The Good: A few decent stories, well-written with interesting characters.
The Bad: Short (only five stories), "The Secret Integration" is ponderous and dull.
The Basics: A decent literary outing, Slow Learner introduces readers to the narrative stylings of Thomas Pynchon without them having to commit to a novel!
I have, by and large, hated reviewing novels written by Thomas Pynchon. It is worth noting that I do not hate the writings of Thomas Pynchon, but rather I loathe reviewing his works. So far, I've only moved the review of Vineland (click here for that) from my old reviewing site. It's an important distinction, that I love his writing but not reviewing it, if for no other reason than Pynchon is one of my favorite novelists of all time and quite probably my favorite living novelist. So, why then would I loathe reviewing his works?
The reasoning is simple: describing a novel by Thomas Pynchon is like describing bite by bite what a pot pie is. Like the flavorings of a pot pie, which change with every bite with the combination of fillings, every few pages or each chapter in the average novel by Pynchon changes what the story is about. They are dense books, often about nothing or conversely about so many things that trying to describe them on a plot level is virtually impossible. The characters in many of Pynchon's books tend to have names that are similar and reading his novels is usually about enjoying a love of words more than actually having a story or characters to follow.
So, it was with some pleasure that I picked up Slow Learner, the early short stories of Thomas Pynchon. With five stories over the course of less than two hundred pages, I figured that there would be little that could screw up my sensibilities and I would be able to read and review the book with greater ease. And, for a change, Pynchon made it pretty easy for me!
Slow Learner is a collection of Pynchon's short stories from early in his career and his notes on the stories make for easy comprehension and take a tact I have always agreed with; namely that living authors could do the world a favor and share what they meant by what they said for future generations. Over the course of the first twenty-three pages, Pynchon comments on what he feels he got right and wrong in the short stories and it makes for a worthwhile reference for scholars of his works.
For those interested in the book, the five short stories include:
"The Small Rain" - The adventure of Nathan "Lardass" Levine, an enlisted man whose unit is called to establish a communication's network into hurricane-stricken Louisiana. Having wandered his way through a day of hard work - mostly by avoiding it by hitching a ride on a ship fishing dead bodies out of the bayou - Levine ends up in a college town seducing a local co-ed.
"Low-Lands" - Cindy, the wife of Dennis Flange (mariner-at-heart), throws Dennis out of their house when Pig Bodine, an old friend of Dennis, shows up one night. Having skipped work to drink with his friend the garbage man, Dennis is pleased to see Pig after seven years. Cindy, for her part, finds Pig's resurgence to be the last straw in their childless marriage and kicks Dennis out. So, Dennis goes to the dump with his friend, gets drunk and allows himself to be whisked away by a gypsy woman to a subterranean garbage lair.
"Entropy" - Meatball Mulligan's lease has expired, so he's squatting in his apartment building for the second day of a nonstop party when a friend arrives, having been kicked out by his wife for a fight about communication. As the party rages on, in the apartment above, a naturalist named Callisto attempts to revitalize a dying bird with the warmth from his body while the woman he shares the greenhouse-like lair with becomes obsessed with the temperature outside not changing from thirty-seven degrees Fahrenheit. Downstairs, people come and go randomly, all trying to pair off as part of the day while Meatball watches.
"Under The Rose" - At the turn of the century (the 1900s!) Porpentine and Goodfellow are British spies out to thwart the apocalypse by German agents, Moldweorp and his associates. With rumors of a meeting that will escalate the conflicts in Africa to a head, Porpentine and Goodfellow head to Cairo with Goodfellow's latest fling to try to find the meeting, thwart the chaotic agenda of Moldweorp and save Europe!
"The Secret Integration" - In the late '50s, four children plan unspecified hi-jinx to disrupt a small suburban community. Tim, Grover (the boy genius), Etienne, and Carl (the new Negro on the block), are friends complete with a haunted secret hide-out in the Massachusetts suburb they live in to hang out at. Tim recalls previous years' adventures and a night spent with a kid in A.A. who is trying to keep a visiting black man sober, while their parents fight integration.
The stories are fairly varied and the most fun is easily "Under The Rose," even though the whole spy story is somewhat vague and involves Porpentine pretending to be a buffoon as his cover. "The Secret Integration" is long and pointless and by the fifth gag with Grover using words none of the rest of the gang knows, it gets old.
The fundamental problem with the stories in Slow Learner is that they are by and large the same story told using different settings (with the exception of "The Secret Integration"). They are fairly pointless vignettes with disaffected individuals who are swept up by events around them and they more or less peripherally are involved in them. In other words, Pynchon's protagonists are largely not the movers and shakers of any particular scene. So, for example, Porpentine is an aged spy who is partnered with the younger and more effective Goodfellow and he is an honor-bound spy in a world where androids are taking over the spy business (points to Pynchon for creativity!).
This is fine, so long as one is not reading in any attempt to become enlightened or empathize with characters. Most of them are seamen who drink a lot and have a love affair with the sea and are disconnected from everyone else in the story with them. As Pynchon's introduction mentions, most of the stories were written while he was in the military and the characters are largely womanizing jerks.
What is worthwhile is the presentation of the stories for the strength of Pynchon's narrative abilities. Even without terribly likable characters, the interplay between the party and the (essentially) biosphere in "Entropy" is played out well and while not much actually happens in "The Small Rain" or "Low-Lands," the stories are engaging enough to be read and enjoyed. Pynchon can tell a story and he has a pretty amazing sense of description and his pacing is excellent. In fact, whenever Pynchon gets tired with having a narrator describe something, he fast forwards to something more interesting, usually dialogue. This kind of whip-around style is very much Pynchon's style and in the context of the first four short stories, it makes Slow Learner at fast read at the very least.
Slow Learner will be enjoyed by people looking for short stories for the love of language more than the love of plot or characters. Indeed, the most character-driven story ("The Secret Integration") is Pynchon's least successful in this collection. For love of language, Pynchon continues his tradition of long lines with quirky descriptions, many of which have nothing to do with what his stories seem to be about. People looking for a point, need to keep right on walking.
For other books with surreal aspects, please check out my reviews of:
The Time Traveler's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
Juneteenth - Ralph Ellison
Orlando - Virginia Woolf
5/10
For other book reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2010, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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