ATD: ad: Pynchon excerpt from new novel

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

" . . . Pynchon's  comedic gift  is not in "hilarious" set pieces like, say, the banana breakfast, but his ability at turn-of-phase in essentially ordinary situations. In this he is sublime. . . "

Rather similar to Don DeLillo in "White Noise", where most of the book's comedy came out of the extremely mannered quality of language used by the novel's professorial protagonist and narrator. Or Richard Russo's dialog in "Straight Man" or Nobody's Fool", where shooting the breeze is elevated to a fine art.

On the other hand, the man did come up with some rather good set-pieces---here's my nod for the Marquis de Sod.