Pynchon is not to everyone’s taste. Do not try Gravity’s Rainbow, for all the reasons you mention. He is notorious for leaving the reader with more questions than answers. His themes are wrapped around conspiracy theories, paranoia, and entropy.

I just love his prose. There have been times when I have been so struck by a sentence I just have to put the book down for a minute and absorb it, then read it again.

If you feel like giving him another chance, go with “Vineland” (1990), “Bleeding Edge” (2013), or “Inherent Vice” (2009). Or watch the movie of the later by Paul Thomas Anderson (2014) to save time. I think you’d like the astronomy, history, and surveying in “Mason & Dixon” (1997), but it is a long book and a difficult read, but astonishing.