I had wanted to finish reading Pynchon's previous novels before diving into Mason and Dixon, and this was the last one on the list. I'm finding it easier and easier to read Pynchon (it doesn't hurt that I started with Gravity's Rainbow). I love the way he invents a cast of hundreds of interesting characters whose only purpose is to illuminate tiny portions of the main characters. His clever turns of phrase are memorable as well, and he is rising on my list of favorite writers.

V. starts out wonderfully with inventive characters and bizarre situations — pure Pynchon. I was frustrated by a couple of middle sections and the end for seeming to drag on without introducing anything really new, but overall the effect was good. V., as with most of Pynchon's novels, is tied together by themes rather than plot: paranoia (surprise), automata, etc. Indeed the plot is recursive with a push-down stack often five layers deep, which makes things somewhat hard to follow until you pick up on this trick.

The most frustrating thing about reading Pynchon is that you have to read each novel twice to really "get" it (I'm speaking hypothetically here, having read them only once). Basically, at the end of the first read, you get the gist of what's going on (if you were paying attention), but it would take a re-read to really appreciate the multiple threads as they are woven.

I rather strongly recommend taking a look at Tim Ware's Pynchon concordances as an aid to understanding the complexity of Pynchon's novels.