A small disclaimer: I'm not a big fan of mystery or suspense novels, meaning that I haven't read many, so entering into the new Pynchon novel cold was a bit more of an endeavor than I expected. It occurred to me at some point that in a mystery or suspense novel, you have a main character that you will eventually, if at all, learn more about. For me, that's a very hard way to get my attention and foster my sympathy for a fictional person. I need something more to work with, particularly at the beginning of a book.

With that said, I don't think Pynchon is up to his best work here. I felt his work lacked the depth and dimension of his previous books, and he relied too heavily upon static situations that were loosely strung together and seemed to have no use other than for titillation or low brow comic effect; the characters were more caricatures and stereotypes of common and popular social figures: stoners, surfers, policemen, detectives, and nymphets, which gets old really fast. I felt that the novel didn't begin to develop until one third of the way in, and his writing really didn't start moving until the last fifth of the book.

For die hard Pynchon fans, this will be a must have book and good read comparable to The Crying of Lot 49, but it's hardly classic Pynchon, and to me it doesn't stand up to his better crafted works.

If you are a die hard Pynchon fan, you'll probably love it. In that case, I can highly recommend it, yet I would have a hard time giving the same recommendation to others. (via Amazon.com)