Inherent Vice (Hardcover) ~ Robert P. Winston (Author) Cover Art

Inherent Vice (Hardcover)

By: Robert P. Winston (Author)

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Review

"INHERENT VICE not only reminds us how rooted Mr. Pynchon's authorial vision is in the '60s and '70s, but it also demystifies his work, underscoring the similarities that his narratives--which mix high and low cultural allusions, silly pranks and gnomic historical references, mischievous puns, surreal dreamlike sequences and a playful sense of the absurd--share with the work of artists like Bob Dylan, Ken Kesey, Jack Kerouac and even Richard Brautigan."

"[Pynchon] writes with a rich mastery of the era's detail: rock groups now forgotten, odd hangouts (a Japanese greasy spoon that offers the best Swedish pancakes in Los Angeles), surfing, motorcycle brands, and the generosity of forbearance among the '60s generation."

"Hard-boiled detective fiction may not seem like the ideal vehicle for the often cryptic style and subject matter of Thomas Pynchon, but his newest novel proves otherwise....Perhaps the most refreshing aspect of "Inherent Vice" is that, while a few key elements of this baroque construction go unaccounted for, a surprising number of plot strands are more or less neatly tied up by the novel's end. The story isn't easy to follow, but it can be followed...."

"[S]elf-consciously laid-back and funky....a slightly spoofy take on hardboiled crime fiction....Pynchon's capacity for goofball invention is limitless."

"[A] deliciously composed dark comedy....charming and pleasing."

Publisher's note

Reluctantly investigating a kidnapping threat against his ex-girlfriend's billionaire beau, Doc Sportello tackles a bizarre tangle of nefarious characters and his own marijuana habit before stumbling on a mysterious entity that may actually be a tax shelter for a dental group. By a National Book Award-winning author.

Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchona private eye Doc Sportello comes, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era as free love slips away and paranoia creeps in with the L.A. fog
Itas been awhile since Doc Sportello has seen his ex-girlfriend. Suddenly out of nowhere she shows up with a story about a plot to kidnap a billionaire land developer whom she just happens to be in love with. Easy for her to say. Itas the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that alovea is another of those words going around at the moment, like atripa or agroovy, a except that this one usually leads to trouble. Despite which he soon finds himself drawn into a bizarre tangle of motives and passions whose cast of characters includes surfers, hustlers, dopers and rockers, a murderous loan shark, a tenor sax player working undercover, an ex-con with a swastika tattoo and a fondness for Ethel Merman, and a mysterious entity known as the Golden Fang, which may only be a tax dodge set up by some dentists.
In this lively yarn, Thomas Pynchon, working in an unaccustomed genre, provides a classic illustration of the principle that if you can remember the sixties, you werenat there . . . or . . . if you were there, then you . . . or, wait, is it . . .

Annotation

Billed as somewhat of a departure from the erudite, postmodern-encyclopedia style with which he made a name for himself, Thomas Pynchon's eighth novel, INHERENT VICE, hangs charmingly and precariously on a noir plot involving a kidnapping schemed up by a femme fatale, told from the perspective of private dick Doc Sportello. Sportello, as the proprietor of LSD Investigations (Location, Surveillance, Detection, that is), prefers to survey the world through the gauzy tint supplied by a nice marijuana buzz. He lurks around Los Angeles circa 1969, bumping into all kinds of shady characters and trotting out an elegantly knotted wad of psychedelic sub-plots, footnoted paranoia, and conspiratorial allusions to all kinds of culture. Sometimes Doc's trying to get information out of a hustler or a surf-rock sax player. Sometimes he's puzzling the meaning of the Golden Fang--does this mysterious boat really exist, or is it all hype, an elaborate tax shelter or a heroin trafficking ring? Sometimes he's contending with the listlessness left in the wake of the quickly dissipating optimism of the 1960s. Sometimes he's just trying to keep track of his feelings for the ex-girlfriend who's popped back up and gotten him into this whole mess. As he did with his second book, THE CRYING OF LOT 49, Pynchon has once again crafted a complex, beautifully dense book with a mystery (or two, or 20) at its heart that may or may not ultimately be of much importance. Pynchon infuses all this with his particular sense of humor, making this as enjoyable as it is confounding.

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