Against the Day
A Novel
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Against the Day
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Narrated by:
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Dick Hill
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Written by:
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Thomas Pynchon
About this listen
"Spanning the period between the Chicago World's Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.
"With a worldwide disaster looming just a few years ahead, it is a time of unrestrained corporate greed, false religiosity, moronic fecklessness, and evil intent in high places. No reference to the present day is intended or should be inferred. The sizable cast of characters includes anarchists, balloonists, gamblers, corporate tycoons, drug enthusiasts, innocents and decadents, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, psychics, and stage magicians, spies, detectives, adventuresses, and hired guns. There are cameo appearances by Nikola Tesla, Bela Lugosi, and Groucho Marx.
"As an era of certainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it's their lives that pursue them.
"Meanwhile, the author is up to his usual business. Characters stop what they're doing to sing what are for the most part stupid songs. Strange sexual practices take place. Obscure languages are spoken, not always idiomatically. Contrary-to-the-fact occurrences occur. If it is not the world, it is what the world might be with a minor adjustment or two. According to some, this is one of the main purposes of fiction.
"Let the reader decide, let the reader beware. Good luck."
—Thomas Pynchon
What the critics say
"[Pynchon's] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel." (New York Times Book Review)
"Pynchon delivers a novel that matches his most influential work, Gravity's Rainbow...in complexity, humor, and insight, and surpasses it in emotional valence....A capacious, gritty, and tender epic." (Booklist)
What listeners say about Against the Day
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 2024-04-06
Narrator is brilliant!
What do I like? Well, it’s Pynchon defying the stupid current world. Snoring, farting, and rolling over. Imagination is endangered. Yet cunningly preserved in this fine filigreed novel.
🦬
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Elijah
- 2022-03-06
an incredible book read by an incredible narrator
i almost never leave reviews for audiobooks on here, but i felt compelled to this one time because of Dick Hill’s truly amazing reading of this masterpiece. he brings out its wit, its humour, its intelligence, and its humanity through his evidently committed performance, which is a wildly entertaining, deeply moving, thoroughly enjoyable experience
but is the book itself any good? well, i mean, it’s Pynchon. of course it’s good. and don’t be put off by its length; this ain’t Gravity’s Rainbow or Mason & Dixon or even Bleeding Edge. this is Pynchon at his most accessible (excepting Inherent Vice, of course). do not deprive yourself of this wonderful, whether you choose to read or listen to it
this is the best audiobook i’ve ever listened to
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Helen Davlouros
- 2023-03-12
What a fucking epic
is this hard SciFi? If it is, then congrats on making me feel more knowledgeable yet more confused. I need like 3 afternoons to think about this.
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2 people found this helpful