/lit/ - Literature

I just finished the chapter "V. in Love". This is an incredible book...

Opinions?

Worth checking out? I'm reading "The Crying of Lot 49" right now, how do they compare? Is it not too difficult of a read?

Just reached chapter three. Is it okay that I only just about grasp the characters of Profane and Stencil, and the rest is just a blur so far?

Ugh! Why didn't I read this first? Why did I push through Gravity's Rainbow and read The Crying of Lot 49 three frakkin times before reading this one and perhaps gaining a more solid foothold on Pynchon?

Someone provide their best analysis, thoughts, impressions of this please.
No other book has left me so baffled: Ulysses was wholly straightforward in comparison.

Just started Pynchon's V. and I'm on my second sentence already having looked up two words, one of which was one he had made up. Now he's talking about "his old tin can's tavern on East Main Street." What the fuck is a tin can's tavern? A tavern that belongs to an old tin can of his? What the hell. It was the next thing on my reading list so I decided to read it for a school project on a book of our choice we have to do. This means I have to finish it within two weeks. I thus have two questions.

1. Am I reading this on the wrong premises and should I thus rather read something else for this particular project so to avoid the time limit?

2. What the fuck does he mean with a tavern belong to an old tin can of his?