Gravitys Rainbow

I tell you one damn thing reviewing books for Amazon is a damn hard way to make a living.I'm beggining to think they have swindled me. This review was written,hmmm around Jan 26 2005 and thus far 21 of 23 people found it helpful so Amazon show me the money! Kind Regards JW 11/06/05

		Gravity's Rainbow (Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics) by Thomas Pynchon Edition: Paperback Price: $12.24 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours		32 used & new from $8.25
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful: This earns one crushed scorpion, January 26, 2005 I first read this book when I took a long sabbatical from the University. I read the book mostly while I laid in bed with a large dictionary that smelled of turned pages since Mr. Pynchon's working vocabulary is really, really err...big. I refer to the scorpion because I read a interview with Edward Abbey and he mentioned reading this book while in a trailer in the desert, he was so absorbed that when a scorpion bit him on the ankle he simply squashed it and continued to read. Had it been me I would have squashed the scorpion and maybe not lied about the rest. I do recommend the book, a very challenging read so its not recommended for the faint of brain. Now I also recommend you stop reading this review because I feel another spell coming on, yep sure nuff. I don't know what it is about this book but it always reminds me of the time as a child I was at the car wash with my dad and my brother Charles Chadwick, Charles and myself were bored watching our dad wash the station wagon so we found something to distract ourselves (which usually consisted of my brother talking me into doing something stupid), the present story does not veer from this path. Being the younger brother and quite a tiny lad my brother (Charles Chadwick) convinced me that I could reach my skinny little arm up into the towel dispenser and extract some valuable paper towels for free, save my pop a quarter and we would all be winners.However I reached as far as I could and could find nothing and by the time I gave up my arm had swollen so much from all the blood pumping into my arm but the little slot had a devilish design that would not permit blood to flow back into my body, so to make a long story short my dad had to find the owner of the car wash who took a hack saw to his own towel for hire dispenser and extract my arm. I am forever grateful to that man and also my dad who for some reason was not mad, I reckon he recognized early on how innocent I really was and incidentally have remained to this day! I've also learned to pause and think whenever my brother suggests I do something heroic.I don't know why Gravity's Rainbow evokes these memories but it does, so maybe you should buy yourself a copy and remember something as fascinating as what I just related.