John Dugdale's review of IV

[Rob Jackson]

On 26/07/2009, at 12:41 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:

> http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/fiction/article6723526.ece
>
> Dugdale—" I thought [or someone told me to think] that "Against the
> Day" sucks, so let's compare the two instead reading "Inherent Vice"
> as if it  can stand on its own two."


 From memory, it wasn't one of the better critical monographs on  
Pynchon's work, but Dugdale definitely has more credibility than he's  
being given credit for:

www.amazon.com/Thomas-Pynchon-Allusive-Parables-Power/dp/0312046308/

But I think that he has written quite a few on-balance negative  
reviews, like the current one, of Pynchon's subsequent works. Still, I  
don't think it's time to call in the undertakers just yet.

Dugdale is very much into the "American literary tradition" angle ...  
Melville, Hawthorne, Thoreau, etc.

ww.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_at_ep_srch/186-3456467-6180007?ie=UTF8&search- 
alias=books&field-author=John+Dugdale

all best