On almost every page I encountered passages of beautiful, witty, amazingly written prose. But, after about 200 pages, I just couldn't care less about any of the characters, or what happened to them. I am a well-educated person and have read most of the classic "western canon". I appreciate many "modern" authors like Marquez, Roth, Walker Percy, Bellow, Updike, Joseph Heller, etc. But I find that my life is too short to persevere with Mr. Pynchon when I neither like or dislike the characters and couldn't care less what happens to them. Based on my experience with this book I have shied away from Delillo since they are always compared similarly. All you guys who believe Pynchon is a great 20th century author can have him.