2008-08-24 Pynchon revealed

I've had "Gravity's Rainbow" sitting dauntingly on my shelf for too long to mention, so when I saw the attractively slim `Slow Learner' on the cheap I picked it up as a quicker route into the world of Pynchon. All I really knew about him was his secrecy, his refusal to be photographed, and his apparently precocious genius.
"Slow Learner" is a collection of his early work, and by his own recognition in the introduction (which offers a fascinating insight into the development of the author, how he not only developed as a writer but how he develops his work, even today - Pynchon puts a big emphasis on character, seeing it as the root from which fiction MUST grow) is far from his greatest work. Having not read any of his other books, I obviously was unable to see how the early Pynchon finally came through in the later Pynchon, but it was still offered a brilliant view into the mind of a young writer, most notably the almost ventriloquial adoption of different voices and styles.
"Under the Rose", the fourth story in the collection and the one which Pynchon says he likes the most today, I found unpalatable in its inferior imitation of Graham Greene (again, Pynchon acknowledges this in his introduction), although perhaps this was highlighted by my having only read Greene's "The Quiet American" a few days before. Otherwise, there is a large reliance on the beat generation (Kerouac's "On The Road" is one of Pynchon's favourite books), notably in "Entropy".
I didn't find it a bad collection, but at the same time it didn't particularly grab me, although it's not there as a showpiece book. I think once I've got through "Gravity's Rainbow" and another couple of Pynchon's tomes, a return to this slim volume might be much more interesting and rewarding.