I’ll start, so as a teen I stumbled across a book called," Someone comes to town, someone leaves town." The synopsis caught me as it’s about a man with a mountain as a fathera washing machine as a mother and one brother that is dead and trying to harm him. I’ll admit some of the technical terms were too much for my developing mind but it has stuck with me all these years.

What is the wackiest / craziest book you’ve read and did you enjoy the ride?

  • bsteckler@alien.topBEnglish
    0·
    10 months ago

    Gravity’s Rainbow. It’s got everything from war to BDSM to explicit coprophilia.

    • tim_to_tourach@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Not to mention a talking dog, an octopus conditioned to murder someone, and a guy who deals in black market chocolate cream pies.

    • Bloodysamflint@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      I feel like it’s a novel as described by Stefon from SNL. This novel has everything! V2 rockets, sexual conditioning of children, even an incestuous relationship where the father thinks it’s his daughter, but maybe not…

    • Passname357@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      Things in Gravity’s Rainbow

      • A central character is an immortal light bulb
      • A pie fight between a hot air balloon and an airplane
      • The main character keeps a map of London with stars over the places he’s recently had sex. This map just so happens to perfectly match a map of where V2 rockets have dropped. The strange thing is that he has sex before the rockets fall. No one, including him, can figure out why this is happening
      • A mysterious rocket with serial number 00000, and the search for it (which is the central plot of the novel)
      • A history of the extinction of the Dodo bird by colonizers
      • The main character is shot out of a cannon while wearing a pig costume
      • Later, people are looking for the main character and plan on castrating him. Another character has stolen and is wearing the pig costume.
    • Puru11@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      This is the one book I’ve picked up numerous times and continue to struggle through. I don’t have the mental focus for it lately an I really badly want to read it.

    • realhorrorsh0w@alien.topBEnglish
      1·
      10 months ago

      My friend in college always named this as the most difficult book he’s ever read. Every time I think about reading it, I look at the synopsis and conclude that I don’t have the mental energy right now.

    • SierraDL123@alien.topBEnglish
      0·
      10 months ago

      My coworker is reading this book and ever since he’s brought it in, I’ve seen it mentioned at least 15 times in this sub! Its crazy how things like that time out

        • SierraDL123@alien.topBEnglish
          1·
          10 months ago

          Update: upon telling him about this phenomenon & how often the book pops up on this subreddit, it’s not our answer for everything. What are you having for dinner tonight? Gravity’s Rainbow. What book do you hate? Gravity’s Rainbow. Best book in the world? You guessed, Rainbow. Thing you want to be when you grow up? You get it

      • ksarlathotep@alien.topBEnglish
        0·
        10 months ago

        I’ve been working on it for more than 6 months. I read one chapter, read it again, then give up on the book for 3 weeks. Then I come back to it and read another chapter. It’s a hell of a difficult read.

        • KieselguhrKid13@alien.topBEnglish
          0·
          10 months ago

          It really is, but it’s completely worth the journey! Come on over to r/ThomasPynchon if you have any questions! The Weisenburger companion is a great help, as are the posts from the group read we did a while back on that sub. But don’t try too hard to understand it the first time - if you get 10% of it, you’re doing great.

          • ksarlathotep@alien.topBEnglish
            1·
            10 months ago

            I think I’m understanding a fair bit of it (certainly not everything!), since I usually read a chapter once, look through the various online resources (Pynchonwiki etc.), then read it again, or reread most of it. So it’s not that I can’t make head or tails of it, it’s just… it’s such a strenuous process. It’s intellectually stimulating for sure, but it’s hard to find what I would consider a typical sense of enjoyment in it. It’s more like slowly grinding away at a difficult and monumental task. But maybe I’ll get to a point where it “grips” me and I’ll start reading it purely for enjoyment.

            • Bloodysamflint@alien.topBEnglish
              1·
              10 months ago

              Getting to a point you’re reading it purely for enjoyment? That’s not going to happen. Being glad it’s finished, like digging out an ingrown toenail? Yes, you’ll get there.