The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

A+

A-

B+

F+

F-

Rating

Current

To-Read

Read Sample

The Crying of Lot 49

June 13, 1966 / 183 pages / Fiction

The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy, meets some extremely interesting characters and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.

↓ more

B–

Conspiracy

Paranoia

Counter-Culture

Alternate history

Postmodernism

California

↓ more

Writing Quality

Originality

Addictiveness

Re-readability

Movie Potential

Sequel Potential

˂ back

Title

Author

Release Date

Jun

1966

Page Count

Genre

Fiction

Nonfiction

Series

Cover Image

(Must be JPEG and less than 1 MB)

Synopsis

Submit

Mark book as duplicate

Reviews

sort

A worthy introduction to Pynchon's novels. The protagonist finds herself submerged in whirling secrets and coincidences after the death of a former flame. The prose weaves thrilling conspiracy with oneiric symbolism, Lacanian psychoanalysis with Jacobean revenge plays, and LSD with the second law of thermodynamics. It's a lot of fun the whole way through.

Grade: A– / YangWenli / Sep 30, 2014

Pulpy PKD/Burroughs paranoia spin with some nostalgic counter culture references, and a winking tone. It's a fun time, with all the flash and lack of depth of any juggling act. Not so much a character study as an exercise in cleverness.

Grade: C / rc3spencer / May 26, 2015

This was my first Pynchon book and I didn't particularly love it, but I think a reread is in order to properly understand it.

Grade: C / derelict

/ Mar 30, 2024

The problem with this book is that the entire plot is fairly meaningless and so exaggerated that it pushed me away from anything resembling caring about it. That isn't to say that nothing happens -- I might have actually preferred it that way (see Murakami) -- but rather that it seemed as though Pynchon tried to create suspense and intrigue around inconsequentiality. If it's supposed to be tongue in cheek, then it's a trick that gets old fast, despite strong characters and endlessly witty style.

Grade: B / soccereagle542 / Sep 4, 2013

Honestly if you just took the first 50 pages of this book and wrote a novel that delivered on their premise and kept up with their wisecracking zest, you'd have the best book of all time. As it is this thing just falls apart. The second half isn't just plotless and confusing; it's fucking boring. Broke my heart.

Grade: C / Sacky

/ Jan 7, 2019

↓ more