One of the first reviews of Thomas Pynchon's 1,085-page novel, Against the Day, has appeared in Time. Richard Layco's tone is that of a green-faced dinner who ordered something "adventurous" in, say, an authentic Cantonese restaurant and is now having trouble lifting up another spoonful of the undifferentiated pottage to his lips:

More than in any of Pynchon's previous books, just what it all means is a problem in Against the Day, where plots and ideas and fantastic developments pile up in exhausting profusion. You've been vouchsafed once again his vision of a bright, beleaguered world, this one with more than its share of resemblances to our realities post--Sept. 11. With another few decades of reading and decoding, you may even get the work's largest intentions to snap into focus. Or maybe not.