Vineland the good.

[Joseph Tracy]

I just had a thought that seems worth sounding out.  Perhaps  
Vineland's unique place in TRP's body of work  has to do with his  
closeness to it. Some define the novel as fiction of its own time;   
Buddhists define the navel similarly, but by that definition( which I  
1st heard in some Am. lit class) VL and CoL49 are his only novels. Is  
it possible that P is handling something he is close to with extra  
tenderness and hope. By setting the story in 1984 he is asking us  
where America is going and his closeness to the subject causes him to  
handle it with more restraint and focus, perhaps less literary  
playfulness. If so it may speak in a special way about his hopes for  
his own country.