Kempton Mooney Less Profundity, More Secundity

Vonnegut story trajectories

DFW-Based Reading Flowchart

For you David Foster Wallace fans out there:

Review of Ian McEwan’s On Chisel Beach

(Contains spoilers)
On Chisel Beach is Ian McEwan’s novella about a couple’s wedding night. While there are flashbacks to the couple’s life before they met and their earlier relationship, the majority of the novel takes place in the space of a few hours in and around their hotel room. McEwan uses this delicate moment, the one [...]

Review of The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes is a slim novel of memory, mis-memory, and self-perception.

Gravity’s Rainbow Part Four: The End

A summary of the fourth and last part of Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow.

The rest of Part Three of Gravity’s Rainbow

Where was I? Oh, yes, to Margherita, other children look like Bianca. Margherita is also Greta, and has played the role of Gretel. Captain Blicero moves through his own space. Greta once heard talk about “F-Gerat.” There is a seance with curtains of Imoplex G, the fabric of the future.
Slothrop falls off the boat [...]

How to support authors

These days we all know authors and want to support them, but sometimes we don’t know what to do. When someone is in a band, you go to one of their shows, you buy a drink at the bar and if it is really painful, you may leave early. For authors, sometimes there are readings [...]

Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow Part of Part Three

Part Three of Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow is a bit long, so here are the first fifteen or so sections. Things get a little confusing for a while, but still there is an atmosphere of a comical espionage story.
Slothrop is now in the Zone, home of the rockets. Enzian is introduced as the head of Schwarzkommando [...]

Aldus Huxley writing to George Orwell about 1984

Wrightwood. California. 21 October, 1949
Dear Mr. Orwell,
It was very kind of you to tell your publishers to send me a copy of your book.
It arrived as I was in the midst of a piece of work that required much reading and consulting of references; and since poor sight makes it necessary for me to ration [...]

Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow – Part Two Summary

Part two of Gravity’s Rainbow feels more light-hearted. The reader leaves bombed out London for France, and the story feels a bit more straightforward.