Thomas Pynchon's new novel: 'Inherent Vice'

[Richard Ryan]

"Lively yarn"?!? - Jesus, one hopes it's not as lame as this makes it sound....


--- On Tue, 11/25/08, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: Thomas Pynchon's new novel: 'Inherent Vice'
> To: "Pynchon-L" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Tuesday, November 25, 2008, 2:45 PM
> On Tue, Nov 25, 2008 at 1:39 PM, Dave Monroe
> <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> >
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2008/11/thomas-pynchons.html
> 
> Publisher Penguin's catalog reveals details about the
> upcoming book by
> Thomas Pynchon. As previously reported, it will be a
> detective novel
> hitting shelves next summer; the news is the title,
> "Inherent Vice."
> And details about the plot:
> 
> It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his
> ex-girlfriend.
> Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a
> plot to
> kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens
> to be in
> love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of
> the psychedelic
> sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is
> another of those words
> going around at the moment, like "trip" or
> "groovy," except that this
> one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds
> himself
> drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose
> cast of
> characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers,
> a murderous
> loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an
> ex-con with a
> swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a
> mysterious
> entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax
> dodge set up
> by some dentists.
> 
> In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an
> unaccustomed genre,
> provides a classic illustration of the principle that if
> you can
> remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . .
> if you were
> there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .
> 
> You might say I'm a little too much of a fan of
> "The Crying of Lot 49"
> -- I got only puzzled stares when I showed up at a
> Halloween party
> dressed as Oedipa Mass. But when I hear Pynchon,
> psychedelic sixties
> and billionaire land developer, I can't help but think
> Pierce
> Inverarity. Could this world overlap with the world of
> "The Crying of
> Lot 49"? Or will it be a bizarre sixties Southern
> California of its
> own?
> 
> Thanks to tireless litblogger Scott Esposito for finding
> the Pynchon
> entry in the the PDF catalog.
> 
> http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2008/11/thomas-pynchons.html
> 
> New Pynchon Details--Inherent Vice
> Penguin has posted its Summer '09 catalog online (PDF
> format), and it
> includes some details as to Pynchon's new novel.
> 
> The title will be Inherent Vice, and it deals with a
> private eye in
> '60s Los Angeles. From the catalog:
> 
> It's been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his
> ex-girlfriend.
> Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a
> plot to
> kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens
> to be in
> love with. Easy for her to say. It's the tail end of
> the psychedelic
> sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is
> another of those words
> going around at the moment, like "trip" or
> "groovy," except that this
> one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds
> himself
> drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose
> cast of
> characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers,
> a murderous
> loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an
> ex-con with a
> swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a
> mysterious
> entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax
> dodge set up
> by some dentists.
> 
> In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an
> unaccustomed genre,
> provides a classic illustration of the principle that if
> you can
> remember the sixties, you weren't there . . . or . . .
> if you were
> there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .
> 
> Sounds like a little Vineland and a little Crying of Lot
> 49.
> 
> http://www.conversationalreading.com/2008/11/new-pynchon-det.html
> 
> 
> http://www.conversationalreading.com/2008/11/new-pynchon-det.html