A Gravity's Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchon's Novel Paperback – January 1, 1988

I must argue Mr Roger's point. GR was written for me! Not you! All kidding aside, I'm not sure if it was our generations proximity to WWII, (in my case the men who fought it), films, books, and TV shows about the war that gave us a familiarity with its entire zeitgeist. And our schools taught us about it. All of that gave us an edge. I cannot comprehend someone born after 1980 reading GR with any form of comprehension without doing an excessive amount of Googling or having a Companion like this one. If you are not familiar with the A4 missile system, Pavlovian psychology, Soviet Central Asia, 1940's American Jazz, the properties of long chain polymers and God only knows how many other arcane but fascinating topics, this book will assist you in your journey into The Zone..

As someone who has read Gravity's Rainbow right through three times and also dipped occasionally, starting in 1974, I'm enjoying this companion book immensely. I've always said that Thomas Pynchon wrote Gravity's Rainbow for me. We are much the same age and with similar backgrounds. As a result much of his esoteric material did not go over my head but clearly a lot did. For younger readers of Pynchon, this is an invaluable book if you'd like to delve into all that is behind it. Given that it is set 73 years ago, many of the contemporary references will not be known to many readers. It would be an incredible education to read both books. And very enjoyable as well!

An extremely useful and interesting companion to GR. Perhaps not essential, but certainly helpful in getting much more out of this fantastic novel. There are different ways to use the Companion - I ended up reading an episode in GR and then reading the accompanying pages in the Companion, which worked pretty well though it obviously breaks the natural flow of the novel. I like the fact that Weisenburger generally does not attempt to provide detailed interpretations - the sheer length of the novel fortunately prevents the flood of over-interpretation and academic nonsense that, for example, sometimes fills companion books for shorter novels (e.g., The Crying of Lot 49). Weisenburger's thoughts on timelines and the overall structure are enlightening.I do have one major complaint: for reasons I'm sure Weisenburger would try to defend but that I don't understand at all, he "gives away" rather early in the Companion the events described in the very last episodes in GR. We're talking major spoiler here! Although there are numerous hints throughout GR leading up to this, the picture doesn't become clear until the very end. Unfortunately, Weisenburger blows the surprise very early on and personally I really resented this.A minor complaint: As mentioned in other reviews, Weisenburger commits a number of errors when explaining some of the science and math. Often, these explanations just weren't necessary and in some cases work only to deflate the book's magic. As one of a number of possible examples, consider the extraordinary balloon ride episode, in which Slothrop witnesses the earth's shadow moving across the land. Weisenburger chimes in with a discussion as to whether or not the cited speed of the shadow is realistic, and also informs us that of course shadows can't break the speed of sound! Useless over-analysis of the type that explains why generation after generation of students are turned off to literature when forced by professors with too much brain and not enough heart to dissect great books in the classroom.

An excellent accompaniment to the original text. If you don't like spoilers, avoid it. They don't bother me when reading a novel like GR.One gripe, the academically-culture-soaked author uses a chichi word like "analepsis" when he could have said "flashbacks." On the other hand, can the word chichi be used in an Amazon review without it being chichi?Regardless, an excellent guide. I've read two other GR guidebooks and they don't come close.

Important to have this if you're going to read Gravity's Rainbow.

The book is difficult, if you want to get the most out of the experience, this is a good guide.

If you are new to the wild, weird, and very dense Gravity's Rainbow, you need this book! Weisenburger's painstakingly researched guide will help you understand better the references from rocket technology, psychology, military jargon, classical music, slang, pop culture, high culture, and foreign language. The new edition takes into account all the new scholarship for Pynchon's most intimidating novel since the original guide came out in the 1990's. This volume ended up paying for itself for me when I read the novel for the first time, and it will do the same for you.

First, it's good that this book exists because navigating Gravity's Rainbow without some kind of guidance is truly daunting, maybe insurmountable unless you spend a couple of hours with Google for every few pages you read. In order for this companion to be complete, it would probably have to be much too large to publish practically. Weisenburger is left with deciding how much will be enough. I think he's done a good job, especially with the introduction and summary material that explain something of what's going on in the novel. The companion isn't perfect, but at least Weisenburger strives to meet a scholarly standard that rarely exists on the Internet.

Very detailed, very good additional information to Gravity's Rainbow. Can also be used with e.g. German versions of G. R.