I made it through part one of Gravity's Rainbow! The book makes sense in fits and starts, especially if you glance randomly through the pages you've already read and start to connect events and characters that seemed totally unimportant the first time you read about them.
Basically, the story comes together through the idle-time dreamings and musings of a loosely connected group of British military officers and scientists linked to a bizarre research project that involves Pavlovian conditioning, dream analysis, seances, and a guy who can turn his skin any color at will. All but two of the project's directors have been killed. A Dr. Pointsman is one of the survivors, and he is grimly determined to win a Nobel prize before he, too, is wiped out (he believes the mysterious instruction manual used by the scientists - called simply The Book - is cursed).
While still insisting that the V-2 rocket attacks on Britain are random, the military has also noticed that their pattern corresponds perfectly with the colorful star-stickers placed on a map of London by U.S. Lt. Tyrone Slothrop (who gets an involuntary erection each time a rocket is launched). These stickers mark the places where Slothrop met/dated/encountered one of his various girlfriends.
Pointsman's deepest desire is to catch and study Slothrop, find out what makes him tick. To this end, he employs a giant octopus named Grigori and a former Dutch sex-slave named Katje.
Basically, the story comes together through the idle-time dreamings and musings of a loosely connected group of British military officers and scientists linked to a bizarre research project that involves Pavlovian conditioning, dream analysis, seances, and a guy who can turn his skin any color at will. All but two of the project's directors have been killed. A Dr. Pointsman is one of the survivors, and he is grimly determined to win a Nobel prize before he, too, is wiped out (he believes the mysterious instruction manual used by the scientists - called simply The Book - is cursed).
While still insisting that the V-2 rocket attacks on Britain are random, the military has also noticed that their pattern corresponds perfectly with the colorful star-stickers placed on a map of London by U.S. Lt. Tyrone Slothrop (who gets an involuntary erection each time a rocket is launched). These stickers mark the places where Slothrop met/dated/encountered one of his various girlfriends.
Pointsman's deepest desire is to catch and study Slothrop, find out what makes him tick. To this end, he employs a giant octopus named Grigori and a former Dutch sex-slave named Katje.
3 comments:
Interesting. I will have to check this one out.I have a lot of books that I need to check out.Maybe after I get done reading the books that Jeff bought me at Good will I have will have him take me to the Library and check out some of these books on his card for me. LOL.. yes I know I just said his card... LOL.. I cant use mine right now.
I'm getting to like it, but I can't say I'd recommend this book. It's bizarre, and extremely gross in parts.
Hey when you get a minute have yourself and Richard check out my latest post... I think you will both like it.You will have to enlarge the photo to get the hole picture but please do it when you have a minute.
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