Review of the Day: Against the Day by Thomas Pynchon
In some ways Pynchon’s epic sprawling novel resembles a Donald Trump rally speech with multiple plots. Trump has said, “I do the weave. You know what the weave is? I'll talk about, like, nine different things and they all come back brilliantly together.” I will not comment on whether or not things come back together brilliantly. There are probably more than 100 characters in the book, and as is a Pynchon trademark, the names are worth noting. The characters include: The Chums of Chance: Darby Suckling, Lindsay Crouch, Miles Blundell, Chick Counterpane, and a dog named Pugnax. The villains: Scarsdale Vibe, Foley Walker, Deuce Kindred, and Sloat Varnish. Some intellectuals and mystics: Cyprian Latewood, Yashmeen Halfcourt, and Professor Werfner. And the minor characters: The Inconvenience (an airship), Dally Rideout, Lew Basnight, Tatzel and Luca Zombini. And there are many quotable lines: Every map of the city is a map of a different city, and every memory of the...
