Inherent Vice review from SHIGEKUNI's Blog

[Robin Landseadel]

Very interesting, detailed and knowing review. Goes deeper than anyone  
else so far [Sorry John] into what makes Inherent Vice a genuine  
Pynchon novel:

	Doc Sportello is a wonderful creation, he is the book or rather: he’s
	its warm, beating heart. This book could have been a cold,
	annoyingly clever mess, brainy but emotionally empty, but
	Sportello is the reason why that isn’t the case. Sportello is
	committed. Things are important to him, it’s why he’s such a good
	sleuth. Everything. Start with drugs: in Sportello’s world, drugs can
	enhance your mind, and disable you at the same time, which may
	sound banal, but consider: Sportello does not take drugs as a
	novelty act, his attitude towards drugs reflects the importance of
	drugs to many people in his time, the great potential of taking
	something that would open your mind to new possibilities, grander
	vistas. Again, banal, maybe, but it’s important to this book and to
	Pynchon and to Doc Sportello. I am not saying that Pynchon isn’t
	having a huge amount of fun at Sportello’s expense, he certainly
	is, but it’s not malicious and it’s fun that Sportello would have
	appreciated. And this fun saves many parts of the book from a
	dour earnestness that looms over sections where Sportello
	ponders how similar he’s become to a policeman. It looms but it
	never breaks out. Pynchon’s mastery and his use of the light
	register keep everything smooth and humorous. He’s not
	necessarily ‘zany’, it’s a much more controlled and versed brand
	of humor.

http://shigekuni.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/gumsandal-thomas-pynchons-inherent-vice/