Как бы не лучший детектив, что мне приходилось читать, гениальный развлекательный роман - превосходный, очень ловко сделанный, разнообразный и дразнящий. Он параллелен Пинчону и Умберто Эко, провозвестник Нила Стивенсона и Алана Мура.
Заканчивается все чудесной кроулианской мистерией, якобы под галлюциногенами в шампанском, но в ней дивно мешаются наука и мистика, квантовая теория и магия, относительность и эзотерика, подчеркивая еще раз, что они мало чем друг от дружки отличаются. Результатом ее в поэтическом мире РЭУ станут всеобщая теория поля, "Улисс" и "Финнеганы", и это нечеловечески прекрасная поэзия, конечно. РЭУ гуманист и романтик, каких немного в литературе.

Оказалось, лет 20 назад он выходил по-русски, но я не верю в ру-перевод, чесгря, потому что он предваряется таким вот замечанием "От издателя": "Роман «Маски иллюминатов», открывающий знаменитую уилсоновскую фантастическую эпопею, публикуется с незначительными сокращениями". Здесь содержится как минимум одна глупость: никакую "эпопею" он не "открывает", это отдельностоящий роман, - и замечание про сокращения очень сильно настораживает, потому что необязательных длиннот я в нем не обнаружил. Надо думать, неведомые мне "издательский дом Янус" и переводчик Максим Чеботарев считали себя умнее автора.

ME: * casually reading Masks of the Illuminati by Robert Anton Wilson *

RANDOM PERSON: "Reading a book, eh? What's it about?"

ME: * confused, thousand-yard-stare *

RANDOM PERSON: "I don't mean to bother, just curious..."

ME: "It's... it's essentially a counter-culture supernatural mystery buddy-movie disguised as a novel: Albert Einstein and James Joyce team up to solve a series of mysteries in 1914, involving the likes of Aleister Crowley, the Monster of Loch Ness, a whole host of esoteric/satanic authors and thinkers, a mindmelting initiation into a cult, an undergoing (or is it overgoing?) into the collective unconscious, and of course more conspiracy groups than you can shake a stick at. If you take the lengthy expositions on Tarot cards, Kabbala, and numerology, the overabundance of Latin and German quotes, the imitation (or is it a homage?) of Joyce's stream-of-consciousness writing style, and the half-assed application of physics to psychology with a grain of salt, it's actually one hell of a ride that is worth reading several times over."

RANDOM PERSON: "..."

ME: "Don't forget to look for the hunchback behind every soldier!"

RANDOM PERSON: *Slowly steps backwards - leaves the scene*

I read this in college, and then reread it recently. Very entertaining.

if it hadn't been for those meddling genii, big al might have gotten away with it. but he wilt anyway! for Holmes and Watson read Einstein and Joyce as they seek to solve the mystery of the beast who stalks and terrifies the secret society initiate, Sir John Babcock, who's initiation has been mentally over arduous over a number of years. from the shores of loch ness to a rathskeller in switzerland via greystoke manor, the mystery deepens as it tramples a path through the expected, and ultimately drops everything at the doorstep of our illuminated detectives. deliberately? whom knows!
as a Wilson initiate of about a year myself, i am randomly going through his canon, but coincidentally (there are no coincidences! fnord!) they have been running seamlessly into each other. ('illuminatus', 'schrodinger's cat', this, then 'cosmic trigger'). my route here was through the brilliant John Higgs, and i would say i wish i'd got here sooner, but hey, i'm here now!

Whoa.

weirdly insightful & a ton of arcane fun

What the fuck did I just read

The only book that pits Albert Einstein and James Joyce against the forces of darkness and conspiracy…or does it?
A puzzle of a book.

Albert Einstein and James Joyce team up to investigate conspiracies. Yes.

RAW used to come to our Finnegans Wake group in Tempe, Arizona, periodically. He had a penchant for marijuana and Merlot

Probably Wilson's most straightforward novel in terms of narrative flow, but it still holds up on re-reading. Full of background information on the occult movement, and biographical details of Aleister Crowley. The passages written in the style of Joyce are well-done, and the final section is particularly memorable.

Somehow never got around to this one!