IVIV "heart" in Pynchon's novels

[Doug Millison]

Does VL show more "heart" that M&D, ATD, or IV?  It's a fuzzy enough  
question to keep p-listers busy well into the next century and I for  
one am thrilled at that prospect. Please count me among readers who  
find in all of Pynchon's novels a deep understanding of and compassion  
for the human condition, in the way he shapes his novels to  
demonstrate the sometimes inhuman forces that force humans into  
compromises they might not otherwise freely choose, and in the way he  
shapes his characters to reveal ways we might resemble or resonate  
with them, thereby helping us poor preterite readers to see ourselves  
in a different light.  I think he sees right into the heart of the  
tragedy, comedy, banality, and pain of life in this broken and  
polluted world, and he does a wonderful job of communicating what he  
sees in ways that have fascinated me since 1973.