Tom's Tech Travels

There are three reasons to read Thomas Pynchon's newest novel Bleeding Edge:  You think Pynchon's a genius and have read his entire oeuvre; You're a techie geek hanging out on the cutting edge and want to poke holes in his theories; You wish to torture yourself with headache-causing travels through a world you'd rather believe doesn't exist, plus you want to wipe out any self-esteem you have left because the book is so difficult to read.

Pynchon does parody extremely well. He takes you to a Loehman's women's changing room in the Bronx. He walks you through an IKEA store with its maze-like set-up that makes leaving seem like a pipe-dream. Speaking of opiates, the book wallows in illegal drugs and money-laundering. Conspiracy theories abound. His main character brings out a lot of Jewish commentary, provoking my husband to ask, "Is Pnychon Jewish?"

Over 500 pages of dark, dense and droll, which is usually right up my alley. I always learn some interesting arcana when I read Pynchon.Not this time.