This is America, you live in it, you let it happen. Let it unfurl.

This book is one of the most confusing I have ever read but to get it's full effect you just have to read. I think a very important question in reading any book is to ask why. Why did Thomas Pynchon decide to write this novel? He had written others before, but this one is often considered his best to date.

I feel that this book can be related to the works of Bradbury and Welles who had great caution about the new technologies and ways their generations were going. I feel that he became inspired by the situations presented around him which were the most important factor in writing this book because without inspiration it would carry no meaning. I think he wrote it not only as a precautionary tale but also as something to help the reader reflect upon themselves.

As with many famous books, this book was actually frowned upon when it was first released. The critics of TIME criticized it for it's gibberish writing. Though, about forty years later they named it as one of the "100 greatest English novels of our TIME". Pynchon's work can easily criticized for it's hard to decipher language and cryptic plots but the overall symbolic and thematic elements can also be observed and have great power throughout the novel.

Because I did not already mention this I will finish up by summarizing the end of the novel. As Oedipa gets more clues and connections to the whole mail conspiracy, she gets further crazy on trying to figure things out. She realizes after gaining many clues though that her exboyfriend may have set all of these things up just to give her a difficult time. This sends her into confusion and her mind into chaos. At the end though, she attends an auction(at lot 49) where she may meet someone who can explain all of the clues to her. Then it ends. Thats it, no explanation or tying up of loose strings.

This ending could be seen as very disappointing to the reader, but Pynchon did it for a reason. And again we must ask, why? I feel that he does this to give the point that there are not many definite answers in life, no definite endings or beginnings. He also does this to leave us with the question of whether everything Oedipa decides is true or not, which will keep us thinking long after reading.