Christopher and Sylvia Tietjens, Kate

There's no question––this book is difficult. It requires the reader's great attention and effort, but is both richly rewarding and funny, written in a surprisingly modern style for its time.

The two young men––they were of the English public official class––sat in the perfectly appointed railway carriage. The leather straps to the windows were of virgin newness; the mirrors beneath the new luggage racks immaculate as if they had reflected very little; the bulging upholstery in its luxuriant, regulated curves was scarlet and yellow in an intricate, minute dragon pattern, the design of a geometrician in Cologne.

(spoiler alert)

I am wholly convinced that Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow stole some ideas and plot twists from this novel. Tyron Slothrop has a lot in common with Christopher Tiejens. Although different wars, the way rockets are portrayed and used is similar too.

1920 to 1929 The Jazz Age