I’ve just started reading Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow and it’s a dense piece of work. I’m intrigued by the style and I’m well aware that Pynchon is considered by many to be an American master, but the book hasn’t really grabbed me yet. The density and veracity of every sensation in the book tends to overwhelm me. I find my reading to be very slow and I’m poring over every word like poetry.

I feel somewhat the same way about Malcolm Lowry’s Under the Volcano which I’ve only gotten halfway through. Lowry’s early twentieth century Mexico is more intriguing to me than the England of World War II. Yet, Pynchon’s characters seem to be of their place, whereas Lowry’s are decadent and intentional outsiders. Lowry’s Mexico is a playground and a gutter where his characters stumble through their self-destruction. I’m hopeful that Pynchon’s characters have a less fatalistic view of the world despite the ever-present danger of the buzz bomb and the V2 rocket in their lives.

After having conquered Peter Mathiessen’s epic Shadow Country (perhaps, the best American novel, ever), I feel like I may bounce between both of these novels and see how they play off of each other. I might just restart the Under the Volcano and read them somewhat side by side. Something about it makes me think they’d work well together.

Those of you looking for jokes and rants will just need to wait until another day. I can only drop gold so often. I have to refuel with some culture now and again.