Inherent Vice - Hardcover

Pynchon, Thomas

3.78

34,527 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 022408948X ISBN 13: 9780224089487

Publisher: Jonathan Cape, 2009

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Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon – 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. It's 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. It's the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that 'love' is another of those words going around at the moment, like 'trip' or 'groovy', 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 weren't there...or...if you were there, then you...or, wait, is it...

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Review:

'characteristically hilarious and thought-provoking' --London Review of Books

Shorter and easier to read than any of Pynchon's previous novels...characteristically hilarious and thought-provoking' --The London Review Of Books

"Tremendously enjoyable" --Catholic Herald

the pioneering work in a genre you'd have to call psychedelic Noir ...Who writes sentences as beautiful as Pynchon?' --Daily Mail

'phantasmagorical' --Seven Magazine in Sunday Telegraph

`Thomas Pynchon...blended Chandler-esque noir with pastoral comedy' --Independent

Book Description:

The legendary author of V and Gravity's Rainbow is back with a taut, psychedelic yarn, about the sixties, featuring private eye Doc Sportello...

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