Pynchon and me

My relationship with Pynchon books has always been funny. I bought my first one in Barcelona, I was there on holidays with a friend and there was one of this street book fairs, it was 1992, Barcelona was just refurbished after the Olympics. I bought "V" because of the portrait caught my eye, it took me a good few years to read it. I did start it several times but I never seemed to pass from page 100, then suddenly, a few years later I read it twice in nearly a week.

"There is more behind and inside V. than any of us had suspected. Not who, but what: what is she. God grant that I may never be called upon to write the answer, either here or in any official report." (Thomas Pynchon, V)

My second Pynchon was "Gravity Rainbow", I bought the two volumes for 100 pesetas in Valladolid, from a store shop that was being closed (Galerias Preciados 1995). It also took me a couple of years to read it.

"But it is a curve each of them feels, unmistakably. It is the parabola. They must have guessed, once or twice — guessed and refused to believe — that everything, always, collectively, had been moving toward that purified shape latent in the sky, that shape of no surprise, no second chance, no return. Yet they do move forever under it, reserved for its own black-and-white bad news certainly as if it were the rainbow, and they its children." (Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity Rainbow")

The next one I bought, I have not started it yet, was "Slow Learner", I was in La Crosse, WI visiting a friend and she showed me this second hand library, I got an almost new copy of the book for 25 cents. This was 1996. Early in 2000 I was preparing to move to Ireland, I bought "Mason and Dixon" almost fresh from the print, I though that a such thick book would keep me busy during the rainy Dublin evenings. I started this book several times, but it was not until this year (now living in Germany) that I have really got into reading it. I have already read 700 of its nearly 1000 pages, and I was waiting to finish the book before writing this post, but...

"It is usually not wise to discuss matters of costume with people like this, — politics or religion being far safer topics." (Thomas Pynchon, "Mason & Dixon")

There is another Pynchon in my bag, "Vineland" I bought it in Dallas in 2007 and managed to read it nearly the very same year I bought it. Quite atypical from me.

"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" (Thomas Pynchon, "Vineland")

Charles Bukowski

For some reason every time I've read a book from Bukowski I had the feeling of being in a dark bar of LA having a beer with an old fellow speaking with the voice of Tom Waits *. The smoke of the cigarettes and vapors of the spirits melting with the smell of sweat of the few people left. The barman already closed the bar and listens, once more, to the story that Charles is telling tonight. He has heard it several times, in any of its variations; horses, drunken men, women... No one in the bar will dare to look at Charles' face and ask if what is telling happened or it is just his imagination, because whether it happened or not it not important. The fact that Charles is telling the story again is what really counts.

* I have never heard an interview with Bukowski, but my brain makes this association of Bukowski and Waits.