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Journalist and occultist Alan Cabal placed Inherent Vice as Pynchon's most accessible novel, noting that it "might be the herald of a whole new genre: psychedelic noir".[1] A review by academic Louis Menand in The New Yorker declared the novel to be "a generally lighthearted affair", yet he added that there were still "a few familiar apocalyptic touches, and a suggestion that countercultural California is a lost continent of freedom and play, swallowed up by the faceless forces of coöptation and repression".[2] While author Andy Martin considered Inherent Vice to have "more heart than any other [Pynchon work]",[3] Sam Anderson, in a scathing review in New York magazine, wrote that "With no suspense and nothing at stake, Pynchon’s manic energy just feels like aimless invention."[4]
Journalist and occultist Alan Cabal placed Inherent Vice as Pynchon's most accessible novel, noting that it "might be the herald of a whole new genre: psychedelic noir".[1] A review by academic Louis Menand in The New Yorker declared the novel to be "a generally lighthearted affair", yet he added that there were still "a few familiar apocalyptic touches, and a suggestion that countercultural California is a lost continent of freedom and play, swallowed up by the faceless forces of coöptation and repression".[2] While author Andy Martin considered Inherent Vice to have "more heart than any other [Pynchon work]",[3] Sam Anderson, in a scathing review in New York magazine, wrote that "With no suspense and nothing at stake, Pynchon’s manic energy just feels like aimless invention."[4]
And , just so this will be on topic, I didn't understand one word of that paragraph you quoted...I like murder mysteries with short words
you would love him, Who? If you're thinking of starting reading him I suggest Gravity's Rainbow first, though; it's accessible and will keep you in another world (and intimidated, if you ever fancied you had a talent for turning a phrase, or even if you ever thought you were smart) for YEARS.
I think I will start reading him. Do his books "grab you" and keep you?
I wouldnt say they do. Characters are symbols rather than people and tend to be driven by the action required of them to draw the big picture. (But they're human and likeable!) His style is confident and unpretentious. I've never read a cliche, a manipulation or an artificial emotion, ever anywhere. And his descriptive talent is unique and always clear, unparalleled -- and his encyclopedic knowledge of history, science, international existence in the 40s from military maneuvers to underwear (thinking of GR), on top of his constructive talent...I cant describe it, he's just a genius.
About the worst I think anyone could say of him might be that he's awfully fond of the counterculture codes of the late 1960s, maybe overvalues them, but that would be a subjective gripe. GR and V arent set in the 60s anyway.
I havent read Mason & Dixon or Against the Day, but Ive read Gravity's Rainbow, Vineland, V and Lot 49. This new book might be similar to Vineland in some ways.
OTOH, from the "scathing review" mentioned above:
I find him tedious, shallow, monotonous, flippant, self-satisfied, and screamingly unfunny. I hate his aesthetic from floor to ceiling: the relentless patter of his Borscht Belt gags, his parodically overstuffed plots, his ham-fisted verbs (scowling, growling, glaring, leering, lurching) and adjectives (lurid, louche, lecherous), the tumbling micro-rhythms of his sentences, the galloping macro-rhythms of his larger narratives.
The New Yorker's more practical review gives a quote that sounds just like him, reassuringly. And its review might actually answer your question about this smaller book with a Yes!
But [the central character, a detective] does walk down mean streets (or the L.A. equivalent: bikers, drug dealers, sex-club performers, nefarious dentists) and is not himself mean. He pines after the ex-girlfriend, flees in terror a never-ending sequence of heavies, fences with his police counterpart (another hardboiled convention—in this case, the cop is a hippie-hater named Bigfoot Bjornsen), takes on cases without hope of a fee, is nice to his mom, and shares his stash. He is a man of honor, and a neat, counterintuitive creation.
***
“Inherent Vice” is a generally lighthearted affair. Still, there are a few familiar apocalyptic touches, and a suggestion that countercultural California is a lost continent of freedom and play, swallowed up by the faceless forces of coöptation and repression:
Was it possible, that at every gathering—concert, peace rally, love-in, be-in, and freak-in, here, up north, back East, wherever—those dark crews had been busy all along, reclaiming the music, the resistance to power, the sexual desire from epic to everyday, all they could sweep up, for the ancient forces of greed and fear?
I couldn't make it through Gravity's Rainbow.
Never read any David Foster Wallace.
I think a lot of this postmodern stuff goes over my little blond head.
I like a dense, descriptive book, but symbolism often escapes me.
Inherent Vice looks like something I could handle.
heh
"Gumsandal."
Thanks for the thread and links! I really enjoyed GR, V, and Lot 49 - never read the others. Even so, I do agree he can be tedious and awfully pleased with himself like the one reviewer noted. Ah well, was worth the slog Might check this new story out!
Thanks for the thread and links! I really enjoyed GR, V, and Lot 49 - never read the others. Even so, I do agree he can be tedious and awfully pleased with himself like the one reviewer noted. Ah well, was worth the slog Might check this new story out!
Me too - but I get the feeling it's going to be like Vineland, which after the big ones was so small and specific a-and -- un-universal! -- that I was disappointed. But maybe it'll be more like Lot 49 -- and I love the idea of him ambling thru th' private eye genre.
Except for the scenes related to the martial arts place in Vineland I dont find him inaccessible or tedious, but I'd be pleased with myself, too...I think he just has a good time writing and who knows what his editors cut? His message is humble, and angry...he's pure and true seems to me.
I havent read GR straight through cover t'cover in a lotta years, but throughout the year I need to check in on the English at The White Visitation or reread the jagged fragmenting of the end of Slothrop, or just feel the need for a certain passage or section OR just pick it up and open it to whatever random section and ride along for hundreds of pages, just bathing in that effortless poetry.
Dont know where my copy of Lot 49 is but I could use a visit to that San Narciso. A-and that's another thing, toosie, th' small books date themselves, but that GR, it doesnt even have a date!
Last edited by delusianne; 08-08-2009 at 11:43 AM..
Journalist and occultist Alan Cabal placed Inherent Vice as Pynchon's most accessible novel, noting that it "might be the herald of a whole new genre: psychedelic noir".[1]
"Alan Cabal"?
wow, nice lengthy quote from the new book in "Alan Cabal"'s review (y'have to get past all the Alan Cabal first):
"Alan Cabal" winds up with, "It’s a hugely comic novel that ends on a wistful, tragic note lost in the fog, out on the freeway, the procession of the preterite, not sure where they’re going, not sure where they are. It’s a love letter to the Sixties, a wake, an elegy to doomed aspirations and thwarted idealism, but it speaks to our present condition directly and clearly, with an open heart. Nobody does it better."
Like Vineland...and Oedipa by herself...though Oedipa never became idealistic the way a classic private eye is (though they're, ah, unconscious of how firm their ideals are until they're challenged...actually this sounds exciting...)
Last edited by delusianne; 08-08-2009 at 11:24 AM..
Reason: last sentences
you would love him, Who? If you're thinking of starting reading him I suggest Gravity's Rainbow first, though; it's accessible and will keep you in another world (and intimidated, if you ever fancied you had a talent for turning a phrase, or even if you ever thought you were smart) for YEARS.
"Welcome aboard, gee, it's a fabulous or-gy...."
OK, I went to the library and went to Pychon and HOLY COW! Those are BIG books! What are tryin' to do to me! I mean, they're like THICK, bet they're over 400 pages! Anyway I was brave , I kept looking and there was a Pynchon for ME!
Title: Slow Learner
LOL! I am so glad you were kind enough to NOT recommend that one!!
I'll let ya know what I think (it's only 193 pages, I can handle it!!)
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...I like murder mysteries with short words
Might check this new story out!
What are tryin' to do to me! I mean, they're like THICK, bet they're over 400 pages! Anyway I was brave , I kept looking and there was a Pynchon for ME!
