Now everybody--

Well…I have finished. Finally, after almost two months of intense reading, I reached the end of Gravity's Rainbow. Though I don't think I am nearly done with the novel…I'll have to re-read it again one day. I know I say that about every book I finish, but this is more than just wanting to revisit something. It will be a necessary return. There's just too much in there for one reading to ever be enough, and it will stay in my head for a while, asking me to go back.

What a book, what an ending! Though it got a little…hallucinatory? towards the end, the last forty pages were full of true greatness. I especially loved that it ended in song..so Pynchonian! Since yesterday I've been half absent in everything, I just could not get my mind out of GR. I'm sitting with The Call of the Wild, Women in Love, and my Kindle, on which I hope to buy The Sun Also Rises by Hemingway (a class assignment, which I'm not looking forward to…Hemingway doesn't float my boat). Picking up any book right now would feel like a let down. I doubt I'll be reading something so great again any time soon. I wish I could write about the ending, tell you all how satisfying and unsatisfying it was at the same time, but I could not do justice. Especially since I haven't been keeping you all as updated as I perhaps should have on the nuances of the plot, it would be complicated to suddenly explain how everything ties together or is left undone (as is the case for Slothrop, who I did talk about--the "main character" who, poor guy, literally [figuratively?] dematerializes by the end of the book).

I was reading a short essay on GR online, written mostly for those who had not started it yet, giving tips and whatnot. I wanted to emphasize something he said, mainly that it is not necessary to use a guide for every page. I did this in the beginning, for quite a while actually, and I never stopped turning to one guide or another throughout, but it definitely is not necessary. For those who want to read it and are just overwhelmed…give it a try! Get past the beginning, don't worry about terms, about not understanding…it all comes together, surprisingly so. That's why I'd love to read it again, to have the understanding Pynchon teases at throughout the first half or so. It's truly a spectacular book, one of the best I've ever read.

Anyways, it's nice to have finished. I haven't been posting too much mostly because Gravity demanded so much time. Maybe I'll jump right back into Proust :). I've lost a lot of faith in Casual Vacancy, though an article I found this morning calling it "a great book" gave me some hope. My sister seems to find it difficult to get into, and I think I will, too. Apparently, Rihanna's famous Umbrella is featured in it…I am honestly embarrassed to even type that. How am I going to read that!?! My sister and I leafed through it to find it, and, to make it worse…it's sung by "a sexy, female voice." Ah! Maybe I'll give it a chance soon before I completely discard it.

I just wanted to check in and let you all know about my sweet accomplishment, so I'll leave you all till next time!!

The Avid Reader