[UA] Gravity's Rainbow

[Peter Kisner]

Within the last few months I finally plowed my way through to the end
of Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow".  It was for me a difficult
and "heady" read, and I put off reviewing it for a long time since I
didn't think I could do the thing justice.  But it just seems so
UA-able that I couldn't NOT at least suggest it as inspirational
material.

The plot takes place in and around WWII and centers mostly on a bunch
of misfits and adepts slogging around the dirty, seedy edges of the
conflict while being manipulated by the unseen illuminated Them toward
obscure ends.  You've got some old traditional magic poking at the
seams here and there via Masonic ritual and a Teutonic witchcraft.
But more central to the plot is the main character ascending as a
"Rocket Man" avatar.  And there are other bizarrities, trigger events
and other phenomena strewn throughout the book as well.

While somewhat of a difficult book to get through it constantly struck
me as being as close to a history of the occult underground as you
could probably expect to find in popular fiction.  And, (ironically?
interestingly?) tying into the game's title, although the sides in the
war are well established (Axis and Allies) it's the less obvious sides
in a tangential conflict who are the actual focus of the book.

- Peter K.