Chapter 60: Finis!

Lurching towards an end, the novel finishes with this 70th chapter, which makes up all of Part 5, “Rue de Depart,” which is the street where Dally lives in Paris.

The Kit/Dally alliance isn’t without some bumps, and Dally can’t quite seem to give up Clive Crouchmas. It seems like the major female characters form a continuum, with Yashmeen, the most self-reliant, achieving the most love and happiness, with Estrella a little less independent and happy, Dally a bit less, and Lake, the unhappiest and loneliest.

In the last scene, the Inconvenience has become an entire world, populated by children of aeronauts, and aerodogs. All flying “toward grace” (1085).

Old man—you’ve written quite a fine novel—my most satisfying read in years. It’s not quite Gravity’s Rainbow, yet in some ways it’s a better novel than GR. I suppose having a Pynchon novel end with optimism is a bit like Cure fans listening to “Wild Mood Swings” after “Disintegration.” A bit shocking, but pleasurable in its own way.