First posting; new book

[Orlowsky at aol.com]

Greetings!

This is my first posting since joining the list last week.  I've been sifting
through the last six months of postings that Jody sent me and will
undoubtedly have more to say later.

Regarding the new Pynchon book due in 1996, I agree that the announcement
seems more like a huzzah for Henry Holt than a real announcement, especially
since it came almost a month to the day that Holt announced that Pynchon's
editor Ray Roberts had come on board from Little, Brown.

But maybe there really is a new book almost finished, and maybe it's the
Mason-Dixon book at long last.



The Times of London printed the following on August 12, 1990: "Fans of the
great Thomas Pynchon who felt shortchanged by the Sixties crazoid saga
Vineland may take comfort from a recent sighting: what appeared to be the man
himself lunching at a fashionable New York trattoria with his British
publisher Dan Franklin. He is at last within striking distance of finishing
his Mason-Dixon book, a long-awaited Gravity's Rainbow-sized epic."

Also, David Streitfeld said in the Washington Post on August 9, 1992 that he
had seen a copy of the Vineland manuscript three months before publication
and that "It was basically a rough draft, meaning he did a lot of work at the
last minute. This certainly didn't take 17 years."

Like Jorn, I also remember reading that Pynchon put aside Gravity's Rainbow
to crank out Lot 49.  Perhaps the same thing happened with Vineland, and the
big new novel is just around the bend.

Bob Orlowsky
orlowsky at aol.com