Gravity's Rainbow, by Thomas Pynchon, is a masterpiece of 20th-Century writing, one of the greatest American novels. It is Joycean (the highest complement, to me) in its complexity and richness.
I recorded myself reading one of my favourite passages, the Banana Breakfast scene very early in the book. I love the voices, the truth to detail, the richness of language, the complexity of reference and allusion. I find it very beautiful writing. I also love the way it takes me back to the London I remember so well, a London long gone, the London of the War, when anonymous random destruction rained down on the teashops, gardens, parks, brick walls--and on neighbours and friends, strangers, and faces glimpsed but once or twice in a lifetime from the top deck of a red bus or across the crowd on a train-car in the Tube. We were young then, and life burnt brightly...and all too briefly for so many.
Because of the 15-minute limit to YouTube videos, I have had to break the selection up into two parts.
Part 1:
Part 2:
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