Pictures Showing What Happens on
Each Page of Thomas Pynchons
Novel Gravitys Rainbow by Zak Smith
Like Looking At The Grand Canyon For The First Time
Thomas Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), set in an alternative-
universe version of World War II, has been called a modern Finnegan’s
Wake for its challenging language, wild anachronisms, hallucinatory
happenings, and fever-dream imagery. With Pictures Showing What
Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchons Novel Gravitys Rainbow,
artist Zak Smith at once eases and expands readers’ experience of the
book. A leading exponent of punk-based, DIY art, Smith here presents his
most ambitious project to date — an art book exactly as long as the work
it’s interpreting: 760 drawings, paintings, photos, and less definable
images in 760 pages. Extraordinary tableaux of the detritus of war — a
burned-out Königstiger tank, a melted machine gun — coexist alongside
such phantasmagoric Pynchon inventions as the “stumbling bird” and
“Girgori the octopus.” Smith has stated his aim to be “as literal as possible”

in interpreting Gravity’s Rainbow, but his images are as imaginative and
powerfully unique as the prose they honor.
Personal Review: Pictures Showing What Happens on Each
Page of Thomas Pynchons Novel Gravitys Rainbow by Zak
Smith
My two sons (Zachary and Alexander) have been saving their allowance
and doing extra chores to save money for a Nintendo DS (they save half,
my wife & I pay half). This has been a huge deal for them because they
each really want one.
Yesterday, my wife took the boys to a bookstore, and 7 1/2 year old Zach
saw Zak Smith's book based on Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow". He could
not, would not put it down; he was mesmerized. He's not one to want,
want, want, but this, he had to have. He looked at various and sundry art-
related books for at least a half hour, and kept coming back to this book.
Which was $40. After much discussion and pondering, Zach was resolute:
My wife had a $16 credit at the store which she let him use and he kicked
in $20 of his $27 to get the book. The point is, he gave up his Gameboy
money for an art book. A big deal. He said "You know how interested I
am in art, Mom!"
I've read a bit of Pynchon ("Vineland") but when I've leafed through
"Granvity's Rainbow" in the past, I've thought it challenging, circular,
dense. Very much like, though not so much as, the uber-interpretive
"Finegan's Wake" by James Joyce (referenced, coincidentally, by Zak
Smith's book). So at once I was impressed; thumbing through Zach's Zak
book, even more so. It IS mesmerizing; page after page of fascinating,
provoking, stirring beauty. You can get lost in there.
Not only do I now have a renewed vigor to tackle "Gravity's Rainbow", but
am inspired to have (with Zach's permission) Zak Smith's profoundly
astonishing book along for the cerebral roller coaster, a benevolent guide
to provide dazzling clues as I navigate the former's intellectually
demanding jungle.
Whether $26.37 or $39.95, worth every penny...
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