Famous couplesm (with a very minor spoiler)

[Monte Davis]

> Actually the development of the friendship seems
> to be quite subtle and is one of the more serious
> aspects of the novel (thus far)


Spoiler...















It's been said that the real protagonist of Patrick O'Brien's
Aubrey-Maturin novels is the friendship of the two -- not a fixed thing,
but artfully modulated by their travels, the ups and downs of their careers
and family lives, and the rhythms of life on a sailing ship.

Pynchon's nod to "the best yarn-spinner in the fleet" tells me how he spent
a good many rewarding hours when not working on M&D.