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Thomas Pynchon
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Crying of Lot 49, The MP3 CD – Unabridged, August 18, 2015

by Thomas Pynchon (Author), George K. Wilson (Reader)
4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 2,088 ratings
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Calling Thomas Pynchon a “virtuoso with prose,” the Chicago Tribune compares his work to James Joyce’s Ulysses. Pynchon, winner of the National Book Award, has shocked, enthralled, and delighted fans for more than 40 years with his satire and wit.

Quite unexpectedly, Mrs. Oedipa Maas finds herself the executor of the estate of Pierce Inverarity, a man she used to know in a more-or-less intimate fashion. When Oedipa heads off to Southern California to sort through Pierce’s affairs, she becomes ensnared in a hilarious and puzzling worldwide conspiracy.

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  1. Print length
    7 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Recorded Books on Brilliance Audio
  4. Publication date
    August 18, 2015
  5. Dimensions
    6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1501259083
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1501259081
  8. See all details
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All the Little Raindrops: A Novel
"All the Little Raindrops: A Novel" by Mia Sheridan for $10.39
The chilling story of the abduction of two teenagers, their escape, and the dark secrets that, years later, bring them back to the scene of the crime. | Learn more

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Thomas Ruggles Pynchon Jr. is an American novelist. A MacArthur Fellow, he is noted for his dense and complex novels. His fiction and non-fiction writings encompass a vast array of subject matter, genres and themes, including history, music, science, and mathematics.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Recorded Books on Brilliance Audio; Unabridged edition (August 18, 2015)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • MP3 CD ‏ : ‎ 7 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1501259083
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1501259081
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.5 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.5 x 0.63 x 5.5 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 4.1 out of 5 stars 2,088 ratings

About the author

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Thomas Pynchon

Thomas Pynchon

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Thomas Pynchon was born in 1937. His books include The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, and Mason & Dixon.

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
2,088 global ratings

Customers say

Customers find the book short and insightful, with funny enough content. They also describe the prose as well-written, wonky, and beautiful. Opinions are mixed on the plot, with some finding it compelling and weird, while others find it convoluted and weird. Readers also have mixed feelings about the characters, with those finding them interesting and unsympathetic, while other find them unsymphatic and unengaging. Overall, customers have mixed opinions about the reading experience, with others finding it fantastic and sweet, while still others find the experience unsatisfying.

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ContentHumorLengthReadabilityReading experienceReading levelPlotCharacters
21 customers mention "Content"15 positive6 negative

Customers find the content insightful, engaging, and astonishing. They also say the book captures the optimistic openness of that period. Readers describe the language as clever, complex, and ambiguous. They say the novel is a tour de force and a powerful deconstruction.

"Pynchon’s novel is dense, surreal and mind-bending. It’s quite a trip and you may need a DIY conspiracy board to make sense of it all...." Read more

"...like an endless cast of wacky characters and insightful takes on various California mindsets, its very topical in bringing out the captivating..." Read more

"...His characterization, insofar as it exists, is superficial...." Read more

"...This book is perfect for discovering which you are. For myself, I'm not quite sure yet...." Read more

14 customers mention "Humor"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the humor in the book short, sweet, and funny enough. They also mention the book has parody, outlandish puns, and snarky humor.

"...with scintillations, multiple meanings, cross references, parody, outlandish puns, pawky black humor -- all of which is steadily and intelligently..." Read more

"...Pynchon's writing is dense, comic, slyly referential and a twisted ride through mid-60s Californian culture." Read more

"...I thoroughly enjoyed reading this satirically chaotic book. If you like satire then you'll like this book." Read more

"...short, Pynchon is a true master of the English language, funny / interesting situations appear from time to time and one expects Pynchon to..." Read more

13 customers mention "Length"13 positive0 negative

Customers find the book short, so they don't have to invest a great amount of time. They also say it's a cult classic and a postmodern novella.

"...Its relatively short, for one, and a great introduction to Pynchon to help you decide whether to try a longer one...." Read more

"...this book as an introduction to Thomas Pynchon largely because it is so short...." Read more

"...And for that—this novel is a tour de force, a powerful deconstruction that is careful to keep the deconstruction itself deconstructed...." Read more

"...The only motive to keep on reading is that the book is short, Pynchon is a true master of the English language, funny / interesting situations..." Read more

5 customers mention "Readability"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book reasonably accessible, easy to read, and the most accessible of Thomas Pynchon's works.

"This book was my introduction to Pynchon and, being such an easy, fluid read, should probably be the introduction for everyone...." Read more

"...Reasonably accessible (as Pynchon goes), and short enough in overall length that you feel like you're getting somewhere...." Read more

"A relatively quick and easy introduction to Pynchon. Hip writing style, and a central mystery that keeps one interested, after a somewhat slow start...." Read more

"I loved this book. Thought it was funny, challenging, but not too hard. A great time capsule of the 60's...." Read more

59 customers mention "Reading experience"38 positive21 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the reading experience. Some find the book fantastic, enthralling, and worth the trouble. Others say it's amusing but ultimately unsatisfying and the hardcover is of extremely low quality.

"...His prose is playful, almost entirely brilliant, and underscored with pain...." Read more

"...It seemed nonsensical and really dumb. Many years later on second reading, I appreciated it a lot better...." Read more

"...5. Etc.Overall, it is a good wholesome summer read, although one wonders..." Read more

"...TCOL49 is really worth your time." Read more

32 customers mention "Reading level"15 positive17 negative

Customers are mixed about the reading level. Some find the book very well written, with an amazing ending. They also describe the prose as wonky, beautiful, and post-modern ramblings. However, others say the characters are unlikable, and the prosaic is confusing and boring. They say the book is difficult to follow exactly what's happening and keep the characters straight.

"Pynchon is not beach reading. He challenges you to follow long sentences that change tracks, often more than once, mid-sentence...." Read more

"...His prose is playful, almost entirely brilliant, and underscored with pain...." Read more

"...It is almost always difficult to follow exactly what's happening and to keep the characters straight...." Read more

"...of which is steadily and intelligently directed and reflects an extraordinary writing talent...." Read more

30 customers mention "Plot"11 positive19 negative

Customers are mixed about the plot. Some find the story compelling, rolling, and interesting, while others say the plot is convoluted, confusing, and rambling. They also say the book is surreal, unfocused, and confusing.

"...classified as a load of tosh. The plot is convoluted asthere is a much of nonsense thrown around without justification..." Read more

"Pynchon’s novel is dense, surreal and mind-bending. It’s quite a trip and you may need a DIY conspiracy board to make sense of it all...." Read more

"...The characters are mostly quite unsympathetic and unengaging. Mostly that's because they don't stick around long enough for us to get to know them...." Read more

"...Pynchon's non-plot is circuitous, confused, and generally ridiculous. His characterization, insofar as it exists, is superficial...." Read more

12 customers mention "Characters"8 positive4 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the characters in the book. Some find them interesting, while others say they're unsympathetic and unengaging.

"...Among many other fine qualities, like an endless cast of wacky characters and insightful takes on various California mindsets, its very topical in..." Read more

"...The characters are mostly quite unsympathetic and unengaging. Mostly that's because they don't stick around long enough for us to get to know them...." Read more

"...any sense - however, I found the story compelling and the characters were fascinating...." Read more

"...and it is a rollicking tale of conspiracies and the very interesting characters who interact with them - a prophetic tale that will make..." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Condition
Reviewed in the United States on August 22, 2024
Verified Purchase
I often browse for books in the stores, and when it comes to purchasing, i prefer Amazon. I like my books in perfect condition. Amazon did not disappoint. The book is high quality.

I do not rate the stories themselves, that is a personal...
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JP
4.0 out of 5 stars A fever dream set afire with a postmodern match.
Reviewed in the United States on August 26, 2024
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Pynchon’s novel is dense, surreal and mind-bending. It’s quite a trip and you may need a DIY conspiracy board to make sense of it all.

The Crying of Lot 49 intentionally doesn’t aim to fully develop its characters. Pynchon is here to play with form rather than character development, twisting narrative to near disorientation. His prose is playful, almost entirely brilliant, and underscored with pain. It’s a nutrient-dense cocktail of words that’ll mess you up in the best possible way.

Pynchon taps into not only a wobbly paranoia, but also a sense of how lost we can feel in a stubborn country of lonely souls pointing fingers at each other.

The novel is also about the greater dread that nothing is connected, that everything is random and meaningless. And Pynchon takes not a few shots at 1960s counterculture. Even rebels can trap themselves in their own belief systems.

Reality. Just sound and fury, signifying nothing — or perhaps, everything.
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alldayReader
5.0 out of 5 stars Guide to Being Paranoid
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2009
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Thomas Pynchon writes the perfect guide to paranoia in The Crying of Lot 49 (published in 1965). His gutsy and self-reliant heroine, Oedipa Maas (more about Pynchon's fabulously funny names later) is named executor of the far-flung estate of an ex-boyfriend. Pierce Inverarity had his fingers in pies of all sorts, including a possible shadow group fighting the monopoly of the US Mail system over mail delivery. The struggle to control the mail dates back centuries (it really does: Pynchon is not making this part up) and the Trystero conspirators are gearing up for an overthrow, offering clandestine methods of getting mail around. Or are they? That's where the paranoia comes in.

As Oedipa finds out more and more about seemingly unrelated (but are they?) subjects such as the history of postal subversion (including the philatelical dimensions of forged stamps bearing small, incongruous details in black), and the bones of GIs left at a the bottom of a lake in Italy during World War II and then brought back to the United States to serve as interest for scuba divers in a lake built and outfitted by Inverarity, and the history and performance of Jacobean revenge plays (including one play considered so pornographic and destabilizing that the Vatican keeps it locked up in its library -- another paranoid conspiracy waiting to be written) and resurgent Nazism in San Francisco (not so paranoid, after all), we are as drawn into the twisted story of Inverarity's schemes as she is, and left with the same question: has he created the whole paranoid conspiracy to punish Oedipa or is it a real conspiracy that he was a part of or are all the concurrent acts and facts just coincidences? And if you cannot understand a thing I wrote in this paragraph, don't blame me: read the book.

The book was written over forty-four years ago and yet it not dated. The California he writes about is perhaps a bit more innocent and open-spaced than now, but the groundwork for the future is being laid in spiraling real estate developments, spreading smog, and disconnected persons seeking connection, even if it is only the most paranoid grasping for a connection that does not exist.

However, there is a noted difference in The Crying of Lot 49 in the 1965 perspective on the Holocaust and World War II, and in today's. In 1965 many survivors and perpetrators of the holocaust were still alive, and WWII was the war people still talked about as a participatory event. It was not an academic discussion of genocide and war, and Pynchon makes the war and the genocide horrible and immediately relevant to his characters. In a way, the characters are seeking to distance themselves from that history, and aligning themselves with an even older history of the struggle against repression while at the same time flying on the balloon of the sixties, trying to get high and find themselves and get laid.

I loved how Pynchon uses the 1960s backdrop for his naming of the characters. Pynchon is a timely and sophomoric (but still funny) version of Dickens with his Oedipa Maas (sometimes called "Oed" and sometimes just "Edna"), married to Mucho Maas; we also meet Manni Di Presso, Dr. Hilarius (a Freudian shrink), Stanley Koteks, Mike Fallopian, Genghis Cohen (who calls Oedipa "Miz Maas"), and so on and so on. Pynchon uses silly humor, slapstick, and sly inversions of reality to hold the readers' attention and it all works. The plot of The Crying of Lot 49 is crazy but Oedipa holds it all together, works out all the kinks and twists for me, and makes me a believer.

Our Oedipa is an honest and serious girl (she does have some fun in a very funny scene of undressing layers upon layers); she is also an optimist and as dogged as a pit bull. By the end of the book, she accepts paranoia as a necessary state. And she is right, after all. Better to question and wonder, than to be complacent and therefore, unwittingly compliant in the conspiracy. What conspiracy? Take your pick, there are many out there, so keep your eyes open and your brain open, and your options, open. Great good comes from reading great books. For more go to [...]
36 people found this helpful
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Tim
3.0 out of 5 stars Impostures Intellectuelles
Reviewed in the United States on March 11, 2005
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Reading this reminded me of an article published
by Messrs Jean Bricmont and Alan Sokal that argued that "modern French philosophy is a load of old tosh."
Then they went on publishing a book on a subject, called
"Impostures Intellectuelles"

While Pynchon is not a French philosopher, this book could be
classified as a load of tosh. The plot is convoluted as
there is a much of nonsense thrown around without justification
or regard for its relevance within the story line.

Among other things we learn that:

1. There is a Perpetual Motion Machine built (and operational
apparently) in UC-Berkeley.
2. Huge right-wing anti-government conspiracy operates a stealth
postal system, known as WASTE.
3. Charcoal for cigarette filters is produced from human bones
4. LSD could be an impediment for effective communication
5. Etc.

Overall, it is a good wholesome summer read, although one wonders
whether the author was under the influence of the said LSD while
coming up with some of his dense writing.
8 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Sergio Alberto Cortés Ronquillo
5.0 out of 5 stars El mejor
Reviewed in Mexico on April 30, 2023
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Soy seguidor y ávido lector de Thomas Pynchon porque tiene un estilo inigualable. Por desgracia, se pueden conseguir pocas de sus novelas en español, por lo que leerlas en inglés es complejo pero genial. Tiene, esta novela en particular, su toque característico: conspiraciones, sátira, personajes profundos. Leer una página de él es como leer una novela entera. Es, en su género, el mejor.
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Liam Roche
5.0 out of 5 stars strange but enjoyable
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 1, 2023
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It’s difficult to know what to make of this. The writing can be fabulous, but puzzling. A strange but fascinating tale, but of what?
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Casper
5.0 out of 5 stars Masterpiece of paranoia and intrigue
Reviewed in the Netherlands on June 22, 2023
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Pynchon's 'The Crying of Lot 49' is a labyrinthine journey into paranoia and conspiracy. It's a tightly woven tapestry of intrigue that keeps you guessing until the very end. It's like a rollercoaster ride through a hall of mirrors - thrilling, disorienting, and utterly unforgettable: it even has a bloody full-on play-within-a-play! Unrivalled.
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Lewis
5.0 out of 5 stars 👍🏻👍🏻
Reviewed in Germany on September 30, 2020
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👍🏻👍🏻
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Rahul Dash
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind boggling postmodern novel, A salute to Pynchon's artistry
Reviewed in India on July 31, 2019
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No issues for the quality,but it's a postmodern novel ,if you have not studied detail about what's paranoid self in postmodern time , what's fluid identity then all this meaninglessness in the depiction may seem to u buying worthless.Oedipa's search for truth is meaningless as she feels herself appropriate to be a detective and to collect info about her ex-boy friend she goes trough several steps and on her search she gets nothing even if she's at a moment of reaching the truth somehow it's destructed.The novel also ends with re reality that's misrepresented...
2 people found this helpful
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