In this maximalist style, stories suffer from emotionless run-on sentences and an avoidance of grammar.
I kept hearing great things about Thomas Pynchon’s work so I wanted to give it a try. Multiple recommendations came saying ‘The Crying of Lot 49’ would be a good place to start. So I grabbed a copy at Hooked on Books in Wildwood, NJ and gave it a try. No offense to fans of Pynchon’s work (I know you are a devoted bunch) but I just can’t get a grip on his wordy, emotionless, stream-of-consciousness style. As soon as I started reading, my mind wandered as he droned on, skipping from one subject to the next, often in the same sentence. I’d get halfway down a page only to realize I had no idea where I was.
Of course, it’s not just Thomas Pynchon. This isn’t meant as a narrow takedown of his work. In my humble opinion, the entirety of this type of postmodern maximalist writing is simply unreadable. It’s filled with excessive run-on sentences and an avoidance of grammar and punctuation. Writers will crowbar so much encyclopedic facts and analytical meandering into a passage to prove a higher intelligence, the stories suffer. They’ll take paragraphs on emotionless spirals to say what could have been said in a sentence or two.
I just can’t take full-length, beat-style writing. A poem? Sure. Some prose? Yes. Song lyrics? Definitely. But an entire novel? No. I had a similar reaction trying to read ‘Doctor Sax’ by Jack Kerouac a few years ago. If you’re a fan, that’s cool. However, I need structure. I need format. That’s not to say I don’t like fantastical or philosophical tales, I do. Kurt Vonnegut, Ray Bradbury, Douglas Adams, and others can take readers on wild, imaginative journeys without veering so far off into nonsense and contradiction that the story is lost.
So, it’s time for me to cut and run. I used to think I have to finish any book I start, but not anymore. If I don’t like a song, I turn it off. If I don’t like a movie or show, I change channels. If I’m not having fun at a party, I leave. Why not do the same with books? Therefore, I’ll be donating this Pynchon book to Symposia Bookstore — a local nonprofit here in Hoboken, NJ. I’ve already moved on to my next read. ‘August Snow’ by Pete Hamill.
Do you have any recommendations for a good read? Comment below.
Cheers,
Stephen
