The Crying of Lot 49

Read from Sunday, November 6th to Tuesday, November 8th.

The Crying of Lot 49, by Thomas Pynchon.  My first novel by Pynchon, it was discussed heavily in How to Read Literature like a Professor.  It is a very original satire written in the mid-60's.  The main character, Oedipa Maas, is tapped to be the executor of her old boyfriend's massive California estate.  She leaves her DJ husband, Mucho, to spend time on the estate and figure out what this guy, Pierce Inverarity, owned and all his real estate holdings as well.  However, for Oedipa it is a descent into near madness as she is thrust into a giant, world-wide conspiracy, or so she believes.  Tristero is an old postal service that operated in Europe in the middle ages, and it was opposed by Thurn and Taxis.  Tristero was crushed in the 18th century, but now Oedipa begins seeing all sorts of references to the organization throughout the estate and town of this man.  She is led to believe that Tristero is still conducting an underground mailing operation, using secret symbols and the acronym W.A.S.T.E.

Oedipa cannot seem to find any sort of hard facts on the organization, but she tries to hunt down information.  She meets many interesting characters, like scientists working on perpetual motion, a Beatles-like band of emo hippies, a lawyer she has an affair with, her psychiatrist (and ex-Nazi) who prescribes LSD, and a professor at a college.  However, people start disappearing mysteriously as Oedipa discovers more and more references.  Oedipa does not have any solid evidence, and she is constantly doubting whether or not she is just hallucinating everything, but every time she doubts herself, something new happens.  The term 'crying of lot 49' refers to the auctioning of a stamp collection held by Pierce, which may or not contain Tristero stamps.

It is a wonderful novel of conspiracy theories and a hidden side of history of the Old West and Europe.  It is a quick read, and I read most of it one sunny afternoon lying on the grass in Meridian Hill Park.  Thinking of using some of the conspiracy theories and strange symbols in my own work, since it is very light-hearted and upbeat.  I will have to check out more Pynchon as well; Gravity's Rainbow is still sitting on my shelf.   Four out of five stars.