I hope I'm not the only one who got around to reading this. I thought this book was ok. I wasn't too bored throughout most of the book, but I wasn't too enthused to find out what happens next either. This book is half murder mystery, half psychedelic hippie rambling. I didn't care much for the latter. If I had read this in college maybe I would have found it funnier. The plot itself never quite feels very intense because of the lack of seriousness throughout. Spoiler I also thought his relationship with Shasta was going to go somewhere, but it never did. They say hi again, fuck, and move on. The sluttiness of the women in this book got over the top at times. I don't know... I just don't have all that much to say about this book. Maybe if I smoked a pound of weed a day like the main character I would have enjoyed it more. If I was going to compare this book to anything I'd call it a poor man's Big Lebowski.
Just finished, this is the second time I've read it but I love the book. Pynchon is my favourite author because of his spontaneous character interactions. In this book there are only two or three dozen which is small for him, sometimes has has hundreds (Gravity's Rainbow) but I love this book because it's a fast, funny read. From being attacked by British zombies to "I need to buy some of that stuff...y'know, you put it in the bath and it bubbles up?" Pynchon is all about character personalities bouncing off each other and he has some doozies in this book. The book takes place in the 60's, but it's not REALLY the 60's, more of an alternative reality 60's. I like the book primarily because of Doc, he's like Raymond Chandler if you replaced Chandler's vices with weed. He's sympathetic, brave and at the same time slightly dumb enough to be a character that's easy to root for.
Was there a reason Pynchon kept putting question marks after declarative sentences? This didn't detract from the book or anything, but I just found it strange.
I know what you mean, I think it's to put a southern Cali stoner-slang into the way they talk. Usually the characters who are high talk like that, like when Doc thought Sherlock Holmes was a real person "He wasn't....real?" I think he's trying to make the characters always sound uncertain because they aren't terribly bright.
I thought the book was "alright". I was really excited the first half of the book because I enjoyed his writing style and I felt he was leading up to something really good. Then towards the second half or maybe the last 2/3rds of the book it felt sort of anticlimactic. It was almost like Pynchon was just writing to tie up loose ends. Pynchon does know how to craft a backend I will say. The characters backgrounds and stories led to the believability of the reading. 2 out of 5 stars.