The Gravity's Rainbow Handbook: A Key to the Thomas Pynchon Novel

I am currently reading Gravity's Rainbow for the second time. Initially, a few years ago I found it quite a chore but thoroughly rewarding. After being haunted by aspects of the book I thought I would have another crack at Pynchon. I read The Crying Of Lot 49 to make sure It wasn't a case of PTSD, and after thoroughly enjoying it I went back to read V. Now I'm back at the starting point trying to get more insight into GR.I'm rather disappointed by this handbook. It mentions some key concepts, summarises the main characters, and has an overview of what happens in each section. I was hoping for more thorough analysis of the themes and breakdown of the more interesting uses of language throughout the book. I would no doubt have found this useful on my initial reading - the glossary of characters alone would have helped.I think the most disappointing section is the glossary of terms. It mentions SOE but does NOT even cover the military acronyms of the time (beyond the core fictional ones).This utterly fails as a source of deeper insight into the novel. It is a small missing glossary to the novel with a plot overview. If you are getting lost in the novel this may be of some use to you, otherwise I would skip it.

Found the guide useful help in coming to terms with the book but after sixty pages of the actual book I asked myself why am Ireading it?Just because something like gravity's rainbow is complex and full of obscure references and literary asides doesn't mean it's great or even good.For me G R is one of those books that needs to be put on the shelf and left there for a rainy day. Somewhere over the rainbow.