Yesterday I began reading "Bleeding Edge" for the first time. So far, I have yet to really figure out where this book is taking me. But some of Pynchon's most celebrated material is like that (GR and AtD both took a while to really pull me in).
One thing I absolutely love about Pynchon is the descriptive language he uses to set the scene. While most other authors would probably just write something along the lines of "the school play took place on Saturday night", Pynchon kicks off the tenth chapter of this book with this long, run-on paragraph that contains multitudes of other stories all set within the parameters of the main "Bleeding Edge" plot. AtD was full of stuff like this, and I found it really funny and interesting when Pynchon would go super mathematical and historical simply to make a point about a minor character that we would only read about for a few pages.
Pynchon will get super specific and descriptive when he technically doesn't need to, but I love that he does this because you can tell he really cares about these characters and these stories he's putting on the page. I find it delightfully hilarious and decidedly charming.