Reviews for A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel

The average rating for A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-05-24 00:00:00 Steven Breck This Companion was extremely beneficial in reading Pynchon's novel, especially giving reference to the social context and pop culture allusions that appear on nearly every page. However, I had to often set it aside, only referring back to it every so often since there was so much information that it impeded my forward progress in the actual book. I would recommend it to all readers, but it will come in handy the most on a second read. It should be noted that a first time reader may want to skip any commentary of the chapters as quite a bit of plot that won't occur until much later appears before each chapter. Well worth the money, a lot that I learned from reading this would have been equally interesting without Pynchon's novel as a reason to seek it out.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-04-15 00:00:00 Tim Barett a really wonderful sourcebook, on par with Ulysses Annotated and a good bit better than Elegant Complexity. loses a star due to muddled mathematical exposition (to be expected, sigh). i was irritated by the absence of cites in a great many annotations; it is explained at the end that uncited notes reference the Times of 1944--1945, but this remains unsatisfying. whence, for instance, explanation of "crystal ship" as iv drug use? i never gathered that from the first Doors album. anyway, a joy to read, a great jumping-off point for budding postmodernists, and a fine guide to GR. bonus funny story: i was reading penrose's epic The Road to Reality, put it down admidst some footnotes regarding QFT renormalization, did some bullshit and picked up the *Companion*. "this is an odd and frankly unfocused digression regarding *Bladerunner* by ol' Sir Roger; i wonder where he's going with this...oh, argh augh, nicholas you are stupid indeed." and just went ahead and finished the Companion.