New Essays on The Crying of Lot 49

The American Novel

by Patrick O'Donnell (Editor)

The Crying of Lot 49 is widely recognized as a significant contemporary work that frames the desire for meaning and the quest for knowledge within the social and political contexts of the '50s and '60s in America. In the introduction to this collection of original essays on Thomas Pynchon's important novel, Patrick O'Donnell discusses the background and critical reception of the novel. Further essays by five experts on contemporary literature examine the novel's "semiotic regime" or the way in which it organizes signs; the comparison of postmodernist Pynchon and the influential South American writer, Jorge Luis Borges; metaphor in the novel; the novel's narrative strategies; and the novel within the cultural contexts of American Puritanism and the Beat movement. Together, these essays provide an examination of the novel within its literary, historical, and scientific contexts.

188 pages, Hardcover

First published January 31, 1992

About the author

Patrick O’Donnell is the product of two young Irish immigrants. He was born and spent his early childhood in the great city of Chicago.
He lives with his wife, kids, and 3 dogs. O’Donnell has published self-help books under different pen names and made Amazon’s “Best Sellers List.” Hobbies include physical fitness, travel, riding motorcycles, and shenanigans.

Reviews

[Tom Quinn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pure professorial puffery and academic navel-gazing. I loved it. 3 stars.

[Renton Walter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to read after the book to prepare for a re-read. the first essay was the weakest with the next four being great. The first essay however did introduce me to Borges.

[Tom G · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first three essays are barely-permeable walls of academic jargon—God bless the poor souls who truly see the universe through these opaque lenses. The fourth essay, "A Metaphor of God Knew How Many Parts: The Engine That Drives The Crying Of Lot 49" by N. Katherine Hayles, is unquestionably academic but far more lucid than the previous three, and actually provides a compelling argument for an underlying structure, one that I think probably comes pretty close to what Pynchon was getting at. The final essay by Pierre-Yves Petillon is the most fun. His tone is much more conversational and slangy than the others, the content more concerned with context, culture, and comparison to other literature than the lofty philosophical and theoretical concepts of the previous essays.
Overall, this is probably worth checking out for the introduction and the final two pieces, but I'd skip #1-3 unless you're already deeply ensconced in the world of critical theory.

[Luke Dylan Ramsey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Check out the Pynchon centered podcast I cohost, Mapping the Zone. We just finished Lot 49 and are moving on to Mason & Dixon next.

I really loved this book. It was always relevant and accurate and interesting, unlike some other Pynchon scholarship I have come across.

[Jesse · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great collection of essays. The highlight was when Pierre-Yves Petillon connected the Tristero underground to the anarchists in Henry James’s novel The Princess Casamassima. Of course, Pynchon later depicts the dog Pugnax reading this novel at the beginning of Against the Day….