GRAVITY’S RAINBOW by Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by George Guidall

No Pot of Gold Just a Seedy Collection of Lead Coins

This book has a dream-like quality to it—but I am not saying that as an endorsement. Just as a dream is a Technicolor mélange of disjointed episodes that one struggles to fit together upon waking; this novel is elusive and seems to always be just out of reach. I admire the prose style of Pynchon in the same way that I enjoy the words of William Gibson in NECROMANCER. It has an edgy, detached quality to it; one that does not encourage emotional attachment. This book, however has less going on to hold my interest than does the aforementioned cyber-punk classic.  No cool characters, no sense-of-wonder to make me marvel at the inventiveness of the fictional invention. What tipped the book against me, I think, was the excessive and emotionally uninvolved over-utilization of explicit sex scenes throughout. These scenes are spaced regularly in the novel, as if they are supposed to fit into some larger story arc. I could not find the interconnection so they just came off as crude assaults on my thought process with no redeeming social value. George Guidall has a fine pleasant voice and allowed me to hang in with this book for six hours before punching out.