[M&D] possible spoilers - 1st chapter

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

On Wed, 30 Apr 1997 doktor at primenet.com wrote:
> Heikki writes:
> >There's also another Pynch novel that starts around Mid-Atlantic
> >in a snowy Christmastime evening. It's been 10 years since another
> >War. But Benny Profane, orphan, drifts outside with other orphans,
> >without any comfortable Room at the rear of any House.
> Nice point.  I was so taken with M&D's opening's softer, more familiar
> gloss on GR that I missed the V. opening similarities altogether.
> Quibble: Benny isn't an orphan.  He goes to visit his folks midway through
> the book, finds them not in, and eats, concluding (quoting from memory),
> "They'd know he'd been there."
> Or did you mean orphan in a less literal sense?

Yes, I did actually. 

Heikki

P.S. For me the novel really gets started when the couple 
arrives in Cape Town.