Reading Fast and Slow

 

I read this book fast because I didn’t understand it.

The reputation of Thomas Pynchon is extremely good, and I’ve always meant to read a book by him. I chose The Crying of Lot 49 — originally published in 1966, so it’s a very long-held intention. Maybe the humor in the book didn’t hold up for the long term. I understood all (most of?) the puns and jokes in the names of the characters, and I get the humor but it doesn’t really appeal to me. Maybe it’s past its sell-by date. Mea Culpa.

I tried reading the New York Times review that was published in 1966 when the novel was new. It started with a list of authors that could be compared to the clearly eccentric Pynchon. The list includes Melville, Conrad, Joyce, Faulkner, Nathanael West, Nabokov, John Barth, and Joseph Heller. Whew! 

The review was incredibly long and self-absorbed, expressing more about its own author than about Pyncheon, so I didn’t finish reading it. I take this as a lesson in Pynchon’s essential weirdness. Wikipedia calls the book postmodernism. I don’t think I’ll read any more Pynchon.

A Serious Book

This is the second book by Ocean Vuong that I’ve read.
I’m partway through and will review it soon.
I reviewed the earlier one here.

A Lighter Book: A Mystery set in India

Harini Nagendra: A Nest of Vipers (published 2024)

The woman detective at the center of the books in this series is a very young wife in 1920s India, and the book is full of local color, including descriptions of the city, of the clothing that people of various socio-economic levels wear, and of the relationships of the local native Indian people with the occupying British people. The plot is somewhat over-complicated plot, and at times seems repetitive and too long. However, there’s lots of food:

 

“She prepared a simple lunch for herself – coconut rice with toasted sesame seeds and fried curry leaves, along with a simple red pumpkin raita” (p. 63)

“The unseasonal heat of the afternoon had receded, leaving them dehydrated and on edge. She added a pinch of black salt and a spoon of grated ginger to the jaggery water, garnishing their glasses with sprigs of mint. The drink gave them fresh energy, the sweetness easing the last remnants of Kaveri’s headache.” (p. 174)

The first book in the series: I reviewed it here.
I liked it better than A Nest of Vipers.

Connected: A New York Times Article about Saris

Constantly, the author describes the saris that the central character wears, including very elaborate and expensive ones that indicate her husband’s high status as an Indian doctor, and also sometimes very poor quality, worn-out saris that she borrows to hide her identity when detecting. A few days ago, in a New York Times article, I read;

“Not for nothing are so many English words connected with weaving — chintz, calico, shawl, pyjamas, khaki, dungarees, cummerbund, taffetas — of Indian origin.” (Source)

Reviews by mae sander © 2025. 

Shared with Deb at Readerbuzz .