bibliography and Vineland

[Bernard F. Gilmore St John's Prep]

	While recently on vacation in Maine, I picked up a copy of Stone
Junction by  Jim Dodge in a used paperback store.  On the back was a blurb
by Pynchon: "Here is American storytelling as tall as it is broadly
imagined and deeply felt, exuberant with outlaw humor and honest magic  . 
Reading Stone Junction is like being at a nonstop party in celebration of
everything that matters." (Stone Junction, Atlantic Monthly Press, NYC).  I
don't remember if this was listed by the guy recently compiling an
bibliography of Pynchon.
	On another note, someone recently noted that Pynchon's naming of
Billy Barf and the Vomitones didn't ring true.  I repeatedly had that
feeling while reading Vineland: jokes just weren't funny or very slightly
"missed."  Overall, the novel fell far short of what I regard as Pynchon's
best work, Lot 49.  I teach Lot 49 to high school student because I regard
it as the near perfect twentieth century novel.

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						B. Gilmore