Inherent Vice Review, The Providence Journal

[Robin Landseadel]

The only review I've read so far that demonstrates just how much  
Pynchon owes Chandler, at least as regards the labyrinth twistings of  
plot in Chandler's books.:	

	Thomas Pynchon’s ‘Inherent Vice’ is nostalgic haze of 	
	marijuana miasma
	01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, August 16, 2009
	By Sam Coale

	Special to the Journal

	 . . .The plot — is that what you call it? Well, it does eventually  
scan
	if you feel like scanning, but why not just ride the wacky waves
	and surf your way to the Kismet Lounge? — involves Larry
	“Doc” Sportello, a likably vague private eye, who consumes
	more weed than Kew Gardens. He runs LSD Investigations:
	“Location, Surveillance, Detection.” His former squeeze, Shasta
	Fay Hepworth, has taken up with real estate mogul Mickey
	Wolfmann, who’s been kidnapped. One of his Aryan
	Brotherhood bodyguards, Glen Charlock, has been shot.

	And then the Golden Fang appears in various guises: a
	mysterious ship, a tax dodge, an Indochinese heroin operation
	that may involve the dentist, Rudy Blatnoyd, who ends up dead.
	As does Leonard Jarmine Loosemeat, known as El Drano,
	who’s a dealer and supplies Coy Harlington, who’s supposed
	to be dead, with bad smack. Bigfoot Bjornsen of the LAPD is on
	the case. Or part of it.

	And there’s the acid-dealing oracle, Vehi Fairfield; Puck
	Beaverton, who had worked with Glen but is somehow tied in
	with loan shark Adrian Prussia, who may be a hit man involved
	in the murder of Bigfoot’s partner. How much do Tito Stavrou,
	the limo driver, and Trillium Fortnight, yet another bouncing,
	mini-skirted bimbo, know? Why is Riggs Warbling carrying a .44
	Magnum? Is Tariq Khalil involved in gun-running? . .

http://www.projo.com/books/content/BOOK-PYNCHON_08-16-09_2KFAQM6_v12.f789f5.html