Does Pynchon Produce Only 'Masterworks'?

[Carvill, John]

This passage, from Quail's 'Modern World' site, sums up very well some
of what I was trying to articulate about Vineland's structure:

"Though Vineland is one of Pynchon's most accessible novels, it
nevertheless has its own intriguing and ultimately rewarding
complexities. As with all of Pynchon's fiction, one cannot grasp the
whole all at once, and Vineland is careful not to reveal things in a
strictly linear fashion. Three generations and their many
interconnections form quite a substantial narrative web, and for the
most part, we are forced to construct the story along with young
Prairie. A book that bears a second reading, not until the very end do
we really see the Big Picture. Also typical of Pynchon's writing, there
are numerous stylistic pitfalls to snare the unwary: stories nested
within stories, unpredictable leaps into fantasy, and a narrative point
of view that tends to shift gears unexpectedly. In the end, however,
Vineland emerges as a seamlessly crafted work, and like V. and Lot 49,
one that allows a certain openness in the interpretation of several key
events."

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_works.html


Simarly, the Babies of Wackiness guide to Vineland:

"The book's structure is cinematic, and extremely complex: its story
unreels in a daunting set of jump cuts and nested flashbacks worthy of
an underground movie by Stan Brakhage or Gregory Markopoulos. Typically,
Pynchon begins a section of narrative with one character telling (or
remembering) an incident, but before too long he's shifted
point-of-view, jumped to another linked flashback (or flashforward), or
rotated into pure fantasy. He seldom emerges from a flashback in the
same place, at the same time, or with the same character with which he
started. Nonetheless, Pynchon is such a masterful story-teller that the
narrative thread is never lost; his fractured editing just adds to the
fun."

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/BoW.pdf