currently reading: V

I am thoroughly enjoying V by Thomas Pynchon so far.

The novel is roughly divided between the listless drifting of post WWII New York City, the byzantine European intrigues of pre-WWI Florence and the surreal horrors late 19th Century/early 20th Century German colonial Africa.  As well as being a fascinating read in its own right it presages the event’s of the wonderful Gravity’s Rainbow via certain characters and events, such as the extermination of the Herero tribe by the Germans and the character of Kurt Mondaugen.

Many of the themes are typically Pynchon-esque, such as the theory of dentists as the natural replacement for psychiatrists and the notion of a plastic surgeon who regards surgery as a means of revealing the authentic nature of his patients rather than hiding it.  At its heart is the quest for the unknown (and perhaps unknowable) ‘V’ – a city, a woman, or something else.