First Thoughts on Thomas Pynchon's "Bleeding Edge" (no spoilers)

I've just started reading Bleeding Edge, and let me tell you: It is the most New York City book ever.

An Ode to NYC

Rumor has it that Pynchon lives in Manhattan - and this book closes the case. In the first five chapters alone he has referenced Dr. Zizmor, given accurate subway routing via the 5 and C trains, and recollected the old sketchy Times Square in a way that evokes real memories, not just researched folklore.

Even for an author as famously encyclopedic as Pynchon, this is another level, a love song for the city he calls home. What's impressive is how he marries this close-to-the-heart subject with one that you'd assume a 75 year old reclusive author might struggle with: The internet. The main plot of the book focuses on tech entrepreneurs and regulators in the dot-com crash of the early 2000's.

Yet at every opportunity where Tom might stumble, he sticks the landing with hands high in the air. He drops bombs from hacker culture, in-context javascript commands that make sense, hell I'd half expect a blockchain reference to show up if only the book took place a decade later.

A Fun, Lighthearted Read With Depth

With all of this detail, you might expect a dry and difficult book. Yet the real beauty of Bleeding Edge is that it represents an author at his prime, far from being a weak rehash of old themes, this book is vibrant and fresh and new.

You could make a great argument that the author didn’t really hit his stride until Inherent Vice (2009), the book that may have dethroned G.R. as his magnum opus thanks in part to Paul Thomas Anderson’s adaptation for film.

Now, with Bleeding Edge, his knack for comedic dialogue and fast-paced narrative structure is as edgy as ever, but blended together in an even more comprehensible way. You can read this thing and understand it. It still feels like poetry, it’s nothing you can speed-read, but it doesn’t aim to confuse or provoke the reader so harshly as his earlier work did.

The Beauty of Thomas Pynchon’s Life

In a world where artists are expected to rip their hearts out and keel over dead by age 27, Pynchon proves it all to be a bunch of baloney. He doesn’t do interviews, he's not on social media - and he’s not fading away in his older decades, instead he’s honing his chops and getting even better at writing.

Micheal Dirda from The Washington Post sums it up: “It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best.”

Enough talk for now. If you need me, I’ll be reading.

PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS. I AM NOT DONE WITH THE BOOK. THANKS!!

With that said, any other Pynchon fans in the house?

——

_{p.s. Don't want to miss a post? Sign up for the weekly newsletter: https://mattsokol.us}