Product Description

Adding some 20 percent to the original content, this is a completely updated edition of the indispensable guide to Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow". Steven Weisenburger takes the reader page by page, often line by line, through the welter of historical references, scientific data, cultural fragments, anthropological research, jokes, and puns around which Pynchon wove his story. Weisenburger fully annotates Pynchon's use of languages ranging from Russian and Hebrew to such subdialects of English as 1940s street talk, drug lingo, and military slang as well as the more obscure terminology of black magic, Rosicrucianism, and Pavlovian psychology. The Companion also reveals the underlying organization of "Gravity's Rainbow" - how the book's myriad references form patterns of meaning and structure that have eluded both admirers and critics of the novel. The Companion is keyed to the pages of the principal American editions of "Gravity's Rainbow": Viking/Penguin (1973), Bantam (1974), and the special, repaginated Penguin paperback (2000) honoring the novel as one of twenty "Great Books of the Twentieth Century."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #157308 in Books
• Published on: 2006-11-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 440 pages

About the Author
Steven C. Weisenburger is Mossiker Chair in Humanities and Chair of the English Department at Southern Methodist University. His books include Fables of Subversion (Georgia) and Modern Medea.

Customer Reviews

Read the novel first - then this one
I agree with all the above. However, to avoid the disappointment of finding out how it ends, I suggest reading the novel right through first and using this companion piece for a more leisurely second read. You should soak up the (often seemingly incomprehensible) poetry and enjoy the sheer pleasure of the language before starting the deconstruction - just like other 'difficult' greats (Wasteland, Ulysses etc..). Agree that an annotated version would be brilliant. Surely someone out there fancies a go at it ?

Revealing and helpful, but at a price....
Enormous fun, very helpful for bringing Pynchon down where we mortals can begin to digest, but I had to set it aside; Wesenberg drops too many subtle and not so subtle hints about events, characters, and places that have yet to be introduced. (viz. I'm on p. 136 of the novel and I already have a pretty clear idea not only of many future events, but of how the book concludes.)

Read GR many times before even thinking of looking at this
Gravity's Rainbow is a novel, a work of the imagination to be read and enjoyed. So read it and enjoy it. After you've done this several times you MIGHT want to take a look at this, to find out exactly what all the crazy references are to - but then, does it really matter? Do you really NEED to know which cartoon character he's refering to, or which film etc? No, of course you don't, unless you are the sad obsessive that GR unfortunately seems to attract. I've read GR several times, and it's probably my favourite book, and I don't care that I don't know the exact details of every last reference and frankly I think that only a real nutter would. So I give the Companion 5 stars for research but wouldn't bother reading it unless you are a GR twitcher.