Gravity's Rainbow
American novelist, born 1937. Won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1974.
Gravity's Rainbow is a 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon. It won the National Book Award for Fiction in 1974.
On 3 of the 17 lists it was eligible for.
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At a glance
- Author
- Thomas Pynchon
- First published
- 1973
- Length
- 912 pages (UK paperback)
- Awards
- National Book Award for Fiction winner, 1974
- Genre
- Literary fiction, Postmodern, War and conflict, Speculative
Is Gravity's Rainbow worth reading?
3 of the 17 best-of lists it could have made include it, among them the National Book Award for Fiction and Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian).
| List | Place | Original |
|---|---|---|
| All-Time 100 Novels (Time, 2005) | Listed | See the list |
| National Book Award for Fiction (winners and finalists) (National Book Foundation, 1974) | Winner | See the list |
| Readers' top 100 novels (The Guardian, 2026) | No. 19 | See the list |
Best edition of Gravity's Rainbow
The edition we link to is the Vintage Classics paperback (2013), 912 pages.
- Publisher
- Vintage Classics (paperback, 2013)
- Pages
- 912
- ISBN
- 9780099511755
How critics, prizes and readers rate Gravity's Rainbow
Prize juries rate it most highly: it earned 50% of the points available on prize lists, against 18% on readers' and booksellers' lists and 10% on critics' lists.
Share of the available points it earned on each kind of list it was eligible for. How the scores work
Books like Gravity's Rainbow
If you liked Gravity's Rainbow, try Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Grapes of Wrath or Catch-22.
