Reading Pynchon's voluminous 773 page picaresque novel is like stargazing on a cloudy night. Events of the eighteenth century grow hazy behind clouds of antiquated language and a blend of historical and fictional characters.

Mason & Dixon is a challenging book, requiring knowledge of world geography and historical events that occurred during the Age of Reason. For instance, a reader will benefit by having background information of how and why the original colonies were settled; religious history and beliefs of Deists, Quakers, Jesuits, and Scots Presbyterians; Chinese Feng Shui; famous men of science, like Isaac Newton and James Harrison and the effects their discoveries had on the world; the French and Indian War; colonists' 6043 westward migration across the Allegheny Mountains; and causes leading up to the American Revolution and later to the War Between the States. In order to bring Pynchon's stars, Mason and Dixon, and a galaxy...