ATD/Rue du Départ – a supranational idea

Here now is the last installment of that account of mine I have been treating you to here (pt.1), here (pt.2), here (pt.3) and here (pt.4), bringing the summary of “Against The Day” to its swift conclusion – and let that be the wrap to an astonishingly tight 1.3 kilo volume.

The ultimate spoiler:

... And then all these intricately interwoven story-lines get spun a-further, or peter out, or softly twist a little – or else simply continue to be more or less contingent as they have been all along...

Married during the wartime years, Kit and Dally eventually break up again, her living in Paris and seeing Clive Crouchmas, while he assigns himself to service in the Ukraine.

The family of Reef, Yashmeen and little Ljubica cross the Atlantic and settle down up in the northwestern remoteness of the US together with Frank, Stray and Jesse, making a harmonious colony of exiles in their own country, and growing in number.

With the extra-terrestrial help of the Chums, Professor Vanderjuice or just a benevolent convergence of world-lines at one specific point in time, Kit gets transported to Paris again and may be seen there reunited with Dally for good, and dancing.

A supranational state of skyfarers we see, sailing toward grace, at last. - Finis

To give this at least some sparse patches of analytical comment to make for the “review” this poses for, here is my pen-ultimate verdict on the work's quality and standing.

For my part, I'll stick to it that indeed “Gravity's Rainbow” remains Pynchon's most outstanding, most important and for that matter simply his best work to date. Nevertheless, “Against The Day” proves beyond doubt that he is still very much ahead of the game, when compared to most of what some of the more elaborately hailed writers of the day usually come up with. Sure, there is not much in terms of literary innovation to be found in this one, the narrative fragmentation and excessive liberties he takes in creating a coherence by his own standards are pretty much on record by now. But let's be fair here, what do you expect any well established writer in their seventies to do other than constantly contribute to exactly that same area of public discourse they've chosen to be their genuine field of interest, insight and, ultimately, wisdom hard-won? What we can without any reserve acknowledge Pynchon to have achieved with this one, is to have added one more solid and sparkling piece of beautifully designed and crafted literature to his legacy. Just like his fellow American Greats of our time, namely DeLillo and Roth, have done with their latest writings, he has focused on perfecting his own style and unique voice, and in my view has succeeded in pushing the boundaries in that sense by no small margin.
To sum it up shortly, there is just so much to be discovered and enjoyed in “Against The Day”, beginning with the hilarious band of the “Chums of Chance” seemingly taken directly from some 19th century boys-adventure novel, up to (but not ending with) these very intense and true-to-life moments of painstakingly precise observation of a human soul in self-inflicted agony, like there is to be found time and time again in the portraits of the Traverse family in particular, that my sole advise to you can be no other than to simply recommend you to read it for yourself. It is worth your time, believe me. And to say so of some book of 1000 plus pages speaks for itself, I would guess!

(pics©The Penguin Press)