Maybe not a Pynchonian masterpiece, maybe not always the most responsible or serious of his ouvré, but certainly, if what you're reading Pynchon for is that subtle brain massage coupled with that deep, actually profound understanding of man, and people, and places, Against the Day is a rollicking good time, a confusing and absurd mess of emotions, a variety of trips to a wealth of scenes well worth the effort, so if I could offer only one piece of advice, it'd be to stick with it.
This historical treatise has a lot of notoriety but I found it unnecessarily dense, and ultimately flawed, in that its focus on states and state power ignores a related discussion of capitalist power, such that altho there is a useful perspective to glean here about how a drive for social legibility can transform a society, I wouldn't recommend the book overall.
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