"What was I doing in Cleveland in the first place?"
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I'm used to Pynchon collapsing scenes by shifting through time and space abruptly without letting the reader know. But I don't remember his characters basically doing the same thing within one dialogue. Maybe this is how conversations with astute and intelligent five year old kids often go. Feels more like Ann Nocenti dialogue in a DC Comic book than Thomas Pynchon! I'm used to her characters not actually listening to each other while talking past them, basically engaging in two monologues instead of one dialogue.
I suppose the point is that Dally, from the time she could talk, was constantly asking questions about her mother and Merle told her whatever he could manage to tell her at the time. And this mini-conversation allows Pynchon to steer the story to that place in time in Cleveland where Merle met Erlys. I'm glad I don't have to blame the conversation being terrible on Pynchon's writing because one of the two people talking is just a little kid and how much sense do they typically make? And Merle is still rattled from his broken heart so we should excuse his inability to answer a direct question from a toddler.
Anyway, we're going to learn why Merle was in Cleveland soon! Is that something we were dying to know? If not, we are now, right?!
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