Pynchon Beach Lit

When I stumbled upon the release date of a new Thomas Pynchon novel I was floored. Against The Day was published three years ago. In Pynchon time that was two weeks ago. The new book was said to be a noirish detective story set against a psychedelic backdrop. Now I was sold and floored.

And then I saw this:





What a cornball cover. This is exactly what I wanted, a really cornball Pynchon novel. All of his novels border on cornball or sometimes fully embrace it. But this novel promised with that image to teeter on fun/insanity.

Thomas Pynchon and beach lit in the same sentence is a stretch but this book is literally beach lit. Set in (fictional) Gordita Beach California, P.I. Doc Sportello, passes joints with surfers, rockers, lawyers, criminals, internet pioneers, industrialists, etc. And goes on the wildest pro-bono turkey chase, down a labyrinth of conspiracy leads and most likely forgets it all or most of it, no doubt, because he suffers from Doper's Memory.

This is definitely Pynchon's most accessible read and will not need a guide to help one get through his references because we all know about Gilligan's Island, and the Beach Boys.

And some of us know about:


-Matthew

Published by Penguin Press 2009
369 pages