The crying of lot 49

by Thomas Pynchon

Hardcover, 183 pages

English language

Published Nov. 8, 1986 by Perennial Library.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-091307-6
OCLC Number:: 77535732

(99 reviews)

The Crying of Lot 49 is a novel written by American author Thomas Pynchon and published in 1966. The shortest of Pynchon's novels, the plot follows Oedipa Maas, a young Californian woman, who begins to embrace a conspiracy theory as she possibly unearths a centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies; one of these companies, Thurn and Taxis, actually existed (1806–1867) and was the first private firm to distribute postal mail. Like most of Pynchon's output, Lot 49 is often described as postmodernist literature. Time included the novel in its "TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005".

19 editions

V171 reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Goodreads Review of The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

3 stars

This was a re-read for me, figured I'd read it on a train to New York, finished it on the way back. I definitely enjoyed it more than I did the first time around, I think because I was way young when I first read it and didn't understand it's place in the literary canon, or what it was trying to do. But with that being said, I still didn't know what the hell was going on or what I was supposed to take away from it. It is just as dense and inaccessible as I remember, but there were several moments that made me laugh during this read because I caught a reference I know I didn't catch before. I probably won't re-read it again knowing my feelings still stand despite being older, but it was fun.

aura@books.theunseen.city reviewed Vente à la criée du lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

C'est fou

4 stars

Premier contact avec Pynchon suite aux recommandation d'une amie. Et oh boy, what a ride.

Le début, c'est Oedipa, une femme avec sa vie, ses problèmes, son mari hypersensible et son psychiatre avec un drôle d'accent allemand qui se retrouve exécutrice testamentaire pour un milliardaire qu'elle a connu autrefois. Mais ce n'est qu'un prétexte, car très vite Oedipa va se retrouvée plongée dans un mystère.

Je ne divulgâcherai pas, et quand bien même je le ferai ça n'aurait pas grand sens. Rien n'est clair ni clairement expliqué dans le récit. Oedipa court après des symboles, des bouts de sens qui sont cachées dans des recoins de bars et des boîtes postales sous des bretelles d'autoroute. Oedipa rencontre des personnages un peu foutraques (qui sont à peu près tous horny pour elle, c'est un peu gênant et ça m'a un peu sorti du texte). Chaque graine de sens qu'elle obtient s'accompagne …

Premier contact avec Pynchon suite aux recommandation d'une amie. Et oh boy, what a ride.

Franchement, je ne sais pas dire ce qui est important dans ce livre, ni ce qui a fait qu'il a si bien marché pour moi. C'est peut-être la texture du réel qui se ressent à chaque mot, chaque phrase. Peut-être le délire d'Oedipa à la fin du texte qui m'a rappelé très fort une Mrs. Dalloway qui serait sous LSD roulant à 200kmh sur des autoroutes californiennes. Que chaque personnage est un peu décalé avec le "réel", mais que je me suis rendu compte en écrivant ça que ces personnages n'étaient pas moins des parties du monde que d'autres, et que ce "réel" et ce "banal" qu'on aime à penser n'est qu'un très fin voile qui cache une réalité beaucoup plus intense.

J'aime bieng

frenchcookie47 reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Tl:Dr - Gonna be honest, I still not super clear about what this book was about

4 stars

Tl:Dr - Gonna be honest, I still not super clear about what this book was about and I think I need to read it again to really get it. Maybe this time with the Wikipedia page open. But the writing was great and very smooth and the wit that I was able to keep up with delicious!

Darius Kazemi reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

One of my favorite books

5 stars

This book is the best introduction to Pynchon because it is so short. If you read and don't love it, do not bother with his longer works. If it leaves you wanting more more more... well, time to crack open Gravity's Rainbow.

Jon Nixon reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Review of 'The Crying of Lot 49' on 'Storygraph'

3 stars

The back cover says “comic talent” and “wild humour” but I didn’t get it. There was one hilarious seduction scene early on and the characters are quite amusing but I found the most of it rather dull.

The writing reminded me of the Ipcress File which I read earlier in the year and they were published 4 years apart n the 1960s so this post modern splurge of multi page paragraphs was obviously the thing back then. Now it reads like a NANOWRIMO project someone would churn out in one month.

The worst parts are the endless information dumps about the Courier’s Tragedy. I only finished it because it was mercifully short and I don’t think I’ll be trying any more Pynchon.

decadent_and_depraved reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It's very easy to sink your teeth into this book because Pynchon's writing style is so gripping. As for the story, it is all over the place, and I sort of dig that, but, at the same time, leaves you feeling empty.

Zelanator reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This book required some processing after I finished it. I’m not sure I really enjoyed it, but I do not now have the same viscerally negative reaction I had at first. I am also not a fan of post-modernism, so I suppose reading early postmodern fiction (at least, I suppose that is how this is categorized as Pynchon’s later works are definitely postmodern) is not always the route to take.

There’s no plot here by design. The assemblage of chapters run in a linear chronological progression, but the reader is never certain about what exactly Oedipa (the protagonist) is truly up to. Ostensibly, she is the co-executor of the will belonging to her deceased ex-lover. Yet, when she arrives in a suburb of Los Angeles to begin understanding how to execute the will she is led down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories that surround a subversive organization known by its acronym W.A.S.T.E. Her pursuit of knowledge about this organization takes her through a psychedelic progression of nonsensical events.

By the end of the book, one is left wondering this was simply an LSD trip as experienced by the protagonist. There are several references to psilocybin and LSD and Pynchon wrote this work around the time that LSD/psilocybin use became popular study substances among academics and the government. This was also published around the transition to psychedelic rock in the United States and the rise of “acid parties.”

Perhaps not as bad as I thought at first, but still a book I wouldn’t recommend.

2.5

jonathan.brodsky reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'GoodReads'

5 stars

I seem to recall enjoying vineland more, but this was still amazing.

Fionnáin reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'GoodReads'

4 stars

A twisting tale that gets to the heart of conspiracy and plot in the American underground. Moments of brilliance and a jumpy, choppy style that is both funny and at times really engrossing.

WorzelFG reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Wonderful. I was wary of Pynchon for a long time. A reputation for denseness or difficulty, obscurity, but this was like a burst of light. OK, I couldn't say what the story was about in every detail, but it enjoyable in it's self and also for the gap it filled in my literary education.
Drugged up, psychotic conspiracy theories have never been written so well.

nekokat reviewed The Crying of Lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon

Review of 'The Crying of Lot 49' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Okay, so. Updating review. This is not an easy book, and it is in some sense a puzzle or code. I had to read it twice, and think about it a lot, before it kind of made sense.

It's sort of a parable about entropy in communication, and is thus, itself, an imperfect narrative: corrupted, distorted, subverted, unreliable. The reader's frustrations in attempting to decode the story echo the quest of Oedipa herself.

Other themes: lost and alternate histories (reminiscent of Tigana or Borges), humans as patterns of information which are irrevocably lost after death, secret/alternate methods of communication adopted by those who cannot (or choose not to) communicate in the ordinary way.

The book encodes itself. We are told we will not, cannot remember the revelation.

Just as in Hamlet, the play within the story echoes the structure of the whole.

"You came to talk about the play," he …

"You came to talk about the play," he said. "Let me discourage you. It was written to entertain people. Like horror movies. It isn't literature, it doesn't mean anything."

"Certain things, it is made clear, will not be spoken aloud; certain events will not be shown onstage; though it is difficult to imagine, given the excesses of the preceding acts, what these things could possibly be. The Duke does not, perhaps may not, enlighten us."

AliCorbin reviewed The crying of lot 49 by Thomas Pynchon (Perennial fiction library)

Review of 'The crying of lot 49' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Very 60's - almost incomprehensible - and filled with paranoia and conspiracies that might be real, or a figment of Oedipea's imagination, or a huge practical joke.