50 Years Later, 'Gravity's Rainbow' Finally Came True

It's all anachronism, Gravity’s Rainbow. First of all, it’s 50 years old. It’s also a historical novel, set during World War II. It’s a dense, difficult challenge, the kind of book posers carry around to look smart. It is unabashedly, rambunctiously, arrogantly smart, and deeply, confoundingly experimental. It seems to resist total intelligibility, preferring rather to suggest, evoke, gesture toward, wink at. It’s got all the flavors of meaning, but few of its calories. It wants to feed you in other ways. It wants its words to do more than mean.