Reading 1001 discussion

A fantasy-esque super fictionalised account of Mason and Dixon’s famous surveying and astronomical travels. The book is told through 78 somewhat disjointed episodes and from the perspective of Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke who claims to have accompanied them. Given that the framing device is the reverend storytelling to his family, the ridiculousness and invention involved fits, but like many of Pynchon’s books, I did feel the book got a little overly busy and ridiculous with its exploits.

The wide array of locations involved (colonial US and Canada, St. Helena, Europe, South Africa etc), and variety of hijinks/conflicts (romance subplots, stealing bathtubs, a Chinese cult, conflicts between settlers and indigenous people) made for an interesting read at times. But, something about the book exhausted me a little bit early on: maybe as mentioned above it’s the amount of nonsense that happens all shoved in immediately and the episodes just keep happening for over 700 pages in the same manner.

Overall, I gave this one 3 stars.

Rating: 3.5 stars


A historical novel with fantasy elements about the establishment of the Mason-Dixon line between Maryland and Pennsylvania. I think Pynchon is a great writer, but this was too long and too busy for me.

This is a fictionalised account of the professional lives of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon who measured the line that divides Pennsylvania from its southern neighbours and Delaware from Maryland. They were two Englishmen without much in common. Mason came from Gloucestershire and Dixon was a miner's son from County Durham. The interplay between the two of them, their deepening relationship which remained masked behind jokes and familiar insults, was the one thing that redeemed the book for me.

I didn't mind the archaic language (although I found so many capital letters tended to make my eyes slide over the page) but the framing story of the Reverend Cherrycoke seemed completely pointless. It may have been intended to distance the story of Mason and Dixon (because Cherrycoke was not present for many of the events he described) but I found that unconvincing because Cherrycoke himself seemed so unreal.

I had high hopes for this book after seeing reviews, but I struggled to connect with it, and I was very disappointed. 3 stars only because of the way the relationship between Mason and Dixon deepened in the second half of the book.

Read May 2024

What a book! I will admit, between ¼ and 1/3 of the way through I was finding Mason and Dixon’s time back in England tedious and just wanted them to get to America. Once I got to Part 2: America I enjoyed it again. Really though, I suspect any quibbles I may have with the book should be put down to reader error.

This is a work of genius. It is (obviously) minutely researched, a work of superior imagination, potentially slightly crazy and so beautifully written. It is also humorous and very poignant. In a novel of this length there are many ideas, passages, occurrences that could be discussed at length.

I will just note two things that really struck me as I was reading it. Right from the beginning (when they are in South Africa) we are introduced to their abhorrence to slavery. This is a subtle, but overarching theme in the book. Secondly, the way Pynchon developed the relationship between Mason and Dixon was very believable – at first they are thrown together and don’t really like each other, until over the course of many years they actually are friends.

By the time I got to the end, I didn’t want it to finish. I didn’t want to leave Pynchon’s writing. 4.5*

2.5 stars for me

I read part one and then switched to audiobook for the rest. I listened to narrator Steven Crossley and he was very good. I did enjoy listening to the book.

Thomas Pynchon is a post-modernist American novelist and I am beginning to think I don’t like post modernist writing. He is described as “detailed, humorous, and complex, full of clear action, dialogue and smooth prose.” Pynchon is definitely detailed as evidenced by his book being 773 pages. I did not find him humorous. I would not define his writing as “smooth prose” for me it was frustrating with all the mid-sentence capitalization. I was really looking forward to this book as I enjoy historical fiction but this style of writing just did not do it for me. I was inspired to learn more about Mason and Dixon so I did look up information about the two as I was reading. I struggled to connect with this story what so ever. This is my first Pynchon and I think it is going to be my last.

Pynchon is certainly a masterful writer who can pull in references to any phenomenon and tie it lightly into his chronology. I felt as if I was with him in deciphering a thousand strands of history that spin out from story of Mason and Dixon marking a boundary between Lord Baltimore and William Penn's land claims. The story is about lines and distinctions and themes both archaic and modern. Pynchon's word play is unparalleled and often a laugh out loud delight.
I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Mason and Dixon, their fighting, their wit used against each other and others, the fact that they came to understand something about each other that eventually made them "mates".
However, one does wonder why Pynchon felt the need to include as much as he did, to assign some very tangental tales some primary real estate within the book, to not go back and edit for impact. I suspect that I missed huge amounts of the book by virtue of it going over my head, between the lines or under my feet and therefore have no right to suggest Pynchon edit his book down. However, this one reader felt it was a bit much, and yet I am, like Valerie, already missing the book.

I agree with Diane: This was my first Pynchon, and it will hopefully be my last. This book was my daily homework for 78+ days, and I couldn't wait for it to be over. I went back and forth between the audiobook and the book, and sometimes read along with the audiobook, and sometimes listened to a chapter and then read it and vice versa. Perhaps I took it too seriously, trying to understand all of the historical references and the significance of the (many) tangents. I suspect that Pynchon writes for his own pleasure and could care less what the reader understands or enjoys. He may have had fun writing it, but I did not have fun reading it. Giving it 2 stars because I learned a lot in my side research.

⭐ ⭐

Rollicking and slightly manic account of Mason & Dixon’s gruelling labour to mark the boundary lines of territories in the US. It is a kind of historical fiction, but mixes in politics, philosophy, cultural references, and snatches of rhyme and doggerel, There are narratives within narratives, storylines that overlap and merge, and lots of wordplay and puns (and a fair amount of rather childish innuendo).

I loved the relationship between Mason & Dixon, their bickering and moments of friendship, and the way it encompassed all kinds of contrasts - physical, religious, social and philosophical. The language and style is not always easy to follow, at times it was bewildering, but it kept me interested to see what happened to the main characters.

This is my second Pynchon and I’m not sure I’m completely on his wavelength, but on the whole I enjoyed this and admire its originality and creativity.

Reason Read: quarterly read for Reading 1001, April/May/June. This is a book that should be read slowly, perhaps studied and maybe even in a coffee house. Mason & Dixon of course is the story of Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon who are sent to America to draw the boundary line between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Charles Mason is an English/American astronomer and the straight man, while Jeremiah Dixon, and Englishman surveyor and astronomer, as well as Quaker is the comic hero. As we learn about the two men through the story as told by rev Cherrycoke we become aware of the intimacies and the tensions. As the men aged I became more empathetic with them. Pynchon created great characters. The story is also full of word play and humor. It is written in 18th century Syntex which grounds the novel in time and place. Did I catch all the nuances, word plays, humor? No I did not. Would I recommend this book, yes but with warnings that it is not an easy read. I am fully convinced that Thomas Pyhchon is a brilliant author.

Quotes:
pg 683, "a cycle belonging to some Engine whose higher Assembly and indeed purpose they never, except from infrequent glimases, quite make out.
Pg 352, "To understand History, Ives Says, "you look at the evidence, the testimony, Teh whole truth".
Cherrycoke sees history as "a great tangled of lines, long and short, weak and strong, vanishing into the mnemonic deep."
"as above, so below." key statement repeated several times s and I think it is found in his other books (Against the Day and others?).
Theme is the Human Condition.

This book took up far too much time for meagre rewards. I feel that Pynchon is trying to be too clever and has little consideration for his reader. I actually listened to an Audible version, read by Steven Crossley, who did a good job with a wide variety of accents. But the book was tedious, convoluted and difficult to follow. I resorted to reading a synopsis of each episode to remember what it had been about, and when I had finished I read a couple of annotations to try to pick up the humour that is often mentioned. What humour I detected was too ponderous for much enjoyment. It was my second Pynchon. I am not in a hurry to read Gravity’s Rainbow. I appreciate that the number of annotations mean that it is appreciated by many, and so I give it a begrudging three stars.

*** 1/2

Another book that I am reviewing months after I finished it...

- For starters, it's Pynchon and his quirks. Yes, there is humour which can sometimes be too subtle. In this book, I love the situations and scenes while the protagonists were in Cape Town, being preyed on by the sexually hungry Dutch women; I also loved the encounters with other historical characters in facets that I never would have imagined. Yet, a lot of that humour either fell flat or disappeared completely in the second half of the book. Sometimes it felt like one of the never-ending, perpetually long and stretched jokes you see on Family Guy.
- Another potential obstacle in this novel is the language, which was in the late 18th century style. I got used to it, but I can understand that other readers might find it a bit tedious.
- Finally, I am not convinced that wrapping the story in Rev. Cherrycoke's narrative actually adds much to the novel.