Posted by MC Trouble on Wed, Jan 13, 2010 @ 08:30 AM
After 120 pages of Thomas Pynchon's book, Inherent Vice, I am completely underwhelmed. To be honest, I don't think I can possibly make it any further. In my estimation, this is the worst book the Scorps have selected to date - worse than McMafia and worse than Youth In Revolt. Here are a couple of reasons why this book failed to capture me:
1. The main character is a loser: Doc is such a f'n tool. If I'm going to get excited about a book I need to be rooting for a badass. Right from the start Doc came across as a waste of space. I like the whole stoner detective thing but so far he is getting owned by everyone he interacts with.
2. Too many characters to remember: Like all (Editor's Note: just him) Scorps, I drink and watch TV while I read. Thus, I don't have the memory space for all these stupid characters (Editor's Note: The rest of us may). Normally, upon confusion, I would go back and re-read to remember a name. There are so many people in this book that I can't even tell you who was murdered or who has disappeared.
3. Lame portrayal of the sixties: Starting with the cover art, this book tries too hard. I'm sure it's difficult to write sixties fiction without being overly cliché, but I just couldn't accept this attempt. What put me over the edge was when the entire Wavos coffee shop shouted "wipeout" in unison.
Because of the above, I have not been properly engaged by this book and now I have no clue what is going on.
What do others think? Is anyone going to finish this?
- MC TROUBLE
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UPDATE
THE SPANIARD AND SCORP #8 have both finished Inherent Vice but it was definitely a losing battle. The ending somehow managed to tie everything together with some gratuitous sex scenes, but there were so many different plot threads it barely made any sense. I also picked up Pynchon's book Mason Dixon and am willing to give him another try in a couple months after my brain recovers from this. Groovy.