Bleeding Edge: A Novel | 
pickIt is not easy to write any kind of review for this NYC post-tech boom/9-11 novel. Even that sentence makes me think, but is it really? I mean, it is. But it's also a wacky mystery caper, a paranoid ramble bordering on cyberpunk, but also filled with lovable, strong, complicated female characters. I finished reading it thinking it was a fun, light read. But then I remember that I had zero idea of what was going on for the first 50 pages.
so-soSet in New York in 2001, this novel follows a fraud examiner's investigative exploits in the months preceding 9/11.The rat-a-tat-tat New York riffing jam-packed with allusions and asides could be tiring, and the use of "sez" as the verb of choice in dialogue was distracting. The building sense of dread in the reader as September approaches was artfully done, but the overall cartoon-dream-conspiracy tone of the book ultimately felt empty.
pickIt all depends on the book whether I love Pynchon or can‘t finish; loved Gravity‘s Rainbow, Vineland not so much. This one, with a fraud investigator getting in deep checking out a IT company gorgeously brings back New York before 9/11; bursting with detail, even inane; the mood; the attitude; the talk and walk. I lived through all the Po-Mo posing, glory, and silliness and Pynchon captures it. It‘s that feeling of...
panSigh... There is no question Pynchon is a talented writer. There is also no question that while he is writing circles around his reader he loses them along the way and unfortunately I was one of those readers this time out. The main character was too passive and ultimately was consumed by the plot.
Paranoia's the garlic in life's kitchen, right, you can never have too much.
After the 11 September attack," March editorializes..."amid all that chaos and confusion,a hole quietly opened up in American history,a vacuum of accountability, into which assets human and financial begin to vanish.Back in the days of hippie simplicity, people liked to blame 'the CIA' or 'a secret rogue operation.' But this is a new enemy, unnamable, locatable on no organization chart or budget line--who knows,maybe even the CIA's scared of them.
