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Bleeding Edge: A Novel Paperback – August 26, 2014

by Thomas Pynchon (Author)

4.0 1,126 ratings

Editors' pick Best Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

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"Brilliantly written...a joy to read...Bleeding Edge is totally gonzo, totally wonderful. It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post

"Exemplary...dazzling and ludicrous." - Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review

It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th.

Maxine Tarnow runs a fine little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side. All is ticking over nice and normal, until she starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler’s aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, and an array of bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course.

Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance?

Hey. Who wants to know?

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Print length

496 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Penguin Books
Publication date

August 26, 2014
Dimensions

1.1 x 5.4 x 8.3 inches
ISBN-10

0143125753
ISBN-13

978-0143125754
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Bleeding Edge: A Novel

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1,126 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book humorous and fun to read. They describe it as a good, worthwhile read with thought-provoking nostalgia for the modern era. The style is described as dazzling, startling, grim, and breathtaking. Opinions differ on the plot, with some finding it intriguing and complex, while others consider it labyrinthine and absurdly complicated.

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Humor Value for money Nostalgia Style Plot Writing quality Character development Accessibility

78 customers mention "Humor"73 positive5 negative

Customers enjoy the book's humor. They find the prose amusing and surprising, with recognizable inside jokes and comical/erotic alarums. The book is fun to read with silly songs, cute names, and clever song lyrics. Readers appreciate Pynchon's writing style and consider it memorable.

"So ahead of its time and yet funny and nostalgic all at once. Confusing, dizzying and a blast. Read it!" Read more

"...and it nowhere near as dense as "Against The Day," but still a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel written with care and talent...." Read more

"...It is set in the almost present day, so the inside jokes are more recognizable. However, I think the familiarity is what irritates me the most...." Read more

"...For Pynchon devotees it is a must-read. For general readers it is a memorable, impressive example of the imaginative reach of our greatest living..." Read more

60 customers mention "Value for money"49 positive11 negative

Customers find the book enjoyable and worth reading. They describe the author as a promising young writer and say it's the best introduction to his work. The book is described as a quick read, though not his best.

"...a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel written with care and talent. Recommended." Read more

"...is, by turns, dazzling, startling, grim, hilarious and, always, brilliant. It is also unreadable in many senses of the term...." Read more

"...It is the classic and still the best introduction to the author's work...." Read more

"...a lovely conceit to end his review, that Pynchon is a very promising young author...." Read more

19 customers mention "Nostalgia"14 positive5 negative

Customers enjoy the nostalgic references in the book. They find it a great way to remember the time period from the burst of the dot-com bubble to 9/11. The research on the era is staggering, covering video games, cartoons, music, failed businesses, and more. The book captures that era in frighteningly robust detail. It's a nostalgic look back at childhood and lost innocence, but takes place in recent history, in New York City.

"So ahead of its time and yet funny and nostalgic all at once. Confusing, dizzying and a blast. Read it!" Read more

"...Pynchon loads the books with puns, puns, puns and 2001-era pop culture references...." Read more

"...to say that the book resists having a "late style"; it is an atypical late style, certainly, but the density and the ease of the performance strikes..." Read more

"...It is set in the almost present day, so the inside jokes are more recognizable. However, I think the familiarity is what irritates me the most...." Read more

16 customers mention "Style"16 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's style. They appreciate the wordplay, cheekiness, and intelligent themes. The images are well-received, though some feel the narrative lacks direction.

"...Still, it's charming. The characters are clever and trade verbal barbs as easily as breathing...." Read more

"The new Thomas Pynchon novel is, by turns, dazzling, startling, grim, hilarious and, always, brilliant...." Read more

"...unexpected sentences of such crisp perception and strange beauty they bring tears to your eyes, and jokes so ingenious and hilarious..." Read more

"...But I digress, check out Pattern Recognition by Gibson. The style, The flow, even the names of the characters. All very interesting." Read more

96 customers mention "Plot"57 positive39 negative

Customers have mixed views on the plot. Some find it interesting and engaging, with a wide range of characters and an elaborate treatise on pop music. They enjoy the rollercoaster tale and insight into the author's thoughts. However, others feel the plot is too complicated and long at times. The ending seems perfunctory, though some readers consider it surprisingly brief.

"...It starts with the backbone of a detective novel: Maxine, our certified fraud investigator/protagonist, begins looking into the financials of..." Read more

"...Instead it's pretty tight and keeps a close proximity to reality. The plot veers, but never too far from its start...." Read more

"...the story of Maxine's search and uncovering of Gabriel Ice's plot is intriguing and reminiscent of their favorite portions "Crying lot of 49," which..." Read more

"...The book also represents a very interesting development in Pynchon's style...." Read more

62 customers mention "Writing quality"33 positive29 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the writing quality. Some find it well-written and interesting, with terrific paragraphs and beautiful language. They say the book is touching, funny, smart, and easy to read. Others feel the writing lacks literary depth and is formless, not suitable for casual readers.

"...Confusing, dizzying and a blast. Read it!" Read more

"...It is also unreadable in many senses of the term...." Read more

"...The Day," but still a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel written with care and talent. Recommended." Read more

"...the character was actually living in the world, and it lacks the literary depth of gravity's rainbow or mason and dixon, which in opinion are both..." Read more

43 customers mention "Character development"22 positive21 negative

Customers have different views on the character development. Some find the characters well-developed and humorous, like the tough female protagonist. Others find the characters confusing, bizarre, monotone, and filled with stereotypical stereotypes.

"...Still, it's charming. The characters are clever and trade verbal barbs as easily as breathing...." Read more

"...What's missing are compelling characters, a narrative, a purpose, something to say. What's worse, this is an incredibly unfunny book...." Read more

"...There are also many other characters, some of them memorable, but their numbers and voices are often difficult to follow...." Read more

"...But unlike a Dickens novel, I found myself not very invested in the protagonist, or what happened to her...." Read more

36 customers mention "Accessibility"24 positive12 negative

Customers have different views on the book's accessibility. Some find it easier to follow, with bizarre content and straightforward lives. Others mention obscure references, stale insights, and too much tech. The writing is also criticized for being incoherent and lacking consistency.

"So ahead of its time and yet funny and nostalgic all at once. Confusing, dizzying and a blast. Read it!" Read more

"...Really bad take on tech during the time frame of the story just adds to the misery that awaits anyone that dares try and suffer through this mess...." Read more

"...nowhere near as dense as "Against The Day," but still a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel written with care and talent. Recommended." Read more

"...this is very accessible compared to gavity's rainbow, or even against the day, but if you haven't read pynchon at all, i would start with either..." Read more

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dsharc
Insane, prophetic, wonderful
Reviewed in the United States on November 23, 2024
Verified Purchase
So ahead of its time and yet funny and nostalgic all at once. Confusing, dizzying and a blast. Read it!

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Diplocaulus
a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel
Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2014
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Our hero, Maxine, is a fraud investigator in 2001 New York City who's hired to check out some shady dealings with a post-bubble-burst internet company. Then it's down the rabbit hole into corruption and paranoia populated by rapping Russian ruffians, a professional scent-recognizer, a secret agent, a deus ex machina delivery guy, plus various IT geeks and their former-hippie moms. Murder, secret underground chambers, the back alleys of NYC, and an always-changing MMORPG-like website are also involved.

While other Pynchon novels can be sprawling epics with wandering plots, this book is pretty focused. It also had fewer absurdities—there's no speaking dogs, conversing clocks, or pet lightnings. Instead it's pretty tight and keeps a close proximity to reality. The plot veers, but never too far from its start. This is more like a highway of a novel, rather than a river.

Still, it's charming. The characters are clever and trade verbal barbs as easily as breathing. Pynchon loads the books with puns, puns, puns and 2001-era pop culture references. (It's hard not to read a chapter without having an "Oh, yeah. I remember that..." moment.) The author really seems to be having fun, and it's hard not to have fun reading it.

There is, admittedly, something of a tonal shift when 9/11 happens in the book. The story seems to be building to a certain point, and then the WTC attack sidelines everything. And as Maxine and her family and friends come to terms with the attack, this reader started realize that, in a lot of ways, that's what that day did to a lot of people. September 11th just kind of stopped everything, some momentum killed. And it never really came back. Or maybe it did, but the aftertaste of 9/11 and the following years of war had kept people from recognizing it. In any case, Pynchon's way of handling the tragedy was pretty deft and honest.

Not as mind-blowing as "Mason & Dixon," and it nowhere near as dense as "Against The Day," but still a funny, smart, and sometimes touching novel written with care and talent. Recommended.

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Benny Profane
Missed It Once Again
Reviewed in the United States on October 1, 2013
Verified Purchase
Like many others, I talk about reading Pynchon like he's a hard drug. "Yeah, I've done Pynchon a couple times. It hits you hard, man, digs it's teeth in real deep and doesn't let go. You start to wander, you lose focus, you wake up and an inordinate amount of time has gone by, you focus again, push through the haze, the smoke, the silliness, and there at the center there might just be something worthwhile. Or it might just be a gag. So yeah, I've done Pynchon."

"Bleeding Edge" the 2013 novel by Mr. Pynchon is no exception. It starts with the backbone of a detective novel: Maxine, our certified fraud investigator/protagonist, begins looking into the financials of cutting edge internet firm hashslingerz and its billionaire CEO Gabriel Ice in the spring of 2001. The dotcom bubble has burst and an eerie quiet surrounds the Internet world. Inevitably, in your mind, a clock is ticking as Maxine marches towards September 11th. The more she looks she finds transfers to Middle Eastern banks, mysterious payments to failing start ups, and a whole number of (kinda) suspicious activities.

From there the plot careens about in classic Pynchon fashion. A body appears. Characters enter Maxine's life, explain things before you realize who they are, and then travel on. Maxine sees more people she recognizes on the streets of Manhattan than anyone in the history of Manhattan. Important clues are delivered by mail to Maxine because sure, why not. Pileups of coincidences clog the plot line. Maxine inexplicably falls for a CIA bagman, decides the only way to survey a strip club is from the pole, and bounces around Manhattan talking to people who dislike Gabriel Ice. Who, while I hate to sound like Johnnie Cochran, really has done nothing wrong. I mean, he's a ruthless web entrepreneur and a philanderer (every Pynchon character is), but other than that his only crime is routing money suspiciously to Middle Eastern banks?

Other things to know about Pynchon: there is usually a fair amount of paranoia and "hey look this mysterious corporation is popping up with it's tentacles in everything!" People have silly names, to the point where it is annoying and not funny. Paragraphs run on, trail into digressions or backstories, jump back quickly to other characters, and frequently devolve into hijinks and/or unfunny songs.* Every now and then Pynchon will spin a miraculous phrase or paragraph and description and you will shake your head and say "man that's some good Pynchon."

Pynchon stands out for being known for the postwar mentality that peeling back the onion layers of life didn't lead to much, and actually it's pretty silly after all. His novels are the same way. To me it always seems like the conspiracy theorist's nagging hope is that there is someone behind the curtain, pulling the strings, because that would mean that there is a framework behind the world, there is a level of control, and that everything happening out here isn't all senseless randomness. All these clues Maxine finds add up to ... well not much. Just like life. I guess.

Having read four Pynchon novels (Gravity's Rainbow, V, Crying of Lot 49, Inherent Vice) this is probably the most readable. The POV shifts are more easier to follow, the chapters shorter, the run-ons less mind numbing. It is set in the almost present day, so the inside jokes are more recognizable. However, I think the familiarity is what irritates me the most. A 9/11 conspiracy is grafted to the plot as poorly as the surgery from "Human Centipede." Characters bemoan yuppie antics, use the phrase "late capitalism" a dozen times at least, feel angsty on 9/8/01 for "...an epoch whose end they've been celebrating all night," and wonder whether 9/11 might be the end of a long American summer. Pynchon's antics and word play are fun and all, but am I any wiser for reading this? Philosophically challenged? Entertained? The only moral I gather is to keep your family close is a chaotic world and to not trust anything - especially not the Internet, which, as Maxine's lecture spouting father reminds us, was a DARPA project during the Cold War. You look close enough, you can find a conspiracy anywhere.

In Pynchon's first novel "V." the Whole Sick Crew (a band of 1950's bohemians) discuss yo - yos: traveling somewhere where the travel time is longer than the time spent at the destination. They joke about flying down to Puerto Rico for an abortion and flying right back, or riding the subway downtown just to turnaround and take it back to Harlem. "Bleeding Edge" and all Pynchon novels are yo-yos. The plots and novels spin down, hesitate, but always return to where they started. It might be a fun ride, but it doesn't take you anywhere ultimately. This belief was reinforced while reading "Bleeding Edge" as the pages disappeared and no conclusion was in sight. As dawn breaks across Manhattan at Maxine's diner the nocturnal patrons are filing out. Some have found what they "...thought they needed, coffee, a cheeseburger, a kind word." Others "...nodded off and missed it once again."

Pynchon, man. Missed it once again.

*Note: I am probably a bad judge of this. I have never, ever laughed at a song written in a book.

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15 people found this helpful

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Nina Rosales
Todo muy bien
Reviewed in Mexico on February 10, 2019
Verified Purchase
Llegó en perfectas condiciones. El único lugar donde he encontrado los libros del legendario Thomas Pynchon.

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Nura
It goes into my "to be reread during retirement" pile
Reviewed in India on May 7, 2018
Verified Purchase
You just have to slow down to enjoy this book. Not a one day quick read and definitely not a time pass book. You have to dedicate yourself to getting used to the language and cadence and actively keep track of the characters. One of the few books where i had to consult a dictionary.

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Robert P. Brown
A Literary Tour de Force
Reviewed in Canada on June 14, 2015
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Maxine Tarnow is a forensic accountant with a fraud investigation agency, " tail `em and nail `em", who is on the trail of one Gabriel Ice, billionaire owner of a computer security company whom she suspects of laundering money. Along the way we learn about old movies, opera, (Deanna Durbin sang "Nessum Dorma" in the 1943 movie "His Butler`s Sister". Who knew?), Wall Street crooks, tech companies, computer games, virtual reality, beanie babies and 9/11.

With Pynchon it`s not the plot, such as it is, it`s the writing. Puns, double entendres, acronyms, song lyrics,; a mixture of Joyce, Brautigan and Vonnegut. This is an amazing tour de force of a roller coaster ride which leaves the reader exhausted.

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Spieler7
Viel mehr als ein 9/11-Roman
Reviewed in Germany on November 12, 2014
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Maxine Tarnow ist eine private Betrugsermittlerin und sie hat gut zu tun in diesem New Yorker Frühsommer 2001. Die erste Dotcom-Blase ist geplatzt; die Überlebenden versuchen zu retten, was zu retten ist, egal mit welchen Mitteln. Maxine beschäftigt sich mit einem Unternehmen, das Sicherheitssoftware herstellt und dessen zwielichtigem Chef, einem milliardenschweren Computer-Nerd. Dazu ihr Nebenjob als Mutter und Beinahe-Ehefrau; das Schicksal hat ihr kein leichtes Päckchen geschnürt.

Sie taucht ein in die verstörenden Tiefen des Internets und findet dort Bedrohliches, das sie nicht immer versteht, ihr aber trotzdem Angst macht. Auch im real life häufen sich merkwürdige Begebenheiten, sie trifft auf die russische Mafia und bald gibt es den ersten Toten. Und dann sind da noch die seltsamen Videos, die man ihr zuspielt, in diesen ersten Tagen des Septembers 2001…

Ich bin eigentlich eher skeptisch mit Begriffen wie »Kultautor«, und ein solcher ist Thomas Pynchon ohne Zweifel, nicht nur, weil er die Öffentlichkeit konsequent scheut. Also war »Bleeding Edge« meine erste Begegnung mit ihm, aber es wird nicht die letzte gewesen sein, so viel ist sicher. Faszinierend sind seine geschliffene Sprachgewalt und der spielerische Umgang mit Worten, ebenso die Vielzahl der Charaktere, deren bisweilen skurrile Geschichten genüsslich ausgebreitet werden. Trotzdem behält der Plot eine gewisse Stringenz bei, die Geschehnisse werden zügig vorangetrieben, und das gelingt bei einem Werk dieses Umfangs nicht vielen Schriftstellern.

Und so ist »Bleeding Edge« viel mehr als ein weiterer 9/11-Roman, obwohl das natürlich ein zentrales Thema des Buches ist und auch die entsprechenden Verschwörungstheorien nicht fehlen dürfen in einer zutiefst neurotischen Gesellschaft, die detailliert beschrieben und seziert wird. Die ungeheure Dichte von Sprache und Handlung verlangt dem Leser einiges ab, aber wenn er sich darauf einlässt, wird er reichlich belohnt, von mir eine klare Empfehlung!

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Paolo Cavallo
Un grande romanzo sulla storia che stiamo vivendo
Reviewed in Italy on January 27, 2014
Verified Purchase
Considero Pynchon uno dei massimi scrittori viventi, e ho trovato molto bello anche questo romanzo. La vicenda si svolge poco prima e poco dopo i fatti dell'11 settembre 2001, dunque anche nel periodo di esplosione del fenomeno Internet, e Pynchon presenta l'una e l'altra vicenda da un punto di vista estremamente originale e personale. La Storia e la Rete diventano due universi immensi e terrificanti, nelle cui pieghe gli esseri umani cercano di vivere la loro vita o inseguendo avidità e sete di potere oppure mossi da sentimenti di amore, curiosità, solidarietà, perfino lussuria o onore.
È uno dei romanzi più accessibili di Pynchon, meno estremo, con personaggi più facilmente identificabili, ma è pur sempre un romanzo di Pynchon. Dategli tempo e attenzione, e vi darà pensieri ed emozioni come ben pochi libri sono capaci di fare.

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