Review: Slow Learner
Editorial Review - Kirkus ReviewsFive stories, dating from 1959 through 1964, four of them written while Pynchon (Gravity's Rainbow) was still in college--plus an introduction that's fetchingly modest about this gathering of juvenilia. ("". . . My best hope is that, pretentious, goofy and ill-considered as they get now and then, these stories will still be of use to somebody, someplace, with all their flaws intact, as illustrative of typical problems in entry-level fiction, and cautionary about some practices which younger writers might prefer to avoid."") ""The Small Rain""--about an Army detail cleaning up after a deadly Louisiana hurricane--introduces a highly hip, literary, and ironic main character who, in different guises, will show up in all the other stories as well. ""LowLands"" introduces Pynchon's yet-to-be-developed interest in the poetries of physics, as does ""Entropy."" ""Under the Rose""--Egypt, 1890s, colonial and baroque--is abrim with rather pointless erudition (siphoned, Pynchon confesses in the introduction, from an old Baedeker guide). And ""A Secret Integration"" offers some whiz-kids involved in cultural subversion in the cause of liberal values; while there's one credible, three-dimensional character here (an alcoholic jazz musician), this piece also bites off a bit more than it can chew. Both stories, though, do point the way to the novelist Pynchon was to become--with foreshadowings of his problematic encyclopedic qualities. And, throughout, there's the nascent sense of Pynchonesque display: alert intelligence, quite in-the-know and savvy, easy for a reader to admire--but not quite participate in or feel with. Intriguing material for Pynchon fans and critics.
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - Barry Cunningham - GoodreadsAn infuriating book in some ways. A collection of early, mostly not-so-good short stories, as Pynchon makes clear in his Introduction. A Small Rain just kind of lies there. I found it hard to give a ... Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - David - Goodreads-given this the same rating as vineland but vineland is far superior - considering pynchon had 30 years to improve his writing. this is nonetheless a good collection of short stories - im of the ... Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - TrumanCoyote - GoodreadsOnly actually good story the last one ("Secret Integration"). I actually got this because I wanted to see if I got Pynchon early enough whether I could understand him. Have decided it really doesn't ... Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - Amy - GoodreadsThe best part about this collection was seeing Pynchon's writing develop over time. The only story that I really enjoyed was The last one, The Secret Integration. The others were interesting, and they had their moments, but were too awkward to get fully immersed in. Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - Thomson Kneeland - GoodreadsContinuing my plan this year of delving into modern writers I haven't explored yet, this was my first foray into Pynchon's writing, though I didn't expect much from short stories written early in his ... Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - John - GoodreadsThis collection is good for completists but I could have lived with just "Entropy" and "The Secret Integration" (but I did love "Entropy"). Also pretty sure "Under The Rose" is almost entirely contained in "V". Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - William Owen - GoodreadsPynchon in short form is a truly wondrous thing - all the density of idea and thought and character and action with none of the wrist strain or psychological lassitude inflicted by a thick span of pages left. Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - Martin - GoodreadsEarly work by one of the greats, whose later established books I've enjoyed. What did I think? Well-written, more clear and concise than his novels. But also sophmoric, experimental. Soldiers play a ... Read full review
Review: Slow Learner: Early Stories
User Review - GoodreadsThomas Pynchon's short story "Entropy" is what kick started my interest in modern (well, post-modern) literature and it's a little odd to see it again, not quite as good as I remembered it (though ...
