Monday, January 30, 2012

Vineland - Thomas Pynchon

It's 1984 in Vineland, a place in Northern California where refugees from the 60's have gone to flee the re-election of Ronald Regan's America. In Vineland television, drugs, rock'n'roll, mysticism, revolution and repression all meet. You can get your karma adjusted or join the ranks of the not quite dead, but you have to look out, because the DEA and the FBI and the state are all after you, for something you might have done or maybe will do.  But even the man has to deal with its own issues, such as budget cuts that leave you in arm's reach from your prey, standing on a ladder hanging from a helicopter when the call comes in. The plot is too complex to summarize, the characters too unique to encapsulate, but its a funny, weird, wonderful book. In a word, it's... Pynchonesque.

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