book was its final essay. This essay, written by a professor of American Studies at the University of Paris, attempts to look at the novel in the context of the 60's in the USA. This essay was boring and uninsightful. All in all, I'd say that this was a good buy, although at 16 dollars for what I judge as 3.5 good essays, some people may find it a little pricey.

Are you writing a paper on *The Crying of Lot 49*? If so, this book will come in handy.

Thomas Pynchon can fill a book with everything imaginable and still bore you to tears, but on the other hand one page about a banana breakfast and it is in your head for a lifetime. If Jim Morrison didn't die; I certainly believe that Thomas would be a good name for him...