Pynchon's letters to the German Vineland translator

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

http://www.welt.de/data/2004/10/30/352919.html?prx=1

Follow the crucial passages in my rough translation:

" (...) Out of a file van Gunsteren fishes two faxes from
Melanie Jackson, Pynchon's agent and, what back in 1992 hardly
anybody knew, also his wife. 'Dear Dirk van Gunsteren', it 
starts, and in in the end it really says 'Yours truly, Thomas
Pynchon'. The T is a hook, the P a loop and the y is a nearly
dull line. (...) 'All I ask for', writes the phantom [P],
'is that it reads better in German than it does in English
(just kidding!)'. And then Pynchon sounds again entirely like 
Pynchon: 'Please don't hesitate to ask further questions, I'll
do my best --- although some source materials did go to the shredder (a Triumph-Adler, produced in Nürnberg) a long time 
ago'. (...) 'You have looked at the book more accurately than 
anybody else', a friendly Thomas Pynchon wrote. (...)" 

Don't think van Gunsteren's translation is flawless; it manages
to bring over the original's sound & atmosphere, though. 

KFL +