Finally Made it Stateside

While in Rome I learned about a certain graphic novel. It was on the last day of the Pynchon Week conference when a speaker's time was spent discussing a German graphic novel that had recently been translated into English:

Named Miller & Pynchon, at it's core it's a graphic retelling of Pynchon's own novel Mason & Dixon. While M&D is nearly 800 pages, this is shy of 180, so what gets cut? How is it cut? Too much to mention, too much to figure out.

The art is great, in its own minimalist and cartoony way.

One neat thing I thought was how they subverted the M&D characters in this piece. Mason is the "boss" and Dixon is the fun-loving Quaker, and here, Pynchon is the character with the Quaker hat, but he's also the "boss."

Another neat thing is how author Leopold Maurer weaves in many anecdotes from many Pynchon novels. This gentleman knows his Pynchon content.

Something else...

I ordered this book pretty much immediately once we got back. Weeks went by. I contacted the seller; they told me that international orders may take longer and to re-contact them if by X date it hadn't arrived.

It had not arrived by their stated date, so I let them know. They apologized and refunded my money.

Months later, after we'd moved to our new place, Corrie had returned from the old place with a tiny, book-sized package. "Did you order something?"

BINGO.