New Releases by Thomas Pynchon

A New York Times Bestseller • A New York Times, Washington Post, and Associated Press Notable Book • Named a Best Book of the Year by The Los Angeles Times, Vulture, TIME, The Guardian, The New Republic, and LitHub The new novel from Thomas Pynchon, author of Gravity''s Rainbow, The Crying of Lot 49, Vineland, and Inherent Vice. “A masterpiece.” —The Telegraph “Bonkers and brilliant fun.” —The Washington Post “Late Pynchon at his finest. Dark as a vampire’s pocket, light-fingered as a jewel thief, Shadow Ticket capers across the page with breezy, baggy-pants assurance — and then pauses on its way down the fire escape just long enough to crack your heart open.” —The Los Angeles Times Milwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there’s no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement—and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he’s supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can’t see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it’s the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he’s a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.

In Europa, verso la fine della Seconda guerra mondiale, Londra è ancora sotto i bombardamenti. I razzi V-2, temibile e fantomatica arma nazista, sono legati in modo misterioso all''esuberante vita sessuale di un giovane ufficiale americano, Tyrone Slothrop: ogni volta che il militare va a letto con una donna, un missile precipita nella zona circostante. Detective, rabdomante, reincarnazione postmoderna di un cavaliere all''inseguimento del Graal, Slothrop anticipa e insegue le esplosioni muovendosi nello spazio e nel tempo, attorniato da un esercito di personaggi bizzarri, dentro a un febbrile proliferare di storie che disegnano un''opera in continuo mutamento. Un romanzo che è un universo vivente, e si nutre di sacro e profano, di tragedia e irrisione, di esoterismo, mito, scienza e cultura pop. Pubblicato nel 1973, L''arcobaleno della gravità è il romanzo cruciale della letteratura postmoderna, e uno dei libri fondamentali della letteratura novecentesca.

Il racconto di un tempo funestato da grandi aziende assetate di profitti, da falsi profeti religiosi, dall''idiozia inconcludente e dalla malvagità di chi comanda: ovviamente qualsiasi riferimento a fatti che avvengono in questi giorni è puramente casuale.

Londres à l''époque du " Blitz ". Le lieutenant américain Slothrop semble avoir été conditionné dès l''enfance pour connaître des érections à l''endroit où des explosions vont avoir lieu. La carte de ses exploits sexuels anticipe donc légèrement celle des V2 et de leurs fatals impacts. Il est logique qu''" on " s''intéresse de près à lui, notamment Roger Mexico, expert en prévisions guerrières. Il y a des conspirations, de la science, du sexe, des sacrifices, et des centaines de personnages qui se croisent, se perdent, des savants fous, des espions kirghizes, un coprophage, une tribu africaine déportée, une Hollandaise à double-jeu, une pieuvre apprivoisée, des femmes faciles, des filles et des fils illégitimes. Ce roman de la guerre et de ses débordements se déroule à Londres, beaucoup, puis à Nice, en Hollande, et dans l''Allemagne dévastée. Il y a un complot à fuir ou à démasquer. Mais quel complot ? " Un roman post-apocalyptique où les personnages traversent les pages comme nous-mêmes les lisons : hébétés, stupéfiés ou fébriles, devant le chaos, l''accumulation insensée, la destruction folle. Bien sûr, cette Seconde Guerre mondiale est métaphorique, c''est l''image choisie par Pynchon pour parler de l''univers moderne, pour mettre en scène la ruine de l''esprit. Métaphoriques aussi sont les V2 : ce sont des merveilles technologiques, la courbe qu''ils décrivent est splendide et comme ils vont plus vite que la vitesse du son, on ne les entend arriver qu''après coup, une fois qu''ils ont frappé ; ils semblent aussi porter la mort au hasard, sans raison. Ne sont-ils pas de belles images de la science ? " (Claude Grimal, La Quinzaine littéraire ). Traduit de l''Anglais (États-Unis) par Michel Doury.

Le climat se détraque, des trombes d''eau se déversent sans fin dans le ciel californien, des ouragans s''abattent en Louisiane et font dégorger les bayous de macchabées. Les étudiants ont une fâcheuse tendance à noyer leur ennui jusqu''à plus soif dans des fêtes décadentes, les adultes sont pris de méchanceté, les enfants organisés en bandes cultivent la désobéissance et l''anarchisme, captent des ondes radio d''un ailleurs étrangement beau et fabriquent des grenades au sodium. D''autres, entre deux âges, pas tout à fait remis des éblouissements de l''enfance, entendent des symphonies dans le bruissement du vent, se frottent à la mort d''un peu trop près et, pour les plus chanceux, découvrent des mondes souterrains sous les décharges publiques. Composé de cinq nouvelles publiées entre 1959 et 1964, ce recueil, préfacé par Thomas Pynchon lui-même, est une parfaite façon d''entrer dans l''œuvre du mystérieux écrivain américain. Ses grands thèmes y sont déjà présents : la cohabitation des espaces visibles et invisibles avec leurs lieux de passages bizarres, les théories scientifiques qui permettront d''expliquer peut-être le fonctionnement chaotique du monde, l''absurdité des situations sur fond de session musicale improvisée.

En rentrant d''une soirée bien arrosée, Œdipa Maas, jeune femme de vingt-huit ans, reçoit un courrier d''un certain Metzger, avocat. La lettre lui apprend qu''elle est l''exécutrice testamentaire d''un ex-petit ami, Pierce Inverarity, magnat californien de l''immobilier. Afin d''honorer ses dernières volontés, Œdipa quitte sa ville pour San Narciso et s''installe dans un motel. Elle y fait la connaissance de Metzger qui l''épaulera dans ce qui devait être une simple formalité... Sauf que le legs est étrange : en plus d''usines et de biens immobiliers, son ex possédait une collection de plusieurs milliers de (faux) timbres. Et fortuitement, d''étranges coïncidences surviennent : dans le bar " Le Scope " qui semble être le seul lieu animé de San Narciso et qui est rempli d''ouvriers travaillant dans une usine de Pierce Inverarity, Œdipa et Metzger rencontrent un jeune spécialiste de l''histoire des Postes depuis le XVIe s., un postier qui fait sa tournée de courrier en nocturne, trouvent des messages secrets dans les toilettes du bar... À cela s''ajoutent la découverture d''un trafic d''os humains ainsi qu''une pièce de théâtre du XVIe traitant des Postes illégales. Tous ces signes sans connexion apparente seront le point de départ d''une enquête dans laquelle les personnages déjantés plongent dans le smog californien et dans un espace-temps.

"Brilliantly written...a joy to read...Bleeding Edge is totally gonzo, totally wonderful. It really is good to have Thomas Pynchon around, doing what he does best." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post "Exemplary...dazzling and ludicrous." - Jonathan Lethem, The New York Times Book Review It is 2001 in New York City, in the lull between the collapse of the dot-com boom and the terrible events of September 11th. Maxine Tarnow runs a fine little fraud investigation business on the Upper West Side. All is ticking over nice and normal, until she starts looking into the finances of a computer-security firm and its billionaire geek CEO. She soon finds herself mixed up with a drug runner in an art deco motorboat, a professional nose obsessed with Hitler’s aftershave, a neoliberal enforcer with footwear issues, and an array of bloggers, hackers, code monkeys, and entrepreneurs, some of whom begin to show up mysteriously dead. Foul play, of course. Will perpetrators be revealed, forget about brought to justice? Will Maxine have to take the handgun out of her purse? Will Jerry Seinfeld make an unscheduled guest appearance? Will accounts secular and karmic be brought into balance? Hey. Who wants to know?

Avec ce roman planétaire et foisonnant qui débute par l''Exposition universelle de Chicago, en 1893, pour s''achever au lendemain de la Première Guerre mondiale, à Paris, Pynchon réussit son œuvre la plus ambitieuse et la plus émouvante. S''attachant à dépeindre aussi bien les luttes anarchistes dans l''Ouest américain que la Venise du tournant du siècle, les enjeux ferroviaires d''une Europe sur le point de basculer dans un conflit généralisé, les mystères de l''Orient mythique ou les frasques de la révolution mexicaine, l''auteur déploie une galerie de personnages de roman-feuilleton en perpétuelle expansion – jeunes aéronautes, espions fourbes, savants fous, prestidigitateurs, amateurs de drogue, etc. –, tous embringués dans des mésaventures dignes des Marx Brothers. Au cœur du livre, la famille Traverse : Webb, mineur et as de la dynamite, exécuté sur ordre du ploutocrate Scarsdale Vibe ; ses enfants, tous hantés par la mort de leur père, certains bien décidés à le venger, d''autres déjà avalés par les contradictions du siècle naissant. Et gravitant autour d''eux, tels des astres égarés, quelques figures hautes en couleur, qui toutes ont un compte à régler avec le pouvoir. Veillant sur ce " petit monde ", quelque part dans les airs : les Casse-Cou, bande de joyeux aéronautes qui, avec le lecteur, suivent non sans inquiétude la lente montée des périls. Empruntant avec jubilation à tous les genres – fantastique, espionnage, aventure, western, gaudriole –, rythmé par des incursions dans des temps et des mondes parallèles, écrit dans une langue tour à tour drolatique et poignante, savante et gourmande, Contre-jour s''impose comme une épopée toute tendue vers la grâce. Traduit de l''anglais (Etats-Unis) par Claro

“[Pynchon''s] funniest and arguably his most accessible novel.” —The New York Times Book Review “Raunchy, funny, digressive, brilliant.” —USA Today “Rich and sweeping, wild and thrilling.” —The Boston Globe Spanning the era between the Chicago World''s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, and constantly moving between locations across the globe (and to a few places not strictly speaking on the map at all), Against the Day unfolds with a phantasmagoria of characters that includes anarchists, balloonists, drug enthusiasts, mathematicians, mad scientists, shamans, spies, and hired guns. As an era of uncertainty comes crashing down around their ears and an unpredictable future commences, these folks are mostly just trying to pursue their lives. Sometimes they manage to catch up; sometimes it''s their lives that pursue them.

"An exhilarating spectacle of greatness discovering its powers." —New Republic "Funny and wise enough to charm the gravity from a rainbow...All five of the pieces have unusual narrative vigor and inventiveness." —The New York Times Compiling five short stories originally written between 1959 and 1964, Slow Learner showcases Thomas Pynchon’s writing before the publication of his first novel V. The stories compiled here are “The Small Rain,” “Low-lands,” “Entropy,” “Under the Rose,” and “The Secret Integration,” along with an introduction by Pynchon himself that Time Magazine calls his "first public gesture toward autobiography."

"This work may well stand as one of the very best works of the century." —Atlantic Review "[A] brilliant and turbulent first novel." —George Plimpton, New York Times Book Review The wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men—one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose—and “V.,” the unknown woman of the title. Pynchon''s debut novel follows discharged Navy sailor Benny Profane as he reconnects with an eclectic collection of artists in New York known as the "Whole Sick Crew" along with his sidekick Pig Bodine, and the plot of Herbert Stencil, looking to find the woman he knows only as she is described in his father''s diary: "V." Brimming with madcap characters, the novel meanders from New York to Alexandria, Cairo, Paris, Florence, and Africa, and traverses generations. Time magazine raves, "Few books haunt the waking or the sleeping mind, but this is one."

The inspiration for One Battle After Another "Quite simply, one of those books that will make this world - our world, our daily chemical-preservatice, plastic-wrapped bread - a little more tolerable, a little more human . . . [Pynchon''s] voice - absolutely unmistakeable and absolutely inimitable . . . is the American voice of the late twentieth century." —Frank McConnell, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Later than usual one summer morning in 1984 . . ." On California''s fog-hung North Coast, the enchanted redwood groves of Vineland County harbor a wild assortment of Sixties survivors and refugees from the "Nixonian Reaction," still struggling with the consequences of their past lives. Aging hippie freak Zoyd Wheeler is revving up for his annual act of televised insanity when news reaches him that his old nemesis, sinister Federal agent Brock Vond, has come storming into Vineland at the head of a heavily armed Justice Department strike force. Zoyd instantly disappears underground, but not before dispatching his teenage daughter Prairie on a dark odyssey into her secret, unspeakable past . . . Freely combining disparate elements from American pop culture - spy thrillers, Ninja potboilers, TV soap operas, sci-fi fantasies - Vineland emerges as what Salman Rushdie has called in the New York Times Book Review "that rarest of birds: a major political novel about what America has been doing to itself, to its children, all these many years."

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years “The comedy crackles, the puns pop, the satire explodes.”—The New York Times “The work of a virtuoso with prose . . . His intricate symbolic order [is] akin to that of Joyce’s Ulysses.”—Chicago Tribune “A puzzle, an intrigue, a literary and historical tour de force.”—San Francsisco Examiner The highly original satire about Oedipa Maas, a woman who finds herself enmeshed in a worldwide conspiracy. When her ex-lover, wealthy real-estate tycoon Pierce Inverarity, dies and designates her the coexecutor of his estate, California housewife Oedipa Maas is thrust into a paranoid mystery of metaphors, symbols, and the United States Postal Service. Traveling across Southern California, she meets some extremely interesting characters, and attains a not inconsiderable amount of self-knowledge.

"A novel that is as moving as it is cerebral, as poignant as it is daring." - Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times "Mason & Dixon - like Huckleberry Finn, like Ulysses - is one of the great novels about male friendship in anybody''s literature." - John Leonard, The Nation Charles Mason (1728–1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as reimagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, major caffeine abuse. Unreflectively entangled in crimes of demarcation, Mason & Dixon take us along on a grand tour of the Enlightenment’s dark hemisphere, from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope, to pre-Revolutionary America and back to England, into the shadowy yet redemptive turns of their later lives, through incongruities in conscience, parallaxes of personality, tales of questionable altitude told and intimated by voices clamoring not to be lost. Along the way they encounter a plentiful cast of characters, including Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, and Samuel Johnson, as well as a Chinese feng shui master, a Swedish irredentist, a talking dog, and a robot duck. The quarrelsome, daring, mismatched pair—Mason as melancholy and Gothic as Dixon is cheerful and pre-Romantic—pursues a linear narrative of irregular lives, observing, and managing to participate in the many occasions of madness presented them by the Age of Reason.

The New York Times bestseller • Named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times “The funniest book Pynchon has written.” —Rolling Stones “Entertainment of a high order.” —Time Magazine Part noir, part psychedelic romp, all Thomas Pynchon—private eye Doc Sportello surfaces, occasionally, out of a marijuana haze to watch the end of an era. It''s been a while 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. It''s the tail end of the psychedelic sixties in L.A., and Doc knows that "love" is another one of those words going around at the moment, like "trip" or "groovy," except that this one usually leads to trouble. 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 . . .

Spanning the period between the Chicago World''s Fair of 1893 and the years just after World War I, this novel moves from the labor troubles in Colorado to turn-of-the-century New York, to London and Gottingen, Venice and Vienna, the Balkans, Central Asia, Siberia at the time of the mysterious Tunguska Event, Mexico during the Revolution, postwar Paris, silent-era Hollywood, and one or two places not strictly speaking on the map at all.

Charles Mason (1728-1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733-1779) were the British surveyors best remembered for running the boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland that we know today as the Mason-Dixon Line. Here is their story as re-imagined by Thomas Pynchon, featuring Native Americans and frontier folk, ripped bodices, naval warfare, conspiracies erotic and political, and major caffeine abuse. We follow the mismatched pair--one rollicking, the other depressive; one Gothic, the other pre-Romantic--from their first journey together to the Cape of Good Hope, to pre-Revolutionary America and back, through the strange yet redemptive turns of fortune in their later lives, on a grand tour of the Enlightenment''s dark hemisphere, as they observe and participate in the many opportunities for insanity presented them by the Age of Reason.

The wild, macabre tale of the twentieth century and of two men -- one looking for something he has lost, the other with nothing much to lose -- and "V.," the unknown woman of the title.

In the mid-1960s, the publication of Pynchon''s V and The Crying of Lot 49 introduced a brilliant new voice to American literature. Gravity''s Rainbow, his convoluted, allusive novel about a metaphysical quest, published in 1973, further confirmed Pynchon''s reputation as one of the greatest writers of the century.