http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9780060931674-4 - After thinking of picking up Pynchon's Mason & Dixon for many years, I decided I'd rather introduce myself to his writing with something significantly shorter (160 pages vs. 784 pages). But, perhaps this man's alleged genius is not meant for pithy tales, because I just could not get into this book. The basic premise is interesting to me: the main character, Oedipa, has been made the executor of a will - as she untangles the dead man's assets, she uncovers a centuries old rivalry between competing mail companies (and you thought the US Postal Service was a monopoly!). Conspiracy abounds as Oedipa encounters characters with names such as Dr. Hilarius, Genghis Cohen, and Mike Fallopian. There is Shakespearean play-within-a-play that occurs - and over all, I think there was just too much going on. This is one of those books I would have loved to read in college - and then sit back and allow the professor to tell me what it all meant. But, on my own, I didn't quite have the patience (or the intellect) to work it all out. In a different time and a different place, however, I think I could have loved it.
(* - listed in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die)
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