IVIV reception: Kirn/NYT

[Doug Millison]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/books/review/Kirn-t.html

"For Doc, who stumbled into the detective trade and found that it  
suited his easygoing lifestyle, his beach bum neighbors are ideal  
clients, prone to getting into minor jams but disinclined to stir up  
serious trouble."

I wonder if Kirn listened to the book trailer video where Pynchon, in  
Doc's voice, explains that the beach represents a step-down from his  
previous PI work helping the police set up drug busts and shake-down  
schemes?  Maybe he he doesn't realize Doc has this past.

Kirn:
"This keeps Doc’s workload relatively light, freeing him to stay  
stoned around the clock  and live in the now, which isn’t hard for  
him, because he’s toked away his short-term memory. It’s a wonder he  
can still function as a person, let alone make a living as a sleuth.  
He nods off during stakeouts, draws blanks while quizzing witnesses  
and can’t seem to turn down the volume on the surf music playing  
incessantly inside his head."

Sounds pretty dysfunctional, when you line it up that, but then again  
maybe in this case pot is, as Mr Natural might say, "the right tool  
for the job"…

Kirn:
"For some, like Doc, whose cerebral equipment is particularly  
unreliable, this perennial mental challenge can prove insuperable, but  
that may be why Pynchon chose him for the job. His confusion is all of  
ours exaggerated, his paranoia a version of normal pattern making  
amped way up by his intake of hallucinogens. That doesn’t mean he’s  
blind, though, or delusional. Hyper-awareness makes sense at times,  
especially when, as in 1970 (the year in which the book is set), the  
times are changing more rapidly than usual and were radically out of  
joint to start with."