Mason & Dixon

By: Thomas Pynchon

Narrated by: Steven Crossley

Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse. We follow the mismatched pair - one rollicking, the other depressive; one Gothic, the other pre-Romantic - from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope to pre-Revolutionary America and back, through the strange yet redemptive turns of fortune in their later lives, on a grand tour of the Enlightenment's dark hemisphere, as they observe and participate in the many opportunities for insanity presented them by the Age of Reason.

©1997 Thomas Pynchon (P)2019 Recorded Books

Amazing

What an awesome reading this is. And the story itself is a masterpiece of the imagination.

How to do things with words...

This is a brilliantly inventive novel by Thomas Pynchon, full of wonderful characters and outrageous adventures. This novel shows clearly that Pynchon - whoever he is - is very familiar with Britain, British speech, and the eccentricities of British life. At the center of it all is the complex relationship between Mason and Dixon, who can't be together and can't be apart. As usual with Pynchon, science plays a major role in this novel, but it's also a very tender investigation of human relationships. It's also wickedly funny. The reading, by actor Steven Crossley, is well-paced and very enjoyable .

Typical Pynchon in his element

If you liked Against The Day you’ll like this. If you’re looking for anything baudy or action packed like Gravity’s Rainbow, maybe start there or Inherent Vice

Truly the great American novel

And one that makes me smile pretty much nonstop at all the silly jokes and general right on perspective upon “history” and “tall tales.” Honest, I can’t think of a book or a movie or a record that has made me smile as much as this book/audiobook. A delight for the ages.

Fabulous

This is a fabulous, phantasmagorical account of Mason and Dixon's effort at surveying in America. Pynchon at his best.

Great story, just go with it.

Yeah, you’re probably gonna get lost listening to this. It’s okay. Getting lost is part of the fun.

Amazing crawl through the souls of two men bound in time

An undeniably thrilling journey through the events unique to a time with two names names known to all from childhood. Thomas Pynchon flexes his talent as only he can leaving the listener utterly spent and wanting for nothing more.

Pynchon's Most "Human" Novel w/Great Narration

You really should read this novel first--the 18th century writing style is incredibly well done and adds to the experience (and maybe is even part of the meaning).

But this narration is incredibly well done and makes much of the book easier to understand. So much of the novel is dialogue and works well as a spoken story. (In fact the novel is itself a spoken story, so...)

I rarely read anything twice. Pynchon is my primary exception, and this book, with this narrator (Steven Crossley), is the perfect second "read."

A challenging listen

I wanted to like this story more but struggled to follow the narrative. I hadn’t read the physical book before but found a chapter by chapter synopsis on Wikipedia when I was about 2/3 through the book and didn’t recall most of it. Performance was good but I’m ready to move on.

Sublime literature

Will definitely buy the text and reread it. Great performance of a treasure from Pynchon. Takes you to another world and gives life and character to our nation.